Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to address the proactive action that is being taken to address HIV-AIDS in this country and around the world.
As our Minister of Health indicated, this government is committed to addressing HIV-AIDS issues in Canada, and specifically within first nations, Inuit and Métis communities.
The issue of HIV-AIDS is one that has probably touched virtually every community that is represented here in the House of Commons. In my dental practice I treated those infected with HIV and I saw first hand the devastation that this disease can cause.
I have travelled to many developing countries and I have witnessed the destructive effects of this disease, not just on those infected, but also on the families and the communities left to deal with the aftermath.
This past December in Kitchener, I had the privilege of walking through the One Life Experience, a 2,000 square foot interactive exhibit created by World Vision, which allows people to walk in the shoes of one of four children who have been affected by AIDS. This powerful display gave me a renewed sense of what it must be like to deal with the bad news that the blood tests have been returned and have confirmed a positive HIV diagnosis. How does one deal with that shattering news? My prayers go out to those who have been infected with HIV and to the families and communities that are left scrambling to cope.
Approximately 58,000 Canadians were estimated to be living with HIV infection in 2005. This unfortunately represents a 16% increase from 2002.
While new infections will unfortunately continue to occur, survival rates will improve due to treatments for HIV. As a result, requirements for treatment and care will also continue to increase in the future. An estimated 2,300 to 4,500 new HIV infections occurred in Canada in 2005, slightly higher than what was estimated for 2002. That is troubling to say the least.
We all have a collective responsibility to ensure that concerted action is taken. This government has taken concrete steps to address this disease, and hopefully one day, we will find a vaccine that will alleviate this worldwide epidemic.
In terms of who is most at risk in Canada, we can identify three groups. The main risk group for HIV in Canada is men who have sex with men. This group comprises 45% of new infections. Persons exposed to HIV through heterosexual contact comprise approximately 36% of new infections. Of the groups that are most at risk in Canada, persons who inject drugs make up 16% of new infections.
This last statistic is of particular importance to the aboriginal community as the proportion of new HIV infections among aboriginal Canadians due to injection drug use is much higher than among all Canadians. This highlights the uniqueness of the HIV epidemic among aboriginal persons and it underscores the complexity of Canada's HIV epidemic.
Aboriginal persons continue to be over-represented in the HIV epidemic in Canada. They represent 3.3% of the Canadian population, and yet in 2005 it was estimated that aboriginal persons accounted for 7.5% of all those living with HIV in Canada. That is an estimated 3,600 to 5,100 aboriginal persons living with HIV. Equally troubling is the fact that aboriginal persons also comprised 9% of the new HIV infections in 2005. These numbers give us an overall HIV infection rate among aboriginal persons about 2.8 times higher than among non-aboriginal persons.
Canada is in the middle of the range of developed countries with respect to rates of HIV infection. Our per capita rate of persons living with HIV infection is lower than that in the U.S.A., Italy and France, but it is higher than that in the U.K and Australia.
The rate of newly reported cases of HIV infection in B.C. is slightly higher than in Canada as a whole. In 2006, 8.4 new cases per 100,000 were reported in British Columbia. This compared to 7.8 cases per 100,000 across Canada. Again we see a disparity in the percentages. Overall, 20.3% of Canada's cumulative reported HIV cases are from B.C., whereas B.C. represents about 13% of Canada's population.
In 2005 and 2006 the proportion of reported HIV cases attributed to an injection drug use exposure in British Columbia was 25% as compared to 19.3% in the rest of Canada. Of the 4.3 million plus people living in British Columbia, 4.5% were estimated to be of aboriginal identity, this according to the latest 2006 census.
Among the HIV reports in B.C. with ethnicity information, aboriginal persons accounted for 15.1% of cases reported in 2005 and 15.8% of cases reported in 2006. The rate of new HIV infections among aboriginal injection drug users compared to non-aboriginal users has been observed for a number of years in Vancouver. While this in itself is not a new finding, it continues to be an issue of concern and is related to the overall higher rates of HIV infection in aboriginals in Canada in general.
Building on what the hon. minister said, I will to provide some concrete examples of what is being done by this government to address HIV-AIDS in aboriginal communities across Canada. This of course includes what is being done in Vancouver's downtown east side.
The government knows that many factors have increased the vulnerability of aboriginal Canadians to HIV. HIV-AIDS has a particularly significant impact on aboriginal women. Females represent nearly half of all positive HIV test reports among aboriginal peoples, approximately 47% as opposed to 20% of reports among non-aboriginal people. Aboriginal people are also infected with HIV at a younger age than their non-aboriginal counterparts.
As stated before, injection drug use is the main risk for HIV-AIDS among aboriginal people in Canada. Over half of the new HIV infections estimated among aboriginal people for 2005 were attributed to injection drug use compared with only 14% among all Canadians.
