Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise to speak to this emergency debate tonight. I am splitting my time with the member for Thunder Bay—Superior North.
I would like to acknowledge the member for Churchill for raising this very important issue in the House. I know the member for Churchill has been tireless in working on raising awareness of the importance of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and I really want to acknowledge the good work that she has done.
It is very interesting listening to the debate in the House tonight, because what it has turned into is an either/or. What I hear from the government side is that it is either the Aboriginal Healing Foundation or it is services from Health Canada,
It is unfortunate that it is the way the debate has gone. I believe that from the government's own numbers it has acknowledged that there has been an increased uptake on common experience payments and alternate dispute resolution payments. Health Canada's own website acknowledges that there are currently 80,000 residential school survivors still alive today.
Clearly there is a significant amount of people and their families who are impacted by the legacy of the residential school system.
I want to refer briefly to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. There are many sections that I could quote, but I want to quote section 23. It states:
Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for exercising their right to development. In particular, indigenous peoples have the right to be actively involved in developing and determining health, housing and other economic and social programmes affecting them and, as far as possible, to administer such programmes through their own institutions.
It would seem to me that we have been hearing from first nations, Métis and Inuit from coast to coast to coast, saying that the Aboriginal Healing Foundation is a mechanism that they want to see providing services to their communities. They are not saying that they do not want the services from Health Canada or from other organizations, but they are saying, “We still want those services. They are effective, they are available, they are culturally appropriate, and these are the kinds of services that we also want to have”.
I want to quote briefly from the final report, Evaluation of Community-Based Healing Initiatives Supported Through the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, of December 7, 2009, provided by INAC. It clearly outlines some of the benefits of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. It states:
There is almost unanimous agreement among those canvassed that the AHF has been very successful at both achieving its objectives and in governance and fiscal management.
A number of indicator measures provide evidence that AHF healing programs at the community level are effective in facilitating healing at the individual level, and are beginning to show healing at the family and community level. AHF research has shown that it takes approximately ten years of continuous healing efforts before a community is securely established in healing from IRS trauma.
It goes on to say:
Although evidence points to increasing momentum in individual and community healing, it also shows that in relation to the existing and growing need, the healing “has just begun”. For Inuit projects in particular, the healing process has been delayed due to the later start of AHF projects for Inuit.
Under the heading “Program Impacts”, it continues:
Impacts of the programs are reported as positive by the vast majority of respondents, with individual impacts ranging from improved family relationships, increased self-esteem and pride; achievement of higher education and employment; to prevention of suicides. Reported community impacts are growth in social capital indicators such as volunteerism, informal caring networks, and cultural events. One of the notable impacts reported by case study communities is that the “silence” and shame surrounding IRS abuses are being broken, creating the climate for ongoing healing.
The question I have to put to the government is this: If a program has been evaluated as working, fiscally responsible, accountable, getting results, why would we take it apart? It does not make good fiscal sense, and it does not make good community healing sense.
I want to quote from a couple of organizations that have sent me letters talking about the importance of the foundation. This one is from Darlaene Eccleston, who states:
Without the continuation of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, the ongoing empowerment of our people healing our own communities and working toward reconciliation and forgiveness is severely set back.
Of course, she says much more about the importance of the program.
A letter from the Inter Tribal Health Authority, signed by co-chairs Chief David Bob and James Wilson, states:
The funding we receive is used to allow survivors of Residential Schools the opportunity to deal with the trauma of that tragic experience in a safe and trusting environment. After many years of suffering in silence, a therapeutic avenue was made available...To pull the funding at this time is an injustice and a disservice to the First Nations People of Canada as we have only begun the long work of helping people deal with the past.
Part of the reason I am reading these letters into the record is these people cannot come and address the House of Commons, so they need another voice here and that is what New Democrats, the Bloc and the Liberals have been doing.
This is another letter from the Inter Tribal Health Authority. It states:
The program was well subscribed and we were making progress and helping many community members break their many years of pained silence and begin an equally painful healing journey.
This letter is from the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs. It states:
We request that you continue to support my recovery from the tragic experience of Indian Residential Schools. The communities of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs have benefited from the services of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and request that you provide ongoing financial resources that would allow survivors and families to continue to heal so that we may journey together to a stronger Canada that will include former Indian Residential Schools students.
This is from Nunavuk Tunngavik and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association. It states:
We are writing this letter to you to echo the voices of thousands of Inuit that suffer the impacts of the Residential School regime. For the mothers and fathers that never got to pass on their knowledge and traditions to their children. For Inuit that have been muted as their language has been stripped away from them. For Inuit children that suffer as their parents try desperately to learn to parent. For victims of suicide who had no resources to turn to in their communities. For Inuit men and women who sit in Federal Jails, thousands of miles away, because our communities lack the resources to help them. For Inuit shackled by the chains of addiction, because that has been the only way to cope with the desperation and hopelessness that they face. And finally for the Elders that have watched the capacity of our communities stripped and generational gaps grow into deep caverns...We need room and tools to address our challenges in ways that are designed by and for Inuit.
The Assembly of First Nations has been strongly calling for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation to stay in place, to support first nations, Métis and Inuit across the country. It is calling for the government to work with them in the spirit of the residential schools apology.
Again, I want to emphasize the fact that we are not talking either/or here. Health Canada does provide valuable services to many communities, but the Aboriginal Healing Foundation provides a unique community, cultural, grassroots experience. It is not driven top-down from a bureaucratic process.
Earlier, to another question in the House, I pointed out some of the things people needed to go through, through the Health Canada process, in order to access services. I know many members in the House have received letters from people who have had to pay their own dentist bills and pharmacy bills because NIHB, first nations Non-Insured Health Benefits, is so difficult deal with that dentists and pharmacists no longer want to deal directly with the department. People who have very little income have to pay those dentist and pharmacy bills themselves and submit the bills.
We know what is happening. People who need those services are not getting them. I would suggest that for many people, the bureaucracy of dealing with Health Canada, as good as those health workers are, is a barrier to people accessing services when they need it.
I also know many members in the House have spent time with residential school survivors and heard their painful stories and know often that when they reach out for help, that help has to be available for them right there and then, not four weeks later, not six weeks later, not two months later. Oftentimes that is a cry for help from people. They need to be able to go to their local people whom they understand and trust, who have the language, who have the cultural experience and who can provide that service right there and then.
An interesting thing to ask is what kinds of wait lists for services Health Canada currently provide and are in place. We know from many people there are simply not the services available to them.
I know people have quoted from the Health Canada website, saying that transportation is available to remove them from their communities if they need help somewhere else. That sounds like the residential school experience all over again, taking people from their communities. That is a legitimate experience for some people.
I would urge all members in the House to support reinstating the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.