Thank you for the question.
First of all, I just want to say that the work is continuing and is ongoing right now. It's a work in progress. There was some movement on that, but of course the pandemic put the brakes on everything when it came to the very important work that we're conducting right now.
I know that in terms of changes there are a lot of good conversations that have happened with Canada, where they were hearing the concerns from each of the regions. In terms of the implementation, I think we still have a lot of work to do, so that joint task force has to continue its work. That will be a priority at the AFN as we're moving forward. Especially now that we're coming out of the pandemic, we want to be able to continue to make sure that all the issues are being heard from all the 10 regions in Canada so that very important transformative work can happen.
I want to acknowledge our health navigators in each of the regions, because they do tremendous work. I speak not only on behalf of the FSIN but the other regions as well. When there's an issue and I bring it up, they elevate it and deal with the NIHB. Denials are reversed many times and, in a lot of cases, particularly with elders.
As I said in our statement, we had one elder who had to choose between paying her rent and paying for her dentures, because the NIHB pays for dentures only every five years. We got some advocacy going, she paid for her dentures—because she couldn't eat without them, obviously—they reimbursed her and she was able to make the rent.
Those are just some of the prime examples. A lot of first nations people rely on this program. We have to make sure that's it sustainable. Number one, we have a booming population, and number two, we have to make sure that it meets all the needs that the Crown agreed to when we signed the treaty, particularly the medicine chest clause of Treaty No. 6.
Meegwetch.