Thank you, Madam Chair.
Welcome to all of you.
Ms. Tolley, as you mentioned, we visited your reserve. We heard important testimony about a young aboriginal woman who disappeared a year and a half earlier. Whether there's one or 29, as Ms. Wheelton said, or 80 like in Manitoba, it's just as important. I always say that among white people, when there's a death, it makes the headlines and everything is done to find the guilty party. Unfortunately, it seems that the government doesn't want to do anything when it comes to aboriginal communities.
In the document produced by the Sisters in Spirit initiative, we see 582 cases listed. Today there are more than 600 and that includes two people who were killed two weeks ago in Vancouver. Here again, nothing is being done. That's absolutely unacceptable. A few weeks ago, a person came to meet us here. The recommendation was more or less what the chief just said, namely that we have to listen to the community rather than allow the government to impose rules that do not apply to that community or do not reflect it completely. Such a way of doing things does not lead to attaining the desired objectives.
The Sisters in Spirit initiative conducted surveys in the community. These people managed to list each case. I was told that in Vancouver, a few weeks ago, they had come up with 18 and that dozens of police officers had worked on these cases but they had put an end to the investigation because they were not achieving their goals. They could have worked with the people from Sisters in Spirit, who probably had relevant information on each of these files.
That said, a few weeks ago we received someone who told us that this had to be done in the community, that history, culture and education were important, as Ms. Pate mentioned. Even within the prisons, something like that needs to be done. So we are talking here about prevention, protection, health and ongoing funding to solve this problem once and for all.
The police should not become the only tool to solve this problem. In fact, it isn't. It cannot solve the problem of poverty in these communities. According to this person—and I'd like to hear your views on this—everything has to be grouped together in cooperation with the main stakeholders. There could be one large envelope. It could be used to solve various problems. It would be done in and by the community. If 16 departments each have an envelope, they all end up reducing it regardless of what they do. To them, this is not important because it's a matter of dollars. The best way to manage and solve these problems would be to hand this over to the community.
What to you think of the idea of a recommendation that would involve everyone and in which a specific amount of money would be set out, as well as the way it would be used, and the way things would be done, not by the government, but by the community?