Evidence of meeting #85 for Public Safety and National Security in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was issues.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Dale LeClair  Chief of Staff, Métis National Council
Terry Teegee  Regional Chief, Assembly of First Nations
Allen Benson  Chief Executive Officer, Native Counselling Services of Alberta
Claire Carefoot  Director, Corrections Program, Buffalo Sage Wellness House, Native Counselling Services of Alberta
Lois Frank  Gladue Writer, Alberta Justice, As an Individual

9:35 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal John McKay

Thank you, Ms. Damoff.

Ms. Leitch is next.

9:35 a.m.

Conservative

Kellie Leitch Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON

Thank you both for taking the time to be here today. It's greatly appreciated.

I have two sets of questions, and I'm fine with either of you answering them. I won't direct them.

Both of you have mentioned the lack of economic activity as one of the greater challenges—whether it be on or off reserve—for opportunities for aboriginal Canadians, Inuit, and Métis. With respect to on-reserve activities, but also off reserve for those who are Métis or Inuit, what do you think are some of the specifics that are needed? We talk in generalities, but in order to implement change, my experience has been that we need to know specifics.

Is that developing trade skills? Is that making sure there are opportunities with royalty rights? What are the specifics that would be at the top of your list of things that could be done collaboratively with your peoples and the government to be successful?

9:35 a.m.

Chief of Staff, Métis National Council

Dale LeClair

Thank you very much, honourable member.

It's extremely important that we begin to look at the.... I'll use our relationship with the Métis Nation. We have our ASETS program, which is now referred to as ISETS. It's about training and about....

We have and will continue to utilize that, and hopefully, as we grow, we will start to target a larger relationship with the government under the permanent bilateral mechanism. There is going to be some more investment in those areas, and they are going to have a great impact on our families' abilities to stay healthy and keep themselves out.

We often refer to the Métis as “the working poor”. We pay taxes, we work hard, but we're just not getting there for a number of reasons.

Whether it's in our communities in the north or in the cities, we are targeting, and there are areas. I don't think there's any one specific area, Madam, but there is a real need to begin to integrate that with other aspects.

We are now, as Métis people, just starting to integrate more fully within the governmental system and beginning to identify areas. Economic development is a big one. We were meeting last night and talking about how we could impact our communities in developing those areas.

It's imperative that we begin to tie systems together and become much more effective as Métis people—

9:40 a.m.

Conservative

Kellie Leitch Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON

Let me take you off so he can speak, because I have two more questions after this.

9:40 a.m.

Regional Chief, Assembly of First Nations

Terry Teegee

Definitely, trades skills are really important in regard to funding and for our people to become gainfully employed.

I could give an example. We had a training organization called PTP ASEP, which trained approximately 1,500 of our people. About 1,000 of them have jobs. This was in preparation for the development of an LNG pipeline that never occurred. However, they found jobs in the forest industry, the mining industry, and elsewhere.

For the community to be sustainable, our people need access to resources that go back to our communities, where we have tenures and access to developing perhaps a mine or renewable energy or what have you. That relates back to our land use planning, developing our own lands in a culturally appropriate way in regard to environmental assessment, and having projects that have been reviewed by our people related to consent—

9:40 a.m.

Conservative

Kellie Leitch Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON

I'm going to cut you off, because I'm going to run out of time.

Going to the same point you both made earlier about investing in young people and making sure they're healthy and therefore don't find themselves part of the criminal justice system, what does each of you know about the aboriginal head start program and the literature behind it?

9:40 a.m.

Chief of Staff, Métis National Council

Dale LeClair

We know a lot about the head start program. We're pushing government to get more engagement in the head start program.

9:40 a.m.

Regional Chief, Assembly of First Nations

Terry Teegee

Head start has been successful in all areas in British Columbia—

9:40 a.m.

Conservative

Kellie Leitch Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON

When we look at the literature, it's actually the only program that has shown some proven changes in making sure young people graduate from high school, among others. My question is whether you think that would be valuable in making sure people are not ending up in the incarceration system because they have a better education.

9:40 a.m.

Chief of Staff, Métis National Council

9:40 a.m.

