Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on April 8th, 2022

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Jamie Schmale]

It was a great thought. I was trying to let you finish. I'm sorry.

Our next round of six minutes will go to the Bloc Québécois.

Madame Gill, please go ahead.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I also thank all the witnesses. It is very interesting to hear from witnesses with diverse backgrounds.

I would have many questions for you.

Ms. Child, Ms. Roy and Ms. Smith, you have all spoken about the importance of environments being culturally appropriate. Can you take turns to explain what needs to be addressed to make these environments appropriate? Can you also give us some examples of needs?

I guess it could be consultation, design or funding needs.

I'd like to hear from you on the subject.

[Lisa J. Smith]

Thank you for your question.

I think it's very important that we see these issues and solutions that are informed by trauma. Having trauma-informed approaches is necessary. That's the first thing. Also, truth and reconciliation to me means truly understanding why we are in this dire situation that we see ourselves in. That means truly understanding the significance of the Indian Act—and I can't get into all of that right now—so we can go forward.

One thing that came up today from other panel members, which I really appreciate and want to expand upon, is land-based healing. If we understand that approach, with intersectionality and with trauma-informed approaches, I think we can move forward to somewhere great together.

That's what I'll say.

[Melissa Roy]

Hello. I would like to start off by saying that, in my experience and within my career, going back to the elders and to ceremony is incredibly important. Even with our elders lodge and with other projects, including Aisokinakio'p—which was the first urban indigenous immunization clinic in Calgary, and we immunized over 15,000 people and addressed vaccine hesitancy—we listened to our elders. Our elders said, “These are the things we need, and this is how we would like to see them happen”, and we worked within that to make the space for ceremony, tradition and storytelling, which are key when we are working with our people, especially in an urban context.

What we're looking for when we're in an urban setting is that connection and that culture and home. If you have those components integrated within programs, within housing, seniors housing or whatever it may be, you're going to see connection response and people living with dignity and respect. That doesn't come naturally; we have to recover that. That doesn't come for free; it comes with connection, with doing that work and engagement.

That's what I would like to say. Thanks.

[Coreen Child]

Gilakas'la. Our land-based healing.... We have an island-wide mandate. We go directly into communities and ask communities for different layers of supports. Sometimes the individuals we're bringing are connected to that community because of the work we've already done with them. We go as far as Kwakwaka'wakw territory. Then there's Nuu-chah-nulth and Coast Salish. We do serve Métis and Inuit, and we make sure that we try to have individuals who can come in to support us directly in some of those teachings, protocols and ceremony.

One thing that I know is important, which we have recently added to our land-based healing, is making sure we also have a medical team that comes with us, so we're using the dual model of health as well. When we are taking an individual who still needs to use opioids or still needs to have a pour through a managed alcohol program, we are taking a medical team with us to support that individual so that the individual can be successful in the camp. It's a non-judgmental space, and we make sure we're looking at all of the risk factors and the measures but also connecting them to individuals who can support them in that ceremony and that space. I can tell you that the beautiful thing I've been able to see is that subtlety in the urgency of having that supply and getting out onto the land and saying, “I don't need it right now. I'll let you know when I need it. I'm going to enjoy this moment,” so having their own breakthroughs.

When we look at culture, when we look at tradition and ceremony, it is about knowing distinctly where the individuals are from. I could tell you about some of the systems that aren't in place and that we do need to invest in, whether that's data sovereignty discussions or whatever it may be. We as a collective are pulling in that knowledge so we can say directly how we're supporting the indigenous population that needs these services.

The other piece in this is traditional medicine and having access. In an urban setting, that's done pretty much through trade, when you're bringing traditional medicine in and allowing them access to something that's familiar, such as smells. We all have that innate memory of the smell of cinnamon or of our mother's or grandmother's bread, and sometimes that's exactly what medicine brings to us when we're able to say, “I need an alternative.”

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Jamie Schmale]

Thank you very much, Ms. Child, and thank you, Madame Gill.

