Debates of March 30th, 2010

Aboriginal Healing Foundation

[Kevin Sorenson, Conservative, Crowfoot, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Simcoe North for the speech that he has given this evening. Over the last number of years I have had the privilege of sitting close to him and getting to know him a bit. He is a very calm, cool, collected member of Parliament who is very much respected. I know he is also the chair of the aboriginal affairs committee.

It is close to 11 o'clock this evening. I have been sitting here through the debate tonight. One of the troubling points of the debate this evening is we have heard the word “hypocrisy” and a few other words like that used.

The opposition members tonight have come with the argument that the Canadian health care system is not sufficient. They have come tonight saying that the Aboriginal Healing Foundation is needed because the Canadian health system cannot provide the proper services that would be expected or required.

I am concerned about that. The opposition members again have found themselves in this position of arguing one thing one night and another thing another night. Tonight we have heard them talk of deficiencies in Canada's health care system. I say shame on the opposition for that. Shame on the opposition for coming here with that message this evening.

My question is with regard to the accountability of the $66 million that will be brought forward into Health Canada. Who is the responsible person in Health Canada who will oversee and provide accountability on the funds and on the programs that will be delivered universally through Canada's health care system?

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague, the member for Crowfoot, for his kind remarks.

He actually pointed to an important aspect of this discussion that perhaps has been overlooked and that is that the residential health support program is in fact an existing program of Health Canada. This is something which, as we heard tonight, through budget 2010 will receive an additional $66 million over the next two years to undertake these important initiatives around the residential schools settlement agreement. That work is going to be undertaken by aboriginal people in many cases who are familiar with and understand and work with the community, elders, people who are integrally involved with the community. They are the ones who are going to be doing the work.

By the way, the importance here is that these are going to be skilled Health Canada workers who will actually be healing individually. Tonight we have heard the words “provide programs directly to families and residential school students”. That is the key because they will work directly, virtually one on one with members of the community to make sure Health Canada is delivering the right programs.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Mr. Speaker, between the 1800s and the 1990s, over 130 government funded, church run industrial schools, boarding schools and northern hostels operated in Canada for aboriginal children. Many first nations, Métis and Inuit children attending the residential schools suffered physical, sexual and other abuses, loss of childhood, family, community language and culture.

In 1996 the report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, RCAP, stressed the urgency of addressing the impacts of residential schools. I remember being there on January 7, 1998 at the Native Friendship Centre in Toronto. It was my first smudge ceremony, and the then minister of Indian affairs and northern development, the hon. Jane Stewart, issued a statement of reconciliation and unveiled “Gathering Strength: Canada's Aboriginal Action Plan”.

The federal government announced at that time a grant of $350 million for community-based healing of the physical and sexual abuses that occurred in the residential schools, and on March 31, 1998, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation was created.

The vision, mission and values of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation were:

Our vision is of all who are affected by the legacy of physical, sexual, mental, cultural, and spiritual abuses in the Indian residential schools having addressed, in a comprehensive and meaningful way, unresolved trauma, putting to an end the intergenerational cycles of abuse, achieving reconciliation in the full range of relationships, and enhancing their capacity as individuals, families, communities, nations, and peoples to sustain their well being...Ours is a holistic approach. Our goal is to help create, reinforce and sustain conditions conducive to healing, reconciliation, and self-determination. We are committed to addressing the legacy of abuse in all its forms and manifestations, direct, indirect and intergenerational, by building on the strengths and resilience of Aboriginal peoples.

It is clear that the mission, vision and values stated “all who are affected”. It is so clear to all in this House tonight that we have only just begun to achieve that vision.

The reporting principles were clear. It had to have clear context and strategies, meaningful performance expectations, performance accomplishments against expectations, and fair and reliable performance information reported. It is very clear by the evaluation released the day after the budget that it worked. The government was getting value for money and putting our aboriginal people back on the road to recovery.

There is no question that the biggest challenge in Canada is closing the gap in the health status of our aboriginal people. The role of residential schools was horrific in their history and to the already damaging effects caused by colonization.

