Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on May 22nd, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

I will call this meeting to order. Welcome to meeting number 10 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs.

I will start by acknowledging that I am joining you today from the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinabe and Chonnonton nations.

Pursuant to the order of reference of April 20, 2020, the committee is meeting for the purpose of receiving evidence concerning matters related to the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today’s meeting is taking place by video conference, and the proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. During the meeting, the webcast will always show the person speaking rather than the entirety of the committee.

In order to facilitate the work of our interpreters and ensure an orderly meeting, I will outline a few rules.

Interpretation in this video conference will work very much like in a regular committee meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of either floor, English or French. In order to resolve the sound issues raised in recent virtual committee meetings and ensure clear audio transmission, we ask those who wish to speak during meetings to set their interpretation language as follows: if you're speaking in English, please ensure that you are on the English channel; if speaking in French, please ensure that you are on the French channel.

As you are speaking, if you plan to alternate from one language to the other, you will also need to switch the interpretation channel so that it aligns with the language you are speaking. You might want to allow for a short pause when switching languages.

Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. When you are ready to speak, you can either click on the microphone icon to activate your mike or you can hold down the space bar while you are speaking. When you release the bar, the mike will mute itself, just like a walkie-talkie.

As a reminder, all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair. Should members need to request the floor outside of their designated time for questions, they should activate their mike and state that they have a point of order.

If a member wishes to intervene on a point of order that has been raised by another member, they should use the “raise hand” function. This will signal to the chair your interest to speak. In order to do so, you should click on “participants” at the bottom of the screen. A list will pop up and you will see next to your name that you can click “raise hand.” I'll try to keep my eye on that.

When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. When you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute.

The use of headsets is strongly encouraged. If you have earbuds with a microphone, please hold the microphone near your mouth when you are speaking to boost the sound quality for our interpreters. Should any technical challenges arise, such as in relation to interpretation, or if you are accidentally disconnected, please advise the chair or clerk immediately and the technical team will work to resolve the problem. Please note that we might need to suspend during these times, as we need to ensure all members are able to participate fully.

Before we get started, can everyone click on the top right-hand corner of their screen and ensure they are on “gallery view”? With this view, you should be able to see all the participants in a grid. It will ensure that all video participants can see one another.

During the meeting, we will follow the same rules that usually apply to opening statements and the rounds for questioning of witnesses during our regular meetings. Each witness will have up to five minutes for an opening statement, followed by our usual rounds of questions from members.

I will now welcome the witnesses in our first panel.

We have with us today, from the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador, Chief Ghislain Picard; from the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Health and Social Services Commission, Marjolaine Siouï, director general; and from the Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority, Tara Campbell, executive director.

Ms. Siouï and Chief Picard, I'm told you'll be sharing your presentation. I'll be fairly strict on timing. You'll have five minutes, and I'll give you a one-minute warning. Similarly with questions, we'll try to stay very tight because of our time constraints.

Ms. Siouï and Chief Picard, you may now have five minutes for your opening statement. Please go ahead.

[Chief Ghislain Picard, Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. My greetings to all the members of the standing committee. Thank you for this opportunity.

We will be making our presentation in French.

I would like to thank the members of the committee for inviting us to present a status report on the situation of the First Nations of Quebec following the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised, and continues to raise, major public health issues. Extraordinary measures were put in place. It is important to highlight these collective efforts, but also these results.

We will never stop saying it: First Nations are among the most vulnerable populations, given the risk factors that are prevalent in First Nations populations. For many communities, the preventive measures and preparations required to provide essential services and care have fallen short of what they should have been. The gradual return to what we describe as the “new normal” will be difficult for many of them, and it will be at a different pace than for the Canadian population.

With respect to what we might call the first wave, we recently conducted a new assessment of our relationships with other governments in the context of the pandemic. So this is an assessment...

[Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

My apologies, Chair, but I have a point of order.

It seems the interpretation is around the same volume as the English, so it's hard to understand the English.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Mr. Picard, are you on the French, English or floor channel?

