Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 16th, 2016

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Yes.

I want to go back to the issue of the child welfare ruling and sexual predation on young children. We just saw the B.C. advocate's October 2016 review of sexualized violence among children who were brought into government care. Sixty one per cent of those who they actually found—so the numbers may be higher—were aboriginal girls, even though they were only 25% of those in care. These are children who are supposed to be made safe by the state, who are taken from their families, and who are subject to sexual exploitation. Then, of course, we have the examples of the ones who end up the street and end up in human trafficking.

Can you talk about the importance of getting that funding in, about what it means in this broken child welfare system that young girls are being victimized when they're supposed to be protected, and about the cycle of all the other social problems this leads to?

[Amy Nahwegahbow]

Are you asking how critical it is to get that funding in?

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Well, yes, just in terms of are you surprised? These are children taken from their families. The government won't put the resources in with the family; they say they'll take them out and put them into foster care, and these children are being sexually abused. We saw Tina Fontaine ending up on the street, and we saw Rinelle Harper, who had to leave home to go to school but was assaulted. In taking children from their homes, the government is supposed to be protecting them, but they're being subjected to this level of sexual violence.

[Lynne Groulx]

Again, the Native Women's Association supports Cindy Blackstock's position. We believe that funding is immediately needed. It's a crisis situation. It's a humanitarian situation. The money for protective mechanisms should be put in place immediately to correct these types of problems that are happening. I don't think there's any way other than putting in the money immediately to where it is immediately needed.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

The Thunder Bay inquiry into the seven youths who died raised a lot of really disturbing issues of young girls who have to leave home at 14 and live in boarding houses and who end up in conflict with the police. For some of that testimony, I was sick to my stomach that girls and young boys are being put in that position.

What do we need to do in order to protect children if they have to leave home to go to school and they have a run-in with the white police officers? What do we need to do to make sure they are able to live in society safely?

[Lynne Groulx]

I was fortunate enough to be in Mexico at that conference, and the three countries, Mexico, Canada, and the United States, all have similar problems when it comes to sexual exploitation and human trafficking. The discussion revolved around prevention and the programs that are needed, as well as exit programs, programs to help once a person is exiting this kind of difficulty. Again, I think it goes back to making sure the resources are there and the programs are there: prevention programs, first-aid programs, and programs for people to exit if they're in any kind of a sexual exploitation type of situation.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Thank you for that.

By prior agreement, we're down to the final question, which will come from Michael McLeod, please.

[Michael McLeod, Liberal, Northwest Territories, NT]

Thank you for the presentation.

I've had the opportunity to meet with the association in the Northwest Territories and have had some good discussions with staff and some of the executive there. I've heard that the issue of funding and resources is a huge concern. I've also heard it from the friendship centres. I've heard it from the band councils. I've heard it from every organization that deals with aboriginal people. That needs to change. We have a crisis situation in our communities.

It's estimated that in the west and in the north we have over 150,000 unemployed aboriginal people in our communities. In some of my communities, up to 60% of the people are not working.

We haven't had investment in housing for a long time. This year was the first year that we've had investment in quite a few years. We don't have any work, so people can't build a house and they can't provide for their children. We don't have a housing program. We're starting to develop one now so that people will have a place to stay.

What's happening in our communities is an out-migration of people to the regional centres, but there's no work there, and maybe, for some reason, they can't find a place to stay, so they're ending up on the streets. We're starting to get quite a few homeless people in our regional centres and in Yellowknife, which is the capital of the Northwest Territories.

We don't have any treatment centres. We have 12 communities that have no RCMP. The policy in the Northwest Territories is that if you don't have the RCMP, you don't have a nurse either, because of the safety issue. There are too many instances of nurses being attacked or abused. We know that we're dealing with the fallout from the residential schools in almost all our communities. I'm one of the people who went to a residential school, but all people my age and younger, and all the elders, went through a residential school, so there are a lot of issues in our communities.

As the executive director from the Native Women's Association said, in the Northwest Territories there are no resources. If there are resources, they're short term, so it's almost a day-to-day operation in cramped little quarters. We know we need to do more. Treatment centres are in the south. We send our residents to the south at a huge cost and, almost a day after, most of them are back in the communities where nothing has changed and they're back to what they were doing before.

We need healthy people, but we need healthy communities first. Could you talk a bit about what it would take to have a healthy community so that we can start developing healthy people and what kind of investment we'd make? You are now in front of us. You have the ability to make recommendations. What do we need to recommend to the government to do to change the situation we're in?

[Lynne Groulx]

I'm going to let Amy speak to some of the health aspects of it, but I'm going to speak to the funding part, the money part of it.

Damage has been done through colonization, and we are living with a problem that is systemic. We need multiple layers: short-term solutions, medium-term solutions, and long-term solutions. We need a concrete action plan, not just research again and again. We need investment, and it has to be mapped out.

In the short term, there is a crisis. That's there. As for core funding for the organizations, I don't know, I think that's a crisis as well. If we're trying to fix all these problems that are systemic, who has the answers to the problems? Grassroots people have the answers. The organizations have the answers. We are there to help. We're there to collaborate. We have to be able to do that on an equal footing, so we need that in place.

I would say that it comes back to short-term, medium-term, and long-term funding to get the communities healthy again. It takes money to undo, right? People need access to mental health care. That costs money. Physical care costs money.

It does cost money, and it is going to take time. That's why I would say the plan has to be all three: short-term, medium-term, and long-term. If we only deal with the short term, we're definitely not going to get to the root of the problem, which is very long term.

Did you want to say something, Amy?

[Amy Nahwegahbow]

Yes, absolutely.

What I'm going to speak to is the Fort Frances Tribal Area framework that was developed 100% by youth on what they felt about how to get to a healthy community. They listed five areas on how to move forward with this.

The first one is that they need support to learn how to be healthier. Everything they recommended under that first point was all about family: family trips in the bush, family-based treatment programs, family counselling services, sweat lodges for family, groups of families coming together where everyone shares, and family projects. That is number one.

Number two was about needing programs built around the cycle of the life cycle; healing for families; crisis support workers; ongoing workers who don't just walk in and leave immediately; and strong support systems.

Support around around death and loss is number three, but it's about a safe place to go; places to talk to somebody; hobbies; activities; opportunities; and, volunteering.

Number four is access to elders and culture: learn more about your traditions, your language, the sun dance, and ceremonies.

I'm sorry. I'm trying to get through them all, so I'm summarizing quickly.

Number five is about safe places: somewhere to go before a crisis happens; a place where you don't feel judged; a real welcoming; helpers; having pets and animals; healthy activities; crafts; friends; food; and, events.

This was released in August of 2016. This was 100% done by youth. I think the solutions are within the youth.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Thank you very much. We have to leave it there.

I want to thank you again for your patience, for your thoughtfulness, and for the thoroughness of your testimony.

Charlie.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Chair, I want to say that under a difficult situation you managed to get us through two votes, and it was done extremely well. Kudos to the chair.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Thank you for that, Mr. Angus. It's much appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Can I have a motion to adjourn, please?

[An hon. member]

So moved.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

The meeting is adjourned.