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation was one of the outcomes of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, and probably the most important, the very first entity created and customized to meet the needs of aboriginal peoples, with the flexibility to build upon the cultural aspects of optimal healing and health.

In so many ways, the healing journey has just begun. For some communities, there have been huge successes. For others, awareness has opened wounds that we have the responsibility to ensure have the best possible support for their healing. Other communities that were unable to secure programs have watched the successes of neighbouring communities and have now expectations that they too should be able to participate in their healing journey.

There is no question that the most successful programs were the antithesis of western medicine that the member for Crowfoot needs to better understand. It is irresponsible to close these programs and return to the medical model that has always failed our aboriginal peoples. Aboriginal ways focus on family and community, in positive, culturally sensitive ways. Focusing on the individual has never worked.

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation attracted the best and the brightest of our aboriginal peoples and inspired many aboriginal youth to enter the healing professions. The formal evaluations have shown great work and successes. The cancelling of these funds is a tragedy and an embarrassment to Canada.

The government's job is to fund what works and stop funding what does not work.

The evidence for this program is solid. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation has had a tremendously positive impact on the healing journey of our aboriginal peoples. It deserves to be funded until the work is done, as it says in the mission, vision and values, until all of those affected have had access to appropriate care and the best possible results.

Of the probably 86,000 survivors alive today, first nations make up 80%, Métis make up 9%, Inuit make up 5% and non-status make up 6%. Almost 300,000 people have been intergenerationally impacted. Of the estimated 205,000 participants in the Aboriginal Healing Foundation projects, only 33% of those have engaged in any previous healing activity. Almost 50,000 participants were in the foundation's funded training projects.

Mr. Speaker, I forgot to mention that I will be splitting my time with the member for Etobicoke North.

The impact of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation's funding has shown that 36 months is the minimum time to move through the needs of identification, outreach and initiation of therapeutic healing. Less than one-third of all projects received funding for 36 months or longer. Only 55% of the total target population and intergenerationally impacted have received healing services. Fifty-six per cent of the projects could not meet healing needs and 36% still maintain a waiting list.

The foundation-funded projects identified that almost 76,000, or 37%, of individuals have special needs, such as severe trauma including alcohol abuse and suicidal behaviour. The projects tell us that healing is a long-term process and that healing occurs in stages.

The impact of these foundation-funded activities in the communities, including the level of understanding, awareness of the legacy, level of team capacity and number of participants in healing, are as follows: 20% of the communities are just beginning their healing, 66% of the communities accomplished a few goals but have much work remaining and 14% of the communities accomplished many goals but some work still remains.

Fifty-seven per cent of the participants told us that their goals changed over the course of attending the foundation-funded activities. The commonly cited changes were improved self-awareness, relationships with others, knowledge and cultural reclamation. The majority felt better about themselves because they found strength, improved their self-esteem and were able to work through their trauma.

They evaluated the effectiveness of the healing activities including those that were elder driven, ceremonies, one-on-one counselling, healing and talking circles, traditional medicine workshops, conferences, legacy education, land-based activities, life skills, residential treatment, parenting skills, family counselling and alternatives. Western therapies came absolute last in every single way we would measure it. We cannot send these people back to the medical model. It has never worked before.

Finally, there are aboriginal-led and culturally sensitive modalities that are working. The government claims to want to fund projects that work. This works. It is irresponsible to cut the funding.

An average of 10 years is required for a community to reach out, dismantle the denial, create safety and engage participants in therapeutic healing. Progress and duration of healing is affected by the level of community awareness, the readiness to heal in its individuals, the availability of organizational infrastructure and access to skilled personnel.

Responses to surveys indicated that healing goals are best achieved through services by aboriginal practitioners and longer involvement in counselling. In the big research report given to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, they finished the stories that tell harsh truths without flinching, that honour the resilience of individuals and communities who are restoring balance in their lives and that give evidence of a commitment on all sides to transforming relations. They have a chance of becoming part of the grand narrative of Canada.

If the government refuses to fund this exceptional program, that narrative will change. The narrative will be of doors closed again, of dark days and of hopes dashed.

