Jamie Schmale at the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee

On February 28th, 2024. See this statement in context.

February 28th, 2024 / 5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Jamie Schmale Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON

I'm sorry, Doctor. I have less than a minute, and I have one more important question, based on what you mentioned.

There's an article here from the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, dated September 3, 2023. It mentioned that, over a four-year period from 2017 to 2021, there were 56 escapes of federal inmates, 43% of which happened from healing lodges. My understanding is that these were federally run healing lodges rather than those run by indigenous communities.

Besides, obviously, having more elder support and more support in the community, how quickly can we make that transition over to indigenous-led healing lodges rather than having the Correctional Service run them? Based on the information you're presenting today, there seems to be a very stark difference in how they are operated.

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