Mr. Speaker, before I begin my speech, I would like to inform you that I will be sharing my time with the member for Laval.
The first thing that surprises me about tonight's debate, Mr. Speaker, is that when you received the motion from the member for Vancouver East requesting an emergency debate, you granted it, so you must have thought that, given your knowledge of the facts, the motion put forward by the member for Vancouver East was a matter of some urgency.
However, judging by the governing party's speeches, particularly the one delivered by the Minister of Health, and the way he sees the current situation in Vancouver, I do not sense much urgency. In fact, nowhere in his speech did he come up with innovative ideas or a specific plan to do something about what people in that part of Canada are going through.
However, in his reply, the Minister of Health spouted a lot of preconceived and ideological notions about how to make things better for drug users in Canada. It seems to me that since it was decided that this issue should be the subject of an emergency debate, we should be using the debate to look for a solution to this particular problem affecting people in that part of Canada.
Nowhere in his speech did the Minister of Health talk about the health of aboriginal peoples. I am a member of the Standing Committee on Health. We often urge the committee to consider the health of aboriginal peoples. Usually, committee members would rather talk about issues that fall under provincial jurisdiction, but I think it is time the Standing Committee on Health took a closer look at issues that concern it directly and that call for federal government action in an area that does fall under its jurisdiction: the health of aboriginal peoples. Statistics about the health of aboriginal peoples are frightening.
To return to the matter at hand, I would like to inform the House that we are aware of research published by the American Journal of Public Health confirming that aboriginals are more likely to have HIV than other Canadians. The study shows that aboriginal drug users in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside are twice as likely to contract HIV-AIDS as non-aboriginals.
Research data shows that, during the four years of the study, 18.5% of aboriginal men and women who use injection drugs such as cocaine and heroin became HIV positive, compared to 9.5% of non-aboriginals. This disparity is rather significant and, in my opinion, should be the subject of a thorough study or at least serious awareness on the part of the government.
The epidemic, which continues to spread throughout the world and from which practically no country is immune, can spread several ways. According to the report “AIDS Epidemic Update” produced in 2006 by UNAIDS and the WHO, approximately 39.5 million people are HIV positive, and the pandemic continues to target vulnerable communities.
In recent years, the number of people living with HIV has increased in all areas of the world. In 2006, 4.3 million people were newly infected with HIV and 2.9 million people died of AIDS related illnesses. In Canada, the number of people living with HIV-AIDS grew from 50,000 in 2002 to 58,000 at the end of 2005. Up to 25% do not know they are HIV positive.
In Canada, aboriginals represent the most vulnerable populations and are most often the victims of this pandemic. They are nearly three times more likely to be infected by HIV than any other Canadians. This statistic alone, I think, should be enough to make the government realize the importance of this critical situation.
The findings of the study on aboriginals in Vancouver confirm the existing data gathered throughout the country. Previously, in 2003, a study of aboriginals in Vancouver concluded that aboriginal intravenous drug users become infected by HIV at twice the rate of non-aboriginals. The Public Health Agency of Canada also released a report on these statistics in November 2007. If I may, I would like to share some of the findings, which are extremely alarming.
Aboriginals continue to be overrepresented in the epidemic of HIV infection in Canada. They represent 3.3% of the Canadian population, but account for an estimated 7.5% of all existing HIV infections. In addition, 9% of new HIV infections reported in 2005 occurred in aboriginals, 53% as a result of intravenous drug use, compared to 14% for the general population. The overall infection rate among aboriginals is therefore roughly 2.8 times the rate among non-aboriginals. One final statistic that shows how serious the problem is concerns aboriginal women, who account for 48.1% of positive HIV tests reported among aboriginal peoples, compared to 20.7% among non-aboriginal peoples.
These findings point to the need for specific measures to address the unique features of the epidemic of HIV infection in the aboriginal population. According to the Vancouver study, intravenous drug use poses the greatest risk of infecting the aboriginal population not only in Vancouver, but across the country.
Members of our first nations are not more likely to use drugs because of their culture or biology; drug use is rooted in a malaise caused by serious social problems.
Speaking of social problems, I would like to talk about the poverty in aboriginal communities across Canada. Canada is responsible for the aboriginal peoples, but the poverty among our first nations is one of the most serious social injustices in this country. Canada has more than 750,000 first nations people. The latest census indicated that the aboriginal population had exceeded one million. Of that number, 750,000 live on reserves, in urban areas and in Canada's northern territories.
If we compare the situation of the first nations with that of the rest of Canada's population, a number of facts emerge. First, one in four first nations children lives in poverty, compared to one in six in the rest of the population. The life expectancy of first nations men and women is 7.4 and 5.2 years shorter, respectively. First nations dwellings are nearly twice as overcrowded as other Canadian homes.
Half of first nations homes are contaminated with mould. The socio-economic conditions of first nations are comparable to those of developing nations, as people's health status is well below the national average.
I understand that my time is up. Thank you for allowing me to finish.