I implore the government to build on the successes of the foundation and make good on the promises that were implicit in the apology in the House, lest that apology be not only judged on the past actions f the Government of Canada but on the future actions of the Conservative government.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development]

Mr. Speaker, before, during and after AHF we will continue to have programs and services available that are aboriginal led at the community level. Why does the member for St. Paul's continue to perpetuate that that is not the case?

We have explained this multiple times this evening. No one has refuted what we are saying. There has been just a complete absence of recognition that we have said something positive. I do not understand it at all.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think the Government of Canada has ever had a series of projects that have been this well evaluated and successful. It is the obligation of the government to fund what works and stop funding what does not work. If the government can show me another series of projects that actually have had the same outcome, I would like them to be tabled in the House. This is the best set of programs we have ever had in this country.

By applying the Law Commission of Canada's economic model on the effects of child abuse, we would find that those intergenerationally impacted cost Canadian society $40 million per year in incarcerations, social services, special education and health.

One little project, the Hollow Water Community Holistic Circle of Healing, indicated that funding for healing is an alternative to incarceration, is cost effective, lowers recidivism and for every $2 spent on a CHCH program, federal and provincial governments save $6 to $16 in incarceration costs. We need to get on with this. It is the right thing to do. It is a whole of government approach. We must do the right thing by our aboriginal peoples.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I suppose what we are hearing from the government tonight is that we should trust it because it has a replacement plan in place. It has not shown us the plan and there are no papers or descriptions to the aboriginal communities, to the 134 projects that are ending tomorrow and, more important, to all the people they are servicing, counselling and have built up a trust relationship with over these most incredibly sensitive topics.

We are talking about abuse at a very early age. We are talking about people dealing with addictions. We are talking about folks having a hard time in life that have built up a rapport with this organization, which, everybody agrees, works very well. The government's own report says that it works excellently. My hon. colleague has said that it is one of the best programs the government has ever run.

This foundation works well and is functional but instead the government tells us to trust it because it will let Health Canada do it. Health Canada does not do this kind of work, does not have this relationship and has no rapport with those aboriginal communities we are talking about. It will be doing it on an individual basis when we know from aboriginal communities across this country that while individual counselling is important, community-based and family-based counselling is one of the things that has made this aboriginal program so successful. Now it will undo that very tenet and tell us to trust it but it will not tell us the plan or show us the plan.

Does the member agree that it is possible to trust the government on this issue and how can aboriginal people—

[The Deputy Speaker, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. member for St. Paul's.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the member. The director of the program from the Minister of Health's riding, Marie Ingram, said that in her Cambridge Bay Community Wellness Centre in Nunavut her staff are panicking. The centre provides a plethora of programs, including services to offenders of anger management and drug counselling. She went on to say:

We saw 190 clients here last month and we won't see next month. Just because our funding stops, the needs don't stop. Right now, I'm just trying to find funding, anywhere and everywhere. ... People should be telling their government that we need this money. They created the social problems here. They should know they take a lot longer to fix.

The Minister of Health has 12 projects in her own riding. What is she going to say to the directors of all these programs? What are the executive directors going to say to their clients, that the funding is not there and there will be no programs and whatever obfuscation the government members are putting forward? Individual people in the midst of their healing will be facing a shut door this spring. This is not fair and it will cost lives.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, a few weathered crosses scar a barren field. The old man who tends to them remembers coming with the religious leaders to bury the small boxes. He has spent a lifetime trying to come to terms with what happened at residential schools, how they shattered his family and how he spent decades trying to rebuild ties. The stolen children, who lay beneath his feet, many friends, never had that chance. Sadly, no one actually knows how many are buried, hundreds if not thousands, their names or how they died. They are the voiceless.

The white crosses paint a bleak picture of a terrible tragedy: children poorly fed, poorly clothed, with little medical help and ideal conditions for the spread of tuberculosis.

One woman remembers being sick along with three other children for days before the religious leaders called for help. When the child came to, the other three beds were empty. The only words, “You are the lucky one. You pulled through”.

I rise today to urge the government to honour the Prime Minister's 2008 apology for the federal government's role in the Indian residential school system with real action, namely to continue funding the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, which has been very successful at both achieving its objectives and in governance and fiscal management.

