Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to be presenting here today to the committee, and it's good to see so many familiar faces.
As I've been introduced, I am Natan Obed, the president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. I'm here to talk about the status of COVID-19 across Inuit Nunangat and for Inuit generally. Right now, our status sits in stark contrast to most of the rest of the country, which can be largely attributed to the public health responses that were implemented immediately and, of course, the remoteness of our 51 communities. To date, there have been only 17 confirmed cases of COVID-19 detected within Inuit Nunangat, and that is across four jurisdictions and 51 communities. Of those 17 cases, all individuals have now recovered.
We've been successful so far in protecting our communities from COVID-19, despite substantial long-term gaps between Inuit and other Canadians on key health measures, which have created unique and considerable vulnerability to both infection with SARS-CoV-2 and to the development of severe COVID-19 cases. The success to date is a testament to the efficacy of the governance structures that are in place across Inuit Nunangat and also the relationships that we now have with the federal government, with the provinces and territories and also within the self-determination of Inuit leadership, from Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, Nunavut and the Inuvialuit region. It shows what can be achieved when Inuit self-determination and strong partnerships with governments work together for a common concern and a common goal.
Prior to COVID-19, we have generally experienced greater adverse socio-economic conditions compared with non-indigenous Canadians. This is seen in statistics such as our average life expectancy, which is about 10.5 years less than that of all other Canadians. Also, our families live in more crowded homes and are less food secure. Our overcrowding rate is at about 52% as of 2020.
Our access to health care is also highly constrained. Most of our health systems are conducted in our communities through health centres that are staffed by nurses, and our regions are basically referral structures to southern care for major illnesses within hospital. We also suffer tuberculosis at a rate of 300 times the non-indigenous Canadian rate. Our respiratory illnesses, above and beyond tuberculosis, are similar in many ways to COVID-19 and continue to plague our communities, despite our ongoing efforts to see not only tuberculosis but RSV and other respiratory illnesses eradicated in our communities.
The current physical distancing measures, travel restrictions and reduced services have seriously impacted Inuit incomes, communities and businesses. The current air transportation circumstances are unsustainable. The annual resupply, including the sealift shipments during the four-to-five-month ice-free season, is definitely going to be impacted. Even though we have assurances from all parties involved, as of today, that the season is going ahead, we know it is not going to be a normal season. We rely very heavily on ports like Montreal, and also on Churchill, Manitoba, to provide staging areas so that we can have all the non-perishable items in our communities resupplied in any given year. The ability of individuals and businesses to place orders has already been impacted, and warehouses in the south, which would typically start to fill up by now, are sitting nearly empty. This will have a direct impact on businesses and households in this and future years.
I want to touch on three key priority areas. The first is in relation to increased public health measures to prevent the circulation of COVID-19 in our communities, specifically in relation to testing and adequate water and sewage. Improving access to testing and reducing delays in test results remain key concerns across our regions, specifically when it comes to reopening our economy and having trust in our transportation networks, and also in our response within our small, isolated communities.
The Cepheid GeneXpert testing platform is a U.S.-based testing platform. We have used it historically to test for TB in a much quicker way than sending sputum samples south, but it is now being used to test for COVID-19. There are a few of these machines in our communities, but we need more access to the testing cartridges and wider access to the test machines themselves if there continue to be setbacks with the Spartan Bioscience cube. We are very thankful that the Government of Canada has put Inuit, northern and rural communities at the front of the queue, when it comes to these point-of-care tests.
Also, in relation to adequate water and sewer services, one of the big public health measures is washing hands frequently, but in some of our communities there is a lack of access to water and sewer services in real time. Infrastructure investments and a commitment to ongoing funding is therefore needed to support water and sewers in the longer term.
The second priority is maintaining capacity for the COVID-19 response. We're transitioning now into extended public health measures and travel restrictions. We also know that to have effective and sustainable Inuit-centred social protection initiatives, we need to ensure that individuals and families don't fall through the cracks. This means that additional investments to support community-led initiatives for reducing residential crowding and increasing access to and support for shelters and transitional housing, as outlined in our Inuit Nunangat housing strategy, are very important. Also, expanding access to mental health and addictions services, as outlined in our national Inuit suicide prevention strategy is very important at this time as well.
We need to continue toward strong health systems. This includes strengthening health human resourcing, laboratory services, infection control and virtual care in response to COVID-19. Proactive measures should be taken by the federal government to identify and minimize impacts on Inuit from predicted shortages in essential medical supplies, personal protective equipment, and drugs and vaccines, including those required for TB and other preventable communicable diseases.
All of our interventions must be evidence-based, globally informed and Inuit-specific. We also want timely access to Inuit-specific data. This will be critical for informing the responses by both the public government and our Inuit organizations, and for understanding the impact of the COVID-19 disease and the pandemic on Inuit living both within and outside Inuit Nunangat.
As of May 6, detailed case information was only available for 53% of reported COVID-19 cases in Canada. Data sharing across jurisdictions has long been a challenge for Inuit, and if we value evidence-based decision-making, now is the time to have more specific data that we can use for our population. The federal government should require provincial and territorial compliance with detailed case reporting on COVID-19, including identifying whether an individual with COVID-19 is first nations, Inuit or Métis.
Our final priority is financial assistance for immediate economic needs. This is a major consideration. We need an Inuit Nunangat approach across the federal government to funding programs aimed at providing immediate and near-term COVID-19-related financial assistance. This means that a lens that has sometimes been applied in the past for a northern fund or an Atlantic Canada fund or a Quebec fund should not be used with us. Our regions get caught up in the messiness of the federal administration's different administrative structures. We are a homogeneous population and require a very specific response.
We have developed a strategic options paper that we have presented to the committee today. In it there are some key points, such as direct Inuit-specific support for businesses; a commitment by the federal government to support major Inuit development projects; an Inuit Nunangat supplement for Inuit eligible for the Canada emergency response benefit; and a supplement to support post-secondary students and other educational supports. There are a number of other things, especially in relation to the airline industry and the immediate concern that we have about the sustainability of these essential services. I encourage you to read that.
A final consideration is that any successful response to COVID-19 in relation to Inuit must be evidence-based, globally informed and Inuit-specific, as I said. Our reality is very different from the rest of Canada and our best path through this pandemic is to ensure the Government of Canada's response to COVID-19 in Inuit communities is specifically developed with Inuit and for Inuit, based on the best available knowledge and the inclusivity of all Inuit communities and regions, whether they're in territories or provinces.
Nakurmiik.