Put it on the French channel since you'll be speaking in French.

[Chief Ghislain Picard]

Okay.

In terms of assessment, we consulted our chiefs and grand chiefs as well as the heads of our commissions and regional organizations in Quebec.

It goes without saying that we have found that this exceptional context, by putting pressure on the public apparatus, brings out the challenges that existed before the pandemic. In this extraordinary situation, the federal government's response was perceived by our authorities as ordinary, in that the administrations maintained their approaches, whether good or bad. Upgrading the federal bureaucracy's response to First Nations issues is one of the improvements that are required and that must be addressed quickly.

A formal coordination mechanism including all departments and agencies dealing with First Nations would have been most useful. In the absence of such a mechanism, First Nations authorities had to repeat the same steps with numerous federal stakeholders in order to meet the needs of their population.

I'd like to talk about reconciliation and the current state of affairs. While the commitments of the Prime Minister to reconciliation are clear, the results are a little less clear. We must commend the fact that several landmark pieces of legislation and policies have been or are in the process of being implemented. The implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is more than ever a priority, and the federal machinery will have to comply with it even though the challenges are considerable.

It is also important to highlight another major component of reconciliation in the Canadian political system, namely the involvement and commitment of the provinces, which involvement and commitment are essential conditions for any progress in relations with first nations. The provinces, particularly Quebec, will have to go beyond their traditional reflex of systematically redirecting their responsibility to the federal government as soon as an issue that concerns first nations arises.

In conclusion, a clear plan is an excellent goal, but it also requires an excellent starting point. We do request that this plan be co-developed with first nations governments and institutions. It will be essential that the means be in place to support First Nations in the development and implementation of measures that will enable them to adequately prepare for a second wave, to strengthen their self-determination, to address the problems that persist and to build on their strengths and on the lessons learned since the beginning of the pandemic.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you, Mr. Picard.

Ms. Siouï, were you going to add anything? You have less than a minute.

[Marjolaine Siouï, Director General, First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Health and Social Services Commission]

Kwe.

In Quebec, as of May 20, there were 45,495 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 3,800 deaths. You all know that the province of Quebec has been the hardest hit in terms of deaths.

Of course, this has implications for first nations communities. To date, the communities have been very well organized and have all put in place an emergency measures plan, which has made it possible to limit, in the case of Quebec, the number of cases to 35 and the number of deaths to two.

Monitoring health status and its determinants is one of the major challenges in public health. Currently, there are no formal protocols. Normally, this is the responsibility of the province, but this has not been solidified by concrete agreements so that first nations communities can have accurate caseload and surveillance data, particularly in their care homes. We know that there are still a lot of people—

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Ms. Siouï, we're beyond our time. I'm sorry to interrupt. We'll have time to pick up further comments later but right now we'll go to our next five-minute presentation.

I'd like to welcome once again to our committee the Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority representative, the executive director, Tara Campbell.

Ms. Campbell, you have five minutes. Please go ahead.

[Tara Campbell, Executive Director, Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority Inc.]

Tansi, good afternoon, Mr. Chair, and committee members.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this process. I would like to begin by acknowledging that I am presenting today from Treaty Six territory, the traditional territory of the Cree and homelands of the Métis.

My name is Tara Campbell. I am Swampy Cree from Treaty Five territory in Manitoba. I am the executive director of the Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority, often referred to as NITHA.

Since 1998 NITHA has provided third-level support functions that serve to strengthen the first nations health service delivery model and contribute to the improved health status of first nations communities.

NITHA is governed by a board of chiefs representing the Cree, Dene and Dakota of our four partners: the Prince Albert Grand Council, Meadow Lake Tribal Council, Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation and the Lac La Ronge Indian Band. Combined, they represent 33 first nations communities in northern Saskatchewan, with a population exceeding 55,000. Thirteen communities provide primary care services, and the remaining provide community health. The four partners have functioned under their own respective health transfer agreements for over 20 years.