Regional Chief, Assembly of First Nations

Terry Teegee

Yes. The first five years are the most important.

9:40 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal John McKay

Thank you for your increasing respect for time.

Unfortunately, Mr. Fragiskatos, if I give you your five minutes, you actually have two. Do you want to postpone your questions to the next panel, or do we carry on? I can give you five minutes, but then we run over time.

9:40 a.m.

Liberal

Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON

That's fine. The questions, in fact, overlap with the next panel.

9:40 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal John McKay

Then you'll hold off until the next panel?

9:40 a.m.

Liberal

Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON

I can do that.

9:40 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal John McKay

Okay.

I apologize for being the tyrant of time here, but I appreciate the discussion that both of you have contributed to the committee's deliberations, and I'm sure I speak on behalf of the committee when I say thank you for your efforts to be here and thank you for your contributions.

We are suspended.

9:45 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal John McKay

I call this meeting back to order.

On our second panel of witnesses, we have Mr. Allen Benson and Claire Carefoot from the Native Counselling Services of Alberta.

Lois Frank is where?

9:45 a.m.

A voice

She's supposed to be here.

9:45 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal John McKay

We'll start with you two, in whatever order you choose to speak, and then hopefully Ms. Frank will come.

9:45 a.m.

Dr. Allen Benson Chief Executive Officer, Native Counselling Services of Alberta

First of all, thank you for the opportunity.

My name is Allen Benson. I'm a member of the Beaver Lake First Nations on Treaty 6 territory. I want to acknowledge the traditional territory that I'm on, the Algonquin nation.

I am here representing Native Counselling Services of Alberta. I am also past chair of the National Associations Active in Criminal Justice and present chair of the Family Violence Death Review Committee in Alberta.

Our non-profit organization goes back to 1970. The agency was created to address aboriginal overrepresentation in the criminal court system at that time.

Since that time, we've grown to an agency that has addressed services in all court levels except civil and we have expanded our services to providing services in the correctional services industry, corrections centres where we provided elders and liaisons to begin with, and then expanded to run a joint federal-provincial institution in Edmonton called the Grierson Centre. That centre was then transferred to what's known as a section 81 healing lodge.

That section 81 healing lodge is called the Stan Daniels Healing Centre. We will speak more to those facilities shortly.

We would like to address a little of our experience in the quality and type of service provided, and then address some of the issues.

For 47 years we have been addressing the issues around indigenous families and individuals in Alberta, and for 30 years we've had a partnership with Correctional Service of Canada. We think we've gained a lot of knowledge and wisdom over the years in addressing the issues of men and women and their reintegration journey. It has taken us as an agency that long to gain the experience and knowledge needed to address the needs of the offenders, and through that knowledge we have been able to better address crime prevention and the needs of the individuals and families to prevent them from incarceration.

Our approach to providing correctional services is informed by two decades of research on the effects of colonization on indigenous individuals, families, and community, and on the Cree teachings of Wahkohtowin, which is a doctrine of relationships as taught to us by our elders in our territory.

These research findings were used to create an evidence-based indigenous model for building resilience in 2009. The model has been expanded and deepened by an ongoing research and action and reflection process by the board and the management of the agency, which makes certain our programs and services address the issues of our clients' presence and reflect a profound understanding of the healing process.

Four critical beliefs and assumptions guide our work.

One is that indigenous criminal behaviour is connected to historic trauma and being victimized as children. It's the legacy of colonial law and policies, such as residential school systems, a legacy that has been passed intergenerationally in indigenous families and communities.

The second is the four dimensions of historic trauma, which include isolation from healthy family and community support networks, colonized identity, hopelessness and powerlessness, and being disconnected from legal tradition.

Therefore, addressing these issues should be the focus of our healing interventions.

The third is reconciliation of these damaged relationships. It's critical that indigenous offenders be supported to reconcile relationships they have been damaged through criminal and unhealthy behaviour. Therefore, we believe in accountability.

Fourth, healing is a self-directed journey. Indigenous offenders need to be responsible for their healing and reconciliation process, and they require trauma-informed support in this process.

