Evidence of meeting #44 for Status of Women in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director General, Settlement Agreement Policy and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Through the health support programs?
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Cathy McLeod
No, through the programs offered in the settlement agreement.
Director General, Settlement Agreement Policy and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I think it's approximately half. Yes, the CEP is about 50%; the IAP.... Yes, it's been about half women, half men.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Cathy McLeod
So 40,000 sought payments. How many of those sought additional help, in terms of psychological help, either through healing foundations or through Health Canada's programs?
Director General, Community Programs Directorate, First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, Department of Health
Unfortunately, at this time, with our reporting we aren't tracking the sex of the participants in our healing programs, but it's something we're planning to do in terms of being able to give the breakdown between males and females who access our program.
I can tell you the numbers of former students and family members, but I can't tell you the male-female breakdown.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Cathy McLeod
I know that evaluating and also doing research can be a very sensitive issue, especially in this area. Is there a process that you're looking at that's been agreed upon with the participants of the agreement in terms of understanding, evaluating? Are there any statistics? Do we know how many of the people seeking help...common experience? We don't know how many females, so obviously we don't know how many have violence as an experience in their life. Is that an accurate...?
Director General, Settlement Agreement Policy and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
We believe the Aboriginal Healing Foundation itself has done some research around that topic. I don't know if you're planning on calling them, but they may have the numbers.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Cathy McLeod
Is part of the settlement agreement any sort of comprehensive review or research? Was there any kind of all-party agreement around that piece of it?
Director General, Settlement Agreement Policy and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Sorry, specifically with regard to...?
Conservative
Director General, Settlement Agreement Policy and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
At this point we haven't started any evaluations of the entire settlement agreement. We've done a couple of court-ordered evaluations of the common experience payment itself--just that one part of it.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Cathy McLeod
Okay. So as part of the original process there was no joining with researchers, an agreement around research and a framework for research?
Director General, Settlement Agreement Policy and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
To do an evaluation--you're questioning whether there will be an evaluation of the entire settlement agreement?
Conservative
Director General, Settlement Agreement Policy and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
No, not to date there hasn't been.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Cathy McLeod
So I think it's fair to say that it would be very difficult for us as a committee to understand or make any assumptions around the residential school survivors who have experienced violence as part of their lives. Can we make any...?
Director General, Settlement Agreement Policy and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Well, again, you may want to look at what the Healing Foundation has done with regard to violence, family violence. That's probably your best source. They deal specifically with survivors in their communities.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Cathy McLeod
I have a last quick question, and this will be directed towards Ms. Langlois.
Over 25 years ago, I was a nurse in an aboriginal community. I was young, from a big city. Within my first week there, there were three suicides. With the benefit of 25 years of experience, now I look back and realize how unprepared I was in terms of being a community worker and understanding what you were dealing with.
I think the health care workers have an absolutely critical role. I know there are more aboriginal nurses, of course, who probably have much better skills and experience than I ever had for being plunked into this particular environment.
You probably don't have this information available right now, but could you share with the committee, at some point, what you do to support and prepare your front-line workers in these communities in terms of their being that first set of eyes, knowing the programs and the services, and understanding how to deal with things?
I'm out of time. I went over on my own time, so I'll leave my answer.
We'll go on to Madame Demers.
Bloc
Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I forgive you for going over your time. I have absolutely no problem with that. You so rarely do so.
I do not know if I understood correctly, Ms. Nabigon, when you said were not familiar with the work the Healing Foundation has done. The foundation has existed since 1998 and this is 2010.
Are you saying that you and Health Canada put in so much work to help residential school survivors without consulting what the foundation has done? Do I understand correctly?
Director General, Settlement Agreement Policy and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
No, I didn't say that. Do you mean in response to Madam Chair's last question?
Director General, Settlement Agreement Policy and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
If I understood the chair's question, she was asking whether we had done any research ourselves as to the impact on women as a result of the implementation of the settlement agreement. We haven't specifically done that, but the Aboriginal Healing Foundation itself has done some research. I don't know if it will answer the specific questions, but they have done research on that period.
Director General, Settlement Agreement Policy and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Yes, we do. They're independent of government. We don't manage their work. They don't report to us.
Bloc
Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC
No, I understand. However, I think the foundation's work is very important. I hope you work in partnership with the foundation, considering how important its work is.