NITHA services include medical health officer, disease surveillance and health status monitoring, communicable disease control, infection prevention, research, policy development and training. We also provide specialized program support in areas including mental health, environmental health and nursing.

Over the years communities have been impacted by wildfires, floods and interruptions to critical infrastructure such as potable water. Such events remind us that increased adequate support is crucial to our communities as emergency management efforts often sustain major financial and personnel limitations.

Due to remoteness and single-road access, our communities are at an increased level of vulnerability and inability to respond. Given factors such as overcrowding and limited access to quality health care, food security and potable drinking water, our communities are more susceptible to COVID-19.

One impact during this pandemic has been a lack of consultation with first nations in provincial planning and response, specifically in regard to reopening. The province is moving forward with reopening plans despite the number of cases rising in the north. We are often overlooked or are an afterthought in planning.

Food security issues result from travel restrictions, road closures and/or remoteness.

Communication issues are linked to language barriers. Adequate resources are needed to support translations.

There is a shortage of supplies, including PPE for health care workers and cleaning supplies. There continues to be a demand for access to thermometers for clients for the purpose of isolating and screening.

Testing supplies are not readily available. We continue to experience difficulties in obtaining testing swabs through the province, despite having 16 designated testing sites throughout the NITHA communities.

We have delays in accessing PPE. On-reserve populations' PPE in Saskatchewan are distributed by the province, and unfulfilled requests are then forwarded to the national emergency stockpile.

Nursing capacity continues to remain a critical issue, as does medical transportation. Workers and clients who are transporting for out-of-community appointments are put at risk of exposure to COVID-19.

Regarding mental health and addictions, ensuring services are available for those in need is an issue.

We have mitigated some impacts. Partners have distributed essential supplies to their on- and off-reserve members, and are supporting their communities with surge capacity and food security.

NITHA provides translation of public health orders in both Cree and Dene.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

You have one minute.

[Tara Campbell]

We provide third-level nursing staff. We're deployed to communities to support the implementation of voluntary mass testing as part of active case finding and to support shortages in nursing.

While there are many areas that need improvement, it is important to note that some positive steps have occurred. We maintain a good relationship with our ISC regional office. As well, we have signed a data-sharing agreement with the province to increase the efficiency of the contact investigation process.

In closing, it is absolutely critical. A path forward is needed to address the realities of overcrowding and the historic underfunding of health services and access. It is our hope that this pandemic will elevate these realities and result in more collaboration and support from government, ensuring a seamless health service delivery for indigenous people.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you so much. You're exactly on time.

Now we'll go to a six-minute round of questioning.

In my first round of questioners, I have Mr. Vidal, Mr. Powlowski, Madam Bérubé and Mumilaaq Qaqqaq.

We'll start with Mr. Vidal for six minutes.

[Gary Vidal, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Good afternoon, everybody.

I want to thank our witnesses for coming today, for sharing their information with us and for being willing to participate in this committee proceeding.

Most of my questions are going to be for Ms. Campbell. As probably most of you are aware, she comes from northern Saskatchewan, as she identified, which is actually my riding as well, so I'm gong to focus most of my questions in this round on Ms. Campbell.

Ms. Campbell, you talked about the data collection right at the end of your remarks. You talked about sharing data and data collection. This has been an issue that we have been talking about for a few weeks. We were able to talk about it with the national chief—I think it was a couple of weeks ago—and with some of the national leaders of the Métis people and whatnot. I understand that there's been some progress, and I heard that from your comments as well.

Can you maybe elaborate a little on the importance of improving that data collection and the need for that sharing of data so that the decisions are being made with accurate information? Some of those silos and some of those challenges that we find jurisdictionally are overcome a little bit when the data is shared, and you can better make decisions on structuring supports and staging that support appropriately.

[Tara Campbell]

The data-sharing agreement that we signed with the province is just so that we are able to find contacts faster. As you know, those on reserve and the province don't always communicate with one another. Our systems are often different.

