We know there are many environmental contaminants in the communities that are likely putting people at risk for certain cancers. We work with the occupational cancer research unit at Ontario Health, and there are many studies to substantiate that.
When it comes to communities and the high number of cancers we're seeing, there are likely certain culprits, for sure, that have to do with contaminants. The other part of that is poverty, food insecurity, not having access to healthy foods, not having access to recreation opportunities and not being able to get out on the land because of the high cost of gasoline. People can't afford to keep their skidoos going or even go out in the boat to hunt for natural game and fish, which we know is a lot healthier than store-bought meats. No one is doing natural harvesting.
Those activities are out of reach for most community people, so more resources and more understanding of how we can support them to do those types of things would go a long way toward helping people be a lot healthier when it comes to nutrition, physical activity and emotional well-being.