Debates of Dec. 8th, 2009

A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be back here. I have spoken on this issue before in previous late shows and I am back again in response to questions I have asked before. I want to underline the importance of what I am saying, the importance to many groups in Canada and, I would submit, the importance to many Canadians.

I want to acknowledge the Sisters in Spirit initiative of the Native Women's Association of Canada. It was launched by a Liberal government in 2005 and supported ongoing by the current Conservative government. It is an initiative that has brought forth the issue of the more than 520 missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls in our country.

Before this initiative, Canadians did not have much knowledge of this issue. They did not know about the tragedy that had been mounting over the past 30 years. Because of the important work of Sisters in Spirit and so many other grassroots organizations, the national disgrace is now part of the public dialogue.

More than 223 of the 520 recorded cases have happened since the year 2000. That is 43% in the last nine years. These cases are all over the country. It is not a provincial problem. It is a national problem and it is one that needs to be addressed by the federal government.

To date, since we on this side of the House have raised the issue and called for a national, public and comprehensive investigation into the matter, it has been the provinces that have taken up leadership on the issue. Manitoba announced a joint task force with the RCMP and Winnipeg Police Service on this matter earlier this fall. Alberta has an initiative to look into the disappearances which have happened in that province. The province of British Columbia is launching its own inquiry.

These inquiries should not be left up to the provinces. These cases are national in scope. Many of the girls could have been trafficked, or have been trafficked, across borders and may be in other provinces and perhaps even in other countries, yet the federal government chooses not to take action on this critical problem.

Last year at the United Nations peer review, Canada was denounced for not taking any action on this matter. The council gave the government an opportunity to respond with a deadline of November this year. That deadline has come and gone and now we hear the government will reply some time later this year.

Why is it not taking this issue seriously? Why is it not giving it pre-eminent attention? What will it take and how many more women have to go missing?

I know the government's response will talk about the work of Sisters in Spirit. I applaud the initiative of Sisters in Spirit and I hope to hear it say that it will renew this initiative. The research is important, but it is now time to take action and it is time for the government to act. I am hopeful the government will finally hear the calls from aboriginal peoples across the country and the international community and launch a public investigation into this matter.

I have travelled the country, primarily in western Canada, meeting with individuals and organizations. I know this is what they are looking for and I know they are calling on the government to act, and I am as well.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary for Status of Women]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to respond to my colleague. I would have done so two weeks ago, but she was not here.

Violence against women, and, in particular, against aboriginal women, is a priority for our government. We all know that the incidence of abuse against aboriginal women is higher and more violent than against other women.

That is why we are working to find answers to the complex issues surrounding the disappearance and murder of aboriginal women and girls in Canada, in particular by supporting the Sisters in Spirit initiative, run by the Native Women's Association of Canada, in collaboration with several departments.

Sisters in Spirit has been around for five years, and does the groundwork so that we can attack the root causes of violence against aboriginal women and girls.

Putting an end to violence against women is everyone's responsibility. It is the responsibility of all levels of government, of the police and of the justice system, but also of society in general.

In regard to the justice system, there are currently four provincial investigations underway, and the RCMP is participating in them. It is important to note that at the request of the Minister of State, the Native Women's Association will exchange information with the RCMP investigators.

Since 2007, our government has supported 117 projects that address all forms of violence against women, including violence against aboriginal women.

A federal-provincial-territorial working group made up of senior criminal justice system officials is reviewing judicial interventions in cases involving serial killers who target the most vulnerable women.

Justice Canada is playing an active role in the working group, and Status of Women Canada is actively participating in federal-provincial-territorial subcommittees on healing and on missing and murdered aboriginal women. Together with federal, provincial, territorial and regional partners, Justice Canada is working hard to improve criminal justice system interventions in cases involving missing and murdered aboriginal women.

Our government believes that the solution to the problem of missing and murdered aboriginal women and to the larger problem of violence against women lies in gender equality. We will keep working to end violence against all Canadian women.

Violence against women, aboriginal or otherwise, is unacceptable. Yes, it is up to the government to do something, but it is also up to people from all walks of life to work together to find solutions to end gratuitous violence against women.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, one does not normally comment on a member's absence or presence in the House.

