Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on May 26th, 2020

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

Let me ask something totally different that I haven't yet asked anybody. I'm a doctor, too, and I've worked both in communities where we flew out women who were pregnant and in communities where we flew in women who were pregnant.

A lot of northern communities don't do their own obstetrics. They fly pregnant women down south. I would think that this would be a source of considerable anxiety. Not only are you going to a big centre that you're not used to, but now you're potentially being exposed to COVID-19.

Does somebody want to address the situation faced by pregnant women having to go down south to deliver in these troubled times?

[Amanda Meawasige]

I want to make a comment that this is a glaring point on the lack of primary health care services. Our people have to leave communities to give birth, and they have to leave communities to pass away. That leaves a big gap in services, where we're dependent on a patchwork of nursing station responses.

It is a compounded risk in our communities. Even when they get to Winnipeg, they're expected to deliver alone due to COVID restrictions at the hospital. It is a long-standing issue that can be resolved to ensure that people are supported or that appropriate birthing services are brought back to communities.

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

Dr. Vollant.

[Dr. Stanley Vollant]

I agree with Ms. Meawasige. We need to give indigenous communities the capacity to become more independent.

The Innu are lucky because Innu women can make the return trip by plane. They give birth in Sept-Îles, which is relatively close, and they can bring other community members with them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

I'm sorry. We're out of time right now.

Thank you very much, Dr. Vollant.

Ms. Gill, you have two and a half minutes now.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I've heard a lot of people say that we have to break down jurisdictional walls during a crisis because we've seen how complex things are. Could Chief Mckenzie, Dr. Vollant, Mr. Therrien Pinette and Ms. Meawasige suggest how we could do that so we don't see these problems again and so we're ready to react faster next time?

[Dr. Stanley Vollant]

The Innu unit has brought together public health people from both the provincial and the federal governments. I think it's a good start. We've been saying it would be good to keep that kind of communication going now that it's established. This is the first time the provincial government's public health officials have been talking directly to their federal counterparts and people working right in the communities. We should keep that model going.

[Jean-Claude Pinette]

I can comment briefly about our experience.

Unfortunately, people tend not to take action until a problem comes up. When the crisis hits, people respond. Firefighters don't show up until the house is on fire. But what do people do to prevent fires in the first place? What do we do ahead of time to prevent problems?

Indigenous communities tend to get money only when problems come up. They never get money to prevent problems from happening. We need to rethink that. We need to anticipate and prevent problems.

As Dr. Vollant said, we have excellent collaboration. We have a history of success. Now we need to find the best way to maintain that relationship. It's not about money; it's about communication, collaboration, coordination and good will. None of that costs anything. It's about people thinking things through together to find solutions and implement them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you so much.

Now for two and a half minutes, go ahead, Ms. Qaqqaq.

[Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you, Chair.

I'm going to pass this time on to my colleague MP Gazan.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you.

My question is for Ms. Meawasige. Can you share a little about the work that's been achieved by the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba in support of first nation data sovereignty?

I want you to discuss and maybe share a little about what systems you currently have in place, and maybe share a little about how you feel the federal government could better support the health research you're doing—

[Amanda Meawasige]

Did that freeze?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

We lost the feed.

[Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

I think if you answer to the point that she got to, that would be great.

[Amanda Meawasige]

Okay. I think I have enough to answer.

We need to ensure that there's ongoing investment into first nation data centres. The data-sharing agreement that we were able to negotiate with the province was only as a result of having strong data governance behind us with respect to first nations. We always ensure that the OCAP principles are paramount, so that there's ownership, control, access and possession by first nations. That's the only way to ensure that there's reliable data based on our understanding of the different datasets that come in.

We have long-demonstrated successful governance of this data, and it therefore needs to be supported. Opportunities for data governance need to be opened up right now. Right now it is kind of bottlenecked to a lot of the academic institutions, and opportunities need to be opened up to centres such as the First Nations Information Governance Centre.

[Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Definitely.

I have just a quick follow-up. Can you give us a bit of insight as to whether there's overlap or significant gaps between provincial and federal supports?

I think we're almost out of time, so if you could follow up with that, it would be absolutely great.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Please send some follow-up information to us.

We'll move on to our five-minute round.

Once again, Mr. Viersen, you have five minutes. Go ahead, please.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses once again for being here.

Chief Mckenzie, I'm not sure if we still have you here. You got cut off a little bit early. You were explaining how, in northern communities with the fly-in, the airplane infrastructure needs to be supported. You talked a bit about how that is done. I was just wondering if you have any perspective on whether those airlines are remaining viable, given reduced numbers of flights.

I know that just trying to get to Ottawa from northern Alberta next week will be a challenge, never mind from northern Quebec or northern Manitoba. I am just wondering if you have any insight on what the state of affairs is in terms of numbers of flights, and whether those airlines are remaining viable.

[Chief Mike Mckenzie]

I think the cost of flights has always been a problem. A plane ticket from Sept-Îles to Matimekush costs almost $1,200. People make that trip every year.

Three of our communities have rail service—Uashat mak Mani-utenam, Matimekush-Lac John and Kawawachikamach—but that has been interrupted because of the pandemic.

The two northern communities have asked Uashat mak Mani-utenam shareholders to suspend rail service. Flights have always been a problem for the regions. There aren't many flights to Sept-Îles and Quebec City. I believe Air Canada has suspended flights to the North Shore. PAL Airlines has had some flights to Quebec City and Montreal.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Are most of your communities still continuing to be serviced at this time, Chief Mckenzie?

[Chief Mike Mckenzie]

Do you mean air service?

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Yes.

[Chief Mike Mckenzie]

Yes, flights have started up again.

Trains will be back up and running the first week of June. Tshiuetin Rail Transportation will resume service to Sept-Îles and Schefferville if all goes well and there are no COVID-19 cases. In the north, there haven't been any COVID-19 cases in Matimekush.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Thank you.

Ms. Meawasige, continuing on in Manitoba, you were talking about the interplay between the provincial and federal health services that are laid out there. I'm just wondering a little about individual communities.

I represent 14 Cree communities in northern Alberta. Many of them have blockades at the end of the road going into them, with people monitoring who's coming and who's going. Is it a similar case in northern Manitoba, and how well has that worked in northern Manitoba?

[Amanda Meawasige]

I think it's working quite well. In fact, Manitoba first nations erected their blockades long before there was a provincial public health directive. I think that was key in stopping the spread of COVID in our communities and keeping it out. It's been a strict lockdown process with coordination amongst air carriers, people coming in and essential service providers, with assurances that people are screened before coming in and that they're deemed safe.