We'll go on to the NDP now for a six-minute round, with Ms. Idlout.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

[Member spoke in Inuktitut, interpreted as follows:]

Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.

First I will ask Coreen, Melissa and Lisa. Your presentations went very well. Coreen, Lisa, Melissa, I would have you, all of you, reply to this.

Have you seen and analyzed the 2022 budget released yesterday? I would like your opinions of this. What is missing that should address the indigenous housing crisis?

[Lisa J. Smith]

Thank you for that question.

We did see $11 billion over six years towards urgent needs such as housing infrastructure on reserve. We're pleased to see that, but from NWAC's point of view, we would like to see additional funds to stop the violence and genocide addressed in the MMIWG. At this point, we're still doing a more detailed analysis.

I'll stop my remarks there, and I thank you for the question.

[Coreen Child]

From our experience here in Victoria, I can tell you that unfortunately funding sometimes needs to go in a certain direction, and they're not directly sure where and how to disperse it. Sometimes it gets centralized in hubs. Sometimes friendship centres are used. Sometimes community entities are used. It depends on where the community entity sits or what kind of relationship you have with the municipality. These funds sometimes don't get to have a distinct contact with us who are delivering the services.

We recently—I'll just share this—applied for a healing house and wrote a 268-page proposal in 60 days because of the announcement that had happened. When we look at that connection to the land, the RFPs and understanding where land opportunities are to do infrastructure builds, to create service and to implement our programs, those are majorly competitive and challenging. When we're putting our best foot forward, we're not necessarily getting the response that's needed back to the indigenous organizations that are directly serving those populations. Sometimes it goes to the ones that have a brighter partnership or a longer legacy or—

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

[Member spoke in Inuktitut, interpreted as follows:]

Thank you. Keep it short. I have a few more questions.

Melissa has to reply. Thank you.

[Melissa Roy]

Thank you for your question.

I will speak from a Calgary context, from my own experience. I can tell you that the urban people in Calgary specifically would benefit from more funding to support folks through a variety of different transitions in life. In fact, there are no transitional services for indigenous women or men, even leaving addiction-based programs and migrating into affordable housing, which there's a shortage of.

I echo what our executive director for the national friendship body said in her previous answer, as well. Hopefully I've provided enough information for you about Calgary's context.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

[Member spoke in Inuktitut, interpreted as follows:]

Coreen, Melissa and Lisa, thank you for your responses.

The federal government always responds by saying that they are flexible. They can make adjustments to better suit the needs of indigenous communities. In terms of flexibility with the budget, do you have the flexibility with the budget we heard about yesterday? How would you make the adjustments?

[Melissa Roy]

Thank you for your question.

From our perspective, we would definitely put dollars into mental health and addiction support services at the street level. In Calgary, we've seen an increase in opioid ODs. Our team responds regularly, along with other members from collaborating partners, and it is very sad, with the health system being stressed as far as the response is concerned, the CPS response, and things like that.

Especially coming out of COVID and being socially isolated from everybody, we would definitely support and advocate for greater mental health and addiction supports in order to stabilize individuals and get them into safe places, get them into housing and continue to support them. Continuing care is a huge thing, as well as transitional supports. That's what we would advocate for and would like to see more of in all communities, not just urban but rural as well.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Jamie Schmale]

Thank you very much, Ms. Roy.

Thank you to our witnesses.

Thank you, Ms. Idlout, for your questions.

That was an amazing round. I must say, although Zoom isn't my favourite, it was very welcoming and warming to see that when one of you was speaking the other two would be nodding or giving a thumbs-up. That was pretty amazing to watch. It looked like we had great testimony and everyone's on the same page with that. Well done and thank you very much to all our witnesses.

We're going to suspend quickly for a couple of seconds and log in to our next meeting, so that we can go over the drafting instructions for our latest report.

Thank you, everyone.

[Proceedings continue in camera]