Thank you very much.
I'm coming to you today from the unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia.
In the spring our committee was told that the pandemic is having impacts on mental health, and you mentioned it as well today. Dr. Stanley Vollant of the Innu Nation COVID-19 Strategic Unit told us, “Our communities were already vulnerable before the crisis; they are even more so now, during the pandemic, and will be even more so after.”
Then on October 27, the Minister of Indigenous Services said to us that the government has invested $82.5 million to address the impacts of COVID, and also said that there was more available if necessary. How is that funding being used? Are people using the online help, the 211 numbers, the 811 numbers, the suicide supports and the mental health online supports? Are people actually using them?