There are several things. First of all, coming from a first nations community, a Métis community, or even an Inuit community to an urban setting, whether it's Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal, or you name it, for a young woman, a teenage girl, maybe with a couple of children, it is, as Irene said, culture shock. They're not prepared. They don't know where to go.
Luckily, in 120 places at least, there's a friendship centre that they're probably aware of and can go to for some help and guidance. However, a lot of times, maybe they don't know about the friendship centre and they end up on the street, which is what Michelle has been talking about. They get involved with the wrong crowd. They get involved with prostitution, drugs, and the whole sex trade. In the end, they become victims.
It is not because of their own wanting or doing. A lot of times, in the first place, they are probably running away from their home community because of similar kinds of violence. They want to get away from that, and they think the city may be a haven. Sadly, they then realize that the city is not necessarily a haven.
Unfortunately or fortunately, whichever way you want to look at it, we know.... We attended the World Urban Forum in March and we learned that, not only in Canada, urbanization is increasing around the world. More people are moving to the urban setting for a number of reasons. For aboriginal people in Canada it's the same thing. The statistics show this from 2001 to 2006. It has gone from 49% in 2001 to 54% in 2006.
I think the other thing is the jurisdictional issue in Canada, between federal and provincial governments. There really needs to be some kind of coming together, because at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues last week, the Canadian government representative reported that Canada spends $10 billion to support aboriginal programming. We can tell you, and you know as well as I do, where the lion's share of that money goes. It's not to support aboriginal people who live in urban centres.
I'm not going to say that it's a them or us kind of thing, but the issues on reserve and in Métis communities are very serious and very important to the people living there. The attention of federal and provincial governments, whether it's the policies, programs, or commitments....
Sorry, I might be going on too long here. I apologize for going on too long.