Thank you. I'm going to leave my notes with you, but I'll read that third recommendation again, which is that the Government of Canada jointly establish an independent public commission of inquiry into the missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada.
As I said, I will leave my notes with the clerk, if that's okay.
There's just so much interconnectedness within the current infrastructure--let me just call it that--or lack of infrastructure in many of the first nations communities in the north. As you've heard, there may be one or two women's shelters in a first nation community, but when you have such a need for housing, this gets overtaken by that need. When you have anywhere from 15 to 18 people sharing a house, how can you see and allow 10 beds to not be occupied? All by itself, if you know what I mean, there's a dilemma for these communities when they're dealing with a huge housing crisis.
Then, of course, there is everything that is associated with this. When you talk about some of the issues related to poverty, and when you don't have any services, there is more likelihood of violence taking place. These are real situations, and I don't know how first nations can be heard. I don't know how women are going to be heard.
One of the suggestions...I know it's probably too late in the game, but it would be good for this committee to go to one of the remote communities. Anywhere in Canada, it's going to be the same. Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, you name it, you're going to see the same challenges, and probably more so, I would guess, only because I've seen it myself, in Ontario. I think Greg can certainly vouch for that. I also hear about situations in the remote communities in Manitoba that are just as horrendous. There's much to be said about the visual, about being there and actually seeing the challenges that face the women who are in need of such services--and there is much need.
As was stated, there has been learned behaviour from residential schools. There has been much experience that people have had as they've been removed from their homes and in going back to try to parent.... Those multi-generational problems are there. Services need to be available to these women who are in need. Again, as was suggested, obviously these men require services, too, in order to begin some of the healing, but it's really about talking about trying to provide these kinds of resources so that communities can begin a lot of the healing journeys they talk about. I think there's a recognition that there's a requirement to plan for that healing, but it's not going to happen overnight.
This is essentially what happens a lot of times. There may be a spurt of money that is available, but they can't sustain...you have to remember that it has taken so many years to get us into this state, and it's going to take us just as long to get out. But we need the proper services. We need the mental health services. We need the facilities so our women can feel secure that when they are in crisis, they can stay at home--I mean in their home community, obviously, not in their own homes, but in their home community.
These are the multiple challenges we see in many of our first nations communities. There's the lack of infrastructure, the real need for services, and the real need for these services to be equipped with the kinds of competencies that the victims are going to need. Many times, first nations are left with a resource, but they can't really utilize it to hire the kinds of experts they need...because they would get less, then, than what may be available from other facilities or services, if you will. They're stuck with having to purchase services or hire somebody who may not have the accreditation to really provide the kind of service that's needed. I'm not trying to suggest that there's incompetence all around. No--it's a lack of resources that really limits how far they can go and the kind of service they can offer. It's the lack of resources that really limits how far they can go and the kind of service they can offer.