What I am asking for is a national comprehensive investigation into the missing and murdered aboriginal women. Why have so many women gone missing? Why have so many cases not been solved? Initiatives have been undertaken, but I would submit that they have been done in a scattergun manner. There has been no comprehensive strategy. There has been no comprehensive look at the root causes of it.

We know that a disproportionate number of the missing and/or murdered aboriginal women are young women who have been in care. Why have they been in care? Was it the circumstances under which they lived? What is necessary is a national comprehensive investigation that would look at all of the factors in an integrated, holistic way and would come up with recommendations for the future.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Mr. Speaker, our government has also actively supported the first and second national aboriginal women's summits, during which the following areas for action were addressed: leadership, health and safety, empowerment and honour. Through a number of departments and agencies, including Status of Women Canada, our government is working with aboriginal agencies in order to resolve the many problems aboriginal women are experiencing.

Violence against women, aboriginal or otherwise, in Canada is very important and we are working together with aboriginals and the Sisters in Spirit initiative to find answers to the questions surrounding the disappearances.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in preparing for, responding to and recovering from the H1N1 pandemic, Parliament's focus must be the health and welfare of all Canadians. Specifically, our goals must be to reduce the rate of hospitalizations, illness and death as well as to reduce economic and social impacts. Therefore, our discussions must remain on the winding down of the second wave as well as preparing for a possible third wave.

We are here to address the question regarding the overrepresentation of aboriginal people and the morbidity and mortality statistics for the spring wave of H1N1, namely, the fact that 18% of those hospitalized due to H1N1 were aboriginal, 15% of those requiring stays in ICUs were aboriginal, and 12% of deaths were among aboriginal people, despite the fact that aboriginal people account for only 4% of the Canadian population.

Before I begin a discussion of the first wave and what could have been done differently, I want to recognize the intervention of the opposition parties that resulted in Dr. Paul Gully, former director general of the Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, being appointed as a special adviser for aboriginal communities H1N1 response. I also gratefully acknowledge that aboriginal peoples have not been overrepresented in the second wave, the tremendous work of chiefs and their communities and their co-operation with health officials.

Despite the improvements, an investigation still needs to be undertaken into the sad and sobering statistics. As late as the summer, one chief reported that of 30 communities in northern Manitoba, only 2 had a pandemic plan and none had been tested.

The first question must therefore be this. Why were some aboriginal communities unprepared for a possible pandemic when WHO and Canada had been preparing for several years for H5N1? Where was the support from Canadian health officials to ensure that each aboriginal community had a pandemic influenza plan that had been tested, with the necessary supplies, funding and human resources so people could receive treatment in a timely manner and have suitable infection control measures?

My colleague from St. Paul's and I travelled to aboriginal communities in the summer to see first hand the state of pandemic preparedness. We heard the challenges and the lack of support from health officials. We heard comments such as, “There was no help. We figured we had to do it on our own” and “We are starting a plan. Can you order supplies?”

My colleague asked that the health committee be called back in August because the House had recessed on June 18 and would not sit again until September 14. We wanted to ensure preparedness should there be a second wave of pandemic influenza. Pandemic preparedness is an insurance policy. The more communities prepare for a pandemic, the greater the probability that they will be able to mitigate impacts.

Every effort should have been taken to protect the health of aboriginal Canadians. Did the government simply hope that a pandemic would not strike? Hope is not a strategy and is particularly untenable in aboriginal communities, where history reveals that these communities are particularly hard hit in past pandemics. Underlying environmental, health, overcrowding, poverty and water challenges today make aboriginal communities particularly vulnerable.

In 1918, for example, the Spanish influenza killed close to one-third of the Inuit population and forced some communities out of existence. At Okak, the disease killed 204 of 263 residents. At Hebron, it killed 86 of 100 residents. Pandemic preparedness and response should not have been a test in patience and humility for aboriginal peoples.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada is committed to protecting the health and well-being of all Canadians, including first nations, Métis and Inuit populations. Reflective of this, our government committed $305 million in budget 2009 over the next two years to strengthen current programs and improve health outcomes.

We have dedicated an additional $135 million that will go toward improving health services, infrastructure in first nations communities, including health clinics and nursing stations.