As noted by our hon. Minister of Health, the government is serious about addressing the issue of drug use among Canadians. The national anti-drug strategy offers a two track approach which is tough on crime and compassionate for victims, and provides $63.8 million over two years to tackle the drug trade. It includes three action plans: one, preventing illicit drug use among young Canadians; two, treating people with illicit drug dependencies; and three, combatting the production and distribution of illicit drugs.
Drug use is devastating to Canadians. It destroys individuals, tears families apart and carries life altering consequences, and the government is taking action.
Under the federal initiative to address HIV-AIDS in Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, in partnership with Health Canada, supports the work of the National Aboriginal Council on HIV-AIDS. This council acts as an advisory mechanism. It provides policy advice to Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada and other relevant stakeholders about HIV-AIDS and related issues among all aboriginal peoples in Canada.
The council is a mechanism for the development and coordination of shared actions between the federal initiative to address HIV-AIDS in Canada and aboriginal communities working on HIV-AIDS issues. Its aim is to ensure that Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada and its representatives have effective and efficient access to policy advice regarding aboriginal HIV-AIDS and related issues.
The Public Health Agency of Canada supports community based organizations as well as national NGOs to achieve a number of goals. These goals include: supporting a national voluntary sector response that plays a coordinating and leadership role in the response to HIV-AIDS; helping engage in direct meaningful involvement with people living with or at risk of HIV-AIDS; encouraging collaboration and partnership to address risk factors of the disease and achieve an integrated approach to disease prevention across sectors; enhancing the capacity of individuals, organizations and communities to respond to this epidemic; gathering and encouraging the exchange of HIV-AIDS information and knowledge; enabling the development of respective informed and innovative policies and program interventions that are relevant across Canada; and finally, enhancing a broader response to the HIV-AIDS epidemic and its underlying causes.
For example, the Public Health Agency supports specific projects in the Vancouver downtown east side: the Vancouver Native Health Society for a project that aims to reduce disparities in HIV treatment and care through community based initiatives; and the Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society to advance regional capacity building initiatives for non-reserve community based programing through workshops, training, outreach, community forums and discussions.
Also, the Positive Women Network is supported to increase access to integrated culturally relevant services by young HIV positive aboriginal women and other women in collaboration with other stakeholders. This will create a peer-driven, safe and supportive environment for young HIV positive women, particularly in the Vancouver downtown east side, and focus on a meaningful participation of these women in the direction of their own care, support and prevention initiatives.
The network is also supported in the development of innovative programing and resources for women, their families and service providers. It develops culturally appropriate services for aboriginal women who face multiple barriers to care, treatment and support.
The Persons with AIDS Society of British Columbia is being supported to assist its members on matters such as income security, will and estates, landlord and tenancy issues and human rights infringement. Staff and volunteers help clients prepare forms, understand procedures and, at times, accompany clients at tribunal hearings or appeals.
The Public Health Agency of Canada also supports five national projects, specifically targeting aboriginal communities and HIV-AIDS.
The first is the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network's culturally appropriate harm reduction program development. The project objective is to develop national and regional capacity building initiatives from non-reserve aboriginal community based programing. This will be achieved by developing a harm reduction model targeting vulnerable populations, including at risk women and youth, inmates and two-spirited men developing training on using the model in creating a national aboriginal task force on injection drug use.
The second is the Red Road HIV/AIDS Network Society's bloodlines project. This project objective is to provide an accurate, culturally relevant publication that includes meaningful educational information for aboriginal people living with HIV-AIDS and their family and friends, front line workers, health providers, program planners and policy-makers. The project objective will be achieved through launching Bloodlines Magazine nationally, which represents the voice of marginalized populations.
The third is the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network's Fostering Community Leadership to End HIV-AIDS Stigma and Discrimination Social Marketing campaign. The project objective is to increase levels of awareness and knowledge about HIV-AIDS among aboriginal leadership by at least 10% through social marketing principles.
The project intends to end stigma and discrimination and create community environments that may become more responsive and conducive to establishing needed education, prevention, testing, diagnostic care, treatment and support programs. The project objective will be achieved through an initial social marketing campaign that is intended to speak to the basic principles of human rights.
The fourth is the Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada's project titled, “Addressing the HIV Needs of Inuit in Urban Centres”. This project's objective is to improve the quality of life of Inuit infected with or affected by HIV by improving access to Inuit-centred prevention, diagnosis, care, treatment and support provided by AIDS service organizations, aboriginal and non-aboriginal-specific organizations, as well as other health, medical or social service providers.
The project objective will be achieved through the formation of an advisory committee, a literature review of HIV prevention, testing and diagnosis, care and support services currently available, interviews with Inuit men and women and through the identification of gaps and strategies to develop a best practice document and/or audiovisual teaching tool.
The fifth is a further Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network project. Its objective is to develop national and regional capacity building initiatives for a non-reserve aboriginal community based program. This will be achieved by developing a harm reduction model targeting vulnerable populations, developing training on using the model and creating a national aboriginal task force on injection drug use.
As we can see, the government is working closely with aboriginal communities to support efforts that are and will continue to make a difference.