Yes, we do have difficulties with data sharing with regard to knowing where positive cases are and when we also provide information as to where they are in our communities. We often have issues with trying to protect privacy. That's a lot of the issues that we have because the moment we say which community it's in, as you know, that obviously will cause issues in any community.

I don't know if I've answered—

[Gary Vidal, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

No, that's totally fine. Thank you.

I was just getting at the idea that ISC focuses on the data just on reserve and that this idea of having data and numbers for indigenous people both on and off reserve in order to structure supports appropriately seems to be a bit of a challenge. That's totally fair.

Here's a little bit of a shout-out to your organization. We've looked at some of the work that you've done, and you've done an excellent job of promoting healthy and positive health outcomes for children through some different contests and activities. I think you did a physically active bingo campaign, and there are some initiatives that you've done that look like they were very effective—and maybe a lot of fun at the same time—as you reached out to children and whatnot.

One of the discussions that we've had over the last few weeks in talking to leadership, especially in northwest Saskatchewan, is the fact of getting the message across to certain groups of people that it's so important to follow the advice of the public health officials on washing hands, social distancing and taking this seriously so that we don't increase the risk to elders and vulnerable people in our communities in these areas where there is a higher risk.

Can you speak to any plans that you've had within your organization that are helping to get the message out to the people that it's so important to take this seriously to protect our elders and the vulnerable people in these communities?

[Tara Campbell]

That's a good question.

Right now we're in the process of starting to do it. We have communities that do promote, for instance, elders saying “We are vulnerable, and think about us when you go out” and whatnot, so we are hoping to do the same for all of the partnership to be able to provide that type of messaging together.

As you mentioned, we have been trying to target youth to try to let them know this is a serious issue. What happens if those with health issues contract COVID-19? I guess it's following public health measures, and just by doing that, we can reduce the transmission altogether.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

You have one minute.

[Gary Vidal, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Obviously you're well into the journey through this first phase of this pandemic. I mean, you're right in the midst of it, dealing with it on the ground. Maybe just briefly you could touch on some of the lessons. You did a little bit in your presentation, but you could touch on some of the lessons that have been learned from this first wave as we potentially prepare for a second wave of COVID. Are there some things you've learned as an organization that you would definitely put into practice as we face a potential second wave at some point?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

You have just 20 seconds. Go ahead.

[Tara Campbell]

One thing that has been working for our communities is restricting access into their communities. Like I mentioned earlier, we have 33 communities. During the height of this, we had 27 of them that restricted road access coming in, so just that alone helped with stopping transmission.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you very much, Ms. Campbell.

Mr. Powlowski, you have six minutes. Please go ahead.

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Hello to all of the witnesses. All of you can take it easy, other than Chief Picard and Ms. Siouï, because I'm going to grill you two. No, I'm not really.

Chief Picard, am I wrong in saying that there are only two Innu communities in the world; one of them is your community, and the other one is Davis Inlet?

[Chief Ghislain Picard]

Indeed, there are two Innu communities in Labrador, Natuashish and Tshishe-shastshit, and nine Innu communities in Quebec. So we are on both sides of the border.

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Can I ask you some specifics about Davis Inlet? I worked there out of Nain for three months, so that was one of the communities I looked after.

In these kinds of meetings and in Parliament we talk a lot about generalities, but the devil is always in the details. Do you know much as to what's happening in Davis Inlet? Can I ask you specifics or should I keep my questions more general?

[Chief Ghislain Picard]

There are 43 communities in total in Quebec and Labrador. Having said that, I am well aware, according to the most recent information I have received on the two Innu communities in Labrador, that the situation, as elsewhere in Quebec and in the country, is relatively under control. Road checkpoints, such as those established between Happy Valley-Goose Bay and Sheshatshiu, are producing extremely positive results and preventing the spread of the virus in these communities. When we compare the situation proportionally, including Labrador and obviously Quebec, the situation is relatively much more positive in our communities than elsewhere in Quebec.