These are the four pillars that guide everything we do, not just in the correctional services, but throughout the agency.

9:50 a.m.

Claire Carefoot Director, Corrections Program, Buffalo Sage Wellness House, Native Counselling Services of Alberta

My name is Claire Carefoot. I'm the director of correctional services for Native Counselling Services of Alberta and a past member of the National Parole Board.

In 1988, Native Counselling Services of Alberta began operating the Grierson Community Correctional Centre, which then became the Stan Daniels Healing Centre. It was designated as a section 81 facility in 1999.

Stan Daniels Healing Centre is a 72-bed facility that houses either conditionally released offenders on day parole or full parole, offenders on statutory release with residency, or residents with inmate status in minimum security. The effective operation of this centre relies on the belief that indigenous offenders require culturally specific programs and support to address their social, emotional, educational, physical, and spiritual needs.

The centre combines support programs and services with diligent community supervision to promote both public safety and the successful reintegration of indigenous men. Residents of the centre are expected to take responsibility for their healing journey by actively participating in the establishment of release plans and goals. They also are expected to have the opportunity to learn from, mentor under, and receive spiritual guidance from our elders.

Native Counselling Services of Alberta has been a leader in program innovation of successful reintegration programs for indigenous offenders since 1995. We developed the first historical trauma healing program—the “in search of your warrior” program—which we piloted at Stan Daniels Healing Centre. Since that time we have also developed the “spirit of a warrior” program for indigenous women and the “tapwe warrior” program for youth.

Based upon the NCSA resilience model, the warrior program has three primary goals: to assist indigenous people to better understand their personal, intergenerational cycle of historic trauma-informed behaviour; to build knowledge and skills that will reduce and eventually eliminate trauma-informed behaviour in program participants; and to facilitate the participants' connection and commitment to their lifelong journey.

The warrior programs are nationally and internationally recognized, and for over a decade CSC has worked in partnership with NCSA to offer these programs to their inmates. In our last grad ceremony at the Stan Daniels Healing Centre, we had one of the judges from Alberta attend. They were wondering how they could put our program into their release plans for their offenders when they see them in court.

In 2010 NCSA opened the first section 81 facility for indigenous women in the country.

9:55 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal John McKay

You have two minutes.

9:55 a.m.

Director, Corrections Program, Buffalo Sage Wellness House, Native Counselling Services of Alberta

Claire Carefoot

I have two minutes? Okay, I'll get going.

Currently, the Buffalo Sage Wellness House is a 16-bed facility. Actually, we've now added 12 beds to our facility. It's for federally sentenced minimum security women and conditionally released women on day parole, on statutory release with residency, or on full parole. We have 28 beds now.

We all know the overrepresentation of indigenous women and men in the correctional system. We need to address the historical trauma, the generational trauma, the pain, and the anger; then these people can become whole. They can take back their kids and families and get back into their communities in a safe way.

I keep telling the women at Buffalo Sage that this is the generation of women who are going to say, “Enough. We have had enough. We're going to put a stop to the violence, we're going to put a stop to the drug and alcohol abuse, we're going to take back our kids, and we're going to take back our lives.” In order to do that, we need more funding, of course. We need funding for programs, facilitators, career development officers, and escorts for the community.

We have many successes. We have a woman who was nationally known for her violence. Everyone in this room would know her name if I were to tell you. Several years ago she spent six years at Buffalo Sage Wellness House. She's in university right now and is going to be a lawyer. We have a woman who's a manager of a Tim Horton's. That maybe doesn't sound like a wonderful career for some people in this room, but believe me, for her it's a major step.

We just need the funds and the help. These women and men need the help to do what they can.

Am I over my two minutes?

9:55 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal John McKay

Your timing is impeccable. So also is Ms. Frank's timing impeccable.

Welcome to the committee. I hope we're not rushing you, but we'll be interested in what you have to say for the next 10 minutes, please. Thank you.

10 a.m.

Lois Frank Gladue Writer, Alberta Justice, As an Individual

I apologize. I got caught up in your Ottawa traffic.

I have 10 minutes, right?