Budget 2009 provides two-year targeted funding of $165 million for the completion of drinking water and waste water infrastructure projects to address health and safety priorities in 18 first nations communities across the country.

Budget 2009 also provides $400 million over two years to support on-reserve housing, dedicated to new social housing projects, remediation of existing social housing stock, and complementary housing activities.

To combat H1N1 and maintain the level of community health that all Canadians expect and deserve including aboriginal people, we have stockpiled and distributed antiviral medications to the provinces and territories, overseen production and distribution of the H1N1 vaccine, and procured additional emergency supplies to complement provincial-territorial stockpiles. We continue to conduct surveillance and lead the federal-provincial-territorial effort on providing timely public health advice.

Antiviral drugs and a safe and effective pandemic vaccine are key infection prevention and control measures of the Government of Canada's H1N1 response efforts to protect the health and safety of all Canadians against the flu virus.

We have increased antiviral drugs in the national emergency stockpile system in order to provide provinces and territories with surge capacity in the event that their stocks become overwhelmed as they treat Canadians with influenza-like symptoms during this H1N1 flu outbreak.

According to the experts getting immunized with the H1N1 flu vaccine is the best way for Canadians to protect themselves and those around them from getting the H1N1 flu virus.

The Government of Canada continues to work with the vaccine manufacturer to supply provinces and territories with doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine on a weekly basis. As of the end of this week, approximately 24 million doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine have been distributed to provinces and territories. We are on target to immunize all Canadians who need and want the vaccine by the end of December. This of course includes first nations, Métis and Inuit populations. To date, based on numbers of doses of the vaccine we have distributed and the rate at which the provinces and territories have been administering it, at least one-third of Canadians have been immunized.

We have established a national surveillance system for tracking the H1N1 virus and providing detailed analyses of its impact in Canada. This surveillance system is integrated in our longstanding FluWatch system that was established 13 years ago. The lessons learned from these analyses not only inform our response to H1N1, but also help improve our understanding of pandemics in general. This system has been expanded to include aboriginal people in the general population and is complemented by first nations on-reserve specific data collected through Health Canada.

I am able to report that as of late November, our wave two data shows that first nations living on-reserve accounted for 1.3% of hospitalizations and 1.7% of all deaths in Canada. Considering that first nations living on-reserve account for 1.4% of the population, these numbers are within the expected proportion for wave two.

In terms of the off-reserve aboriginal population for the period August 30 to November 28, aboriginal people living off-reserve represented approximately 3.8% of all hospitalized cases, 6.4% of all ICU admissions and 7% of all deaths. While still slightly disproportionate compared to the general population, this is likely due to the fact that a higher percentage of aboriginal people possess the risk factors for increased health impacts due to H1N1. These factors include underlying medical conditions such as diabetes and living in remote and isolated communities.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we must also ask, why was no attempt made to slow the spread of the H1N1 virus in aboriginal communities as theoretical modelling showed was possible and has since been recommended by the WHO? Why was the science forgotten in a response that was supposed to be evidence and science-based?

What was done to ensure the administration of antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu in a timely manner? Antiviral drugs can prevent serious flu complications. Dr. Anand Kumar explained to our health committee that some people had to wait seven or eight days for treatment and that this likely impacted patient outcome.

An investigation should ask questions regarding antiviral use, containment and social distancing measures. Other important questions include: when and where did aboriginal cases start and spread?

We need to recognize there is a real health crisis across the country in aboriginal communities. Perhaps H1N1 will prompt the government to fix chronic social problems.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the statistics cited are from wave one of the pandemic. This wave took place from April until late August.

As already stated, more recent statistics demonstrate a marked improvement in aboriginal health outcomes relating to H1N1. In all three categories, hospitalizations, ICU admissions and mortality, there is a dramatic decline. Of note, we, in wave two, were seeing fewer children and pregnant women hospitalized.

I am pleased to see that the efforts we have undertaken with our aboriginal partners reflected in the steady decline of the spread and severity of H1N1 in aboriginal communities.

We will continue to work with our partners to monitor this pandemic and, as we learn, we will of course always improve at what we do.

[The Acting Speaker, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly this House stands adjourned until tomorrow, at 2 p.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 7:02 p.m.)