Evidence of meeting #10 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was communities.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Sylvie Bérubé Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
My question is for Ms. Belleau.
We talked about the situation of indigenous women and youth. I would like to hear your views on the fact that they are more vulnerable to the health, financial and social effects of the pandemic.
What should the government do to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on aboriginal women?
Chair, First Nations Health Council
I can't get the translation. There were challenges with it earlier.
Chair, First Nations Health Council
I didn't understand her question, though.
The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Evelyn Lukyniuk
Ms. Belleau, may I ask you to look at the bottom of your screen? You'll see a “Participants” button and then an “Interpretation” button. If you click on the “Interpretation” button—it looks like a globe—you'll see “English” and “French”. Please select “English”. Then you'll be able to hear the interpretation.
Chair, First Nations Health Council
Okay. There we go. I pushed “English”.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
You have interpretation again.
Ms. Gill, just restate your question, please.
Bloc
Sylvie Bérubé Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
I'll repeat my question.
Indigenous women are known to be more vulnerable to the health, financial and social effects of the pandemic.
What do you think the government should do to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on indigenous women?
Chair, First Nations Health Council
For us, having the opportunity to be able to manage our own health within the province of B.C. means that we've been able to make sure that our first nation communities and our nations provide the kind of support that women need within our homes. I think access to appropriate mental health supports and access to other opportunities for sure have been important for the women within our communities, but our matriarchs are also very strong. They provide a lot of leadership in a lot of ways to our communities during COVID-19.
Bloc
Sylvie Bérubé Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
Ms. Belleau, I also wanted to ask you how federal, provincial, territorial and indigenous governments can ensure the protection of vulnerable people as the restrictions associated with COVID-19 are relaxed?
Also, are you being consulted?
Chair, First Nations Health Council
Here in B.C., it's been important for us to partner with the Province of B.C. when it comes to a lot of the Downtown Eastside and vulnerable people who are in the urban centres. We've partnered with them, and they've provided supports to many of our off-reserve members who may be in the urban areas. To me, that has been really important for community members.
In terms of continuing to protect them, I think we need to be vigilant as families and as communities, and as chiefs of our communities, to know where people are and to be able to meet them and respond to their needs right in the community, instead of depending on somebody from outside of the community.
Bloc
Sylvie Bérubé Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
Thank you.
My next question is for you, Dr. McDonald. In your opinion, do first nations communities have the necessary resources to develop and implement their pandemic plans?
Acting Deputy Chief Medical Officer, First Nations Health Authority
Thank you, Ms. Bérubé.
Communities have had pandemic plans for some time. Since H1N1, communities, as part of their contribution agreements, were expected to have a plan to respond to a communicable disease emergency. Unfortunately, because there hasn't been urgency over the last few years, that was often not followed up on and communities were found with an empty basket. Things they had stored away to stockpile had been utilized in other ways. Individuals who had skills or knowledge had moved on or gotten older. It has been an exercise in building in-community capacity and supporting community-led nursing staff, for example, health directors, leadership and others, to better understand what they were up against, what the battle was and the decisions they had to make.
They're self-determining nations. My job is to give them the best clinical information to support those decisions and, in my partnership with provincial and regional staff, to make sure there were supports available from the clinical community to make sure that if there was a need, it could be satisfied. We have a very unique situation with our tripartite agreements, which have been in place for some time now, and having the First Nations Health Authority to centralize those resources has been very important.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
Thank you very much, Dr. McDonald.
Our next speaker, for six minutes, is Ms. Qaqqaq. Please go ahead.
NDP
Mumilaaq Qaqqaq NDP Nunavut, NU
Thank you, Chair.
This is another shout-out to the IT team and translation. I know it can be difficult to get us all back on the same page, so a shout-out to everyone.
Thank you to all the witnesses for coming and sharing your wonderful knowledge and participating.
Mr. Chair, like everyone else on the committee, I'm very eager to hear from our witnesses today and very thankful. However, we do have one item that I would like to talk to, which I think would be appropriate for us to consider today.
During our last meeting I gave a notice of motion, which I'm hoping to move and vote on today. With the permission of the committee, I'd like to move my motion for debate and ask that we have a quick vote so that we can move along with our questions. Because I didn't have the opportunity to finish stating my motion at the last meeting, Mr. Chair, I would like to do that before we proceed.
NDP
Mumilaaq Qaqqaq NDP Nunavut, NU
Thank you.
I move that given the recent resignation of Cathy Bennett from the federal government’s COVID-19 Supply Council due to a conflict of interest since she is chair of the board of Dynamic Air Shelters, a company that currently has a contract with Indigenous Services Canada; the continued lack of transparency for predominantly indigenous communities with respect to the delivery of supplies and resources from this federal government; the recent procurement of medical tents that were not requested by first nations; and the presence of corporate lobbyists on the COVID-19 supply council, that the committee invite the Minister of Indigenous Services and the Minister of Public Services and Procurement to provide testimony about how the federal government will work to improve indigenous communities’ COVID-19 response.
Liberal
Adam van Koeverden Liberal Milton, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I wish to thank Ms. Qaqqaq for her motion. While our side disagrees somewhat with the framing, we strongly agree with the premise and with the importance of transparency for indigenous communities and for all Canadians.
With that, in an effort to ensure expediency here, but also to ensure that indigenous peoples receive everything they need and are entitled to, we support Ms. Qaqqaq's motion in principle and will support the motion to invite the Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Minister of Indigenous Services Canada to provide testimony to this committee.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
Committee, we have the motion. Could I ask if we're all in favour of the motion?
I believe we have unanimity.
(Motion agreed to)
That's passed. Thank you very much.
You have three more minutes, Ms. Qaqqaq.
NDP
Mumilaaq Qaqqaq NDP Nunavut, NU
That's fantastic. Thank you so much, everyone.
Chief Belleau, can you talk to us more about the issues around transparency for services being delivered into communities? Do you feel the federal government is being up front with the resources and services they are able to provide?
