Evidence of meeting #87 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was working.
A video is available from Parliament.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister and colleagues, welcome this morning.
With respect to Inuit health branch, I know, Minister Philpott, in your mandate letter there's specific wording with respect to incorporating some patient-driven outcomes for indigenous people within your department.
How do you see the Inuit health branch working with you and your department to formulate the outcomes that we're looking for?
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Jane Philpott Liberal Markham—Stouffville, ON
Thank you. That's a great question.
Perhaps I can start by clarifying that the actual name of the branch is the first nations and Inuit health branch. Up until now it has been with Health Canada, and I had the privilege of serving as Minister of Health before and working with the branch. As you know, from the Prime Minister's mandate letter, Minister Bennett was asked to go out and talk to appropriate parties about the idea of the new Department of Indigenous Services taking on responsibility for what we'll call FNIHB, which is the short form for the branch. Minister Bennett can provide you more details about that but this was a welcomed moved and we look forward, very soon, to be able to formalize the transfer of that branch over to the Department of Indigenous Services.
I think your question, though, was more alluding to what our approach is going to be. I mentioned this briefly in my comments, but in every sector of our new department we are really working towards the recognition of the right to self-determination. As it relates to health, there's some really interesting and encouraging work happening in places like Nishnawbe Aski Nation in northern Ontario. For instance, you may have noticed that we recently entered into a tripartite agreement with the province and with Nishnawbe Aski Nation and ourselves to move to a system where the health systems for those peoples will be delivered, planned, designed, and controlled by first nations for first nations.
This is the kind of transformation we are seeing more and more of across the country. I have lots of other good stories I could tell you.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
I just want to say that, in my initial consultations, it's been very reassuring in terms of the support for this approach of having the social determinants of health together with health in Indigenous Services. I was very pleased also to hear the kind of change in attitude of the first nations and Inuit health branch and how positively it has been working in a partnership. I think this is good news.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON
On that, with respect to Jordan's principle and how health is a key component of that, can you advise us...? You indicated that Jordan's principle has been invoked on at least 24,000 occasions. Can you give us an indication as to whether you're satisfied that it is being invoked in virtually every situation where it should be invoked?
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Jane Philpott Liberal Markham—Stouffville, ON
That's another great question. I would say I need to salute all of those who have been involved in rolling out the full implementation of Jordan's principle. This has been really important work, and obviously indigenous leaders have played the biggest role in this. The officials at first nations and Inuit health branch have worked very hard to ambitiously make sure that the message gets out. This was a challenge. Again, it was going from a world of denial of rights, denial of approvals, to a world where we're saying we're ready to grant approvals, so how do we get the word out across the country? Every time I speak to chiefs now, I make sure that they know about Jordan's principle. There's a 1-800 number.
We, the branch, have done work to try to make sure that the new definition is very clear on the website and that everyone knows about it. They're holding training sessions for officials where hundreds of officials are gathering together to understand what it means. We are making sure that, if there is a denial, it has to go to the very senior levels of my department to confirm that there's no possible way that we can approve the case. I'm very happy to say that we have well over a 99% approval rate. With 24,000 cases approved so far, I don't think that's the end of it. I'm sure there are thousands more kids out there, so please help us spread the word. This is really important. Kids are getting care, and it's changing people's lives.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON
Thank you, Minister Philpott.
Minister Bennett, with respect to UNDRIP, which came up a bit earlier, I think in New York earlier this year you were unconditional in committing our government to supporting UNDRIP. Can you tell us why it's important for us? Why is it important as Canadians to really lead on this issue?
Frankly, I think we're probably one of the latest to sign on, and that's been the cause of a great deal of concern for the international community, but why is it important for Canadians? Why is it also important for indigenous peoples that we sign on to UNDRIP?
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
This is about the recognition of indigenous rights. This is about people not having to prove their rights. This is about decolonizing, and how we ensure that, in the way forward, everything we do goes through the lens of the rights of indigenous people.
It also helps us to teach Canadians, the 95% of Canadians not from indigenous backgrounds, about what this actually means, all the things we never learned at school, all the things that happened in that dark chapter of our lives. I remember learning about potlatches in school. I didn't learn they'd been banned. I didn't learn that people weren't allowed to speak their language or that they had their regalia taken from them.
Even as we reform the child welfare system, together with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, we have these two UN tools that will help us say that decisions about children, as Dr. Philpott has now framed her work, are about the rights and well-being of indigenous children and youth. They have a right to be raised as indigenous children, and that will frame this really important overhaul of the child welfare system that Dr. Philpott is doing.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal MaryAnn Mihychuk
Thank you.
Questioning will now move into the five-minute round.
We'll start with MP Waugh.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Two departments, more staff, more money.... Give me an indication of how many more staff we have now, how much more money. Can you just give us a quick update? Obviously, you've split into two now, so that means you're hiring more. How much does that cost?
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
One of the corrections I will make is that we are not splitting a department in two. We are dissolving a department, because all the great people who worked in our department had one burden on them: they worked for INAC. INAC is no longer to exist. We will build two new departments, bottom up, form following function, as we said, based on the needs.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
The bulk of the money in our department is in the grants and contributions that go to communities.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
We need some people to do that, but we are determined that as we rebuild these two new departments, and we eventually—
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
Our job is to get this done. My job is to help accelerate the process to self-determination and indigenous-led institutions in governments—
11:55 a.m.
Liberal