In the 19th century the Canadian government believed it was responsible for caring for and educating the country's aboriginal people. Ideally, children, who were easier to mould than adults, would pass along their new lifestyle of Canadian customs, Christianity and English to their children. Aboriginal traditions would diminish or be abolished in a few generations.

About 150,000 first nations, Inuit and Métis children were removed from their communities and forced to attend schools. Children were discouraged from speaking their language, and if they were caught doing so they would experience severe punishment. Children rarely had opportunities to see examples of normal family life as brothers and sisters rarely saw one another due to gender segregation. Children were away 10 months of the year. All correspondence was written in English, which many parents could not read.

When children returned to the reserve they often found they did not belong and were even ashamed of their traditions. Frequently they did not have either the skills to help their parents or to function in an urban setting as the skills they learned were often substandard.

As a result of residential abuses suffered in the past, aboriginal people today endure many effects of unresolved trauma, including alcoholism, depression, lack of capacity to build and sustain healthy families and communities, lack of parenting skills, violence, poverty, suicide and weakening or destruction of cultures and languages.

Today some 30% of first nations people have felt blue, depressed or sad for two or more weeks. A statistical profile on the health of first nations in Canada for the year 2000 showed that suicide and self-inflicted injuries were the leading causes of death for first nation youth and adults up to 44 years of age, and first nations youth committed suicide about five to six times more often than non-aboriginal youth.

Tragically, the suicide rate for first nations males was 126 per 100,000 compared to 24 per 100,000 for non-aboriginal males. For first nations females the suicide rate was 35 per 100,000 compared to only 5 per 100,000 for non-aboriginal females. Suicide rates for Inuit youth are among the highest in the world, at 11 times the national average.

Former national chief, Phil Fontaine, has said, “The memories of residential schools sometimes cut like merciless knives at our souls”.

First nations people and Inuit face other serious health related challenges, such as high rates of chronic and contagious diseases and shorter life expectancy.

Compared to the general Canadian population, heart disease is 1.5 times higher, and type 2 diabetes is 3 to 5 times higher among first nations people, and rates are increasing among the Inuit. High rates of diabetes are linked to key health determinants, such as education, employment levels, income, social conditions and access to health care, all impacted by the residential school experience.

While it has been more than 100 years since the former chief medical officer at Indian Affairs sounded the alarm over horribly high rates of tuberculosis in residential schools, TB continues to be a major concern in aboriginal communities. Aboriginal people in Canada face a third world risk of the disease. The tuberculosis rate among status Indians is 31 times higher than that of non-aboriginal Canadians. The rate among Inuit is 186 times that of Canadian born non-aboriginals, equivalent to the rate in sub-Saharan Africa.

Although not the subject of this debate, the rate of tuberculosis among Canada's aboriginal peoples is an embarrassment that demands a real government strategy, the what, by when and how, and resources. We must call upon the Prime Minister to take immediate action on this 100% preventable disease.

After over 100 years of abuse and neglect, churches implicated in abuse apologized. The United Church of Canada formally apologized to Canada's first nations people in 1986 and offered a second apology in 1998.

Archbishop Peers offered an apology on behalf of the Anglican Church of Canada in 1993, stating,

I am sorry, more than I can say, that we were part of a system which took you and your children from home and family.

Four leaders of the Presbyterian Church signed a statement of apology in 1994 stating:

It is with deep humility and in great sorrow that we come before God and our Aboriginal brothers and sisters with our confession.

In 2009, the Pope expressed his sorrow to a delegation from Canada's Assembly of First Nations for the abuse and deplorable treatment that aboriginal students suffered.

The Government of Canada finally apologized in June 2008. The government recognized that the assimilation of aboriginal children was wrong, and “has caused great harm and has no place in our country”.

The school's policy and legacy includes social problems that persist in communities today and was profoundly damaging to the language and heritage of aboriginal peoples.

Most important, the Prime Minister said, “We apologize for having done this”, and asked for forgiveness.

Words are not enough. Words must be backed up with action and particularly engaging in a meaningful way with aboriginal community leaders, former residential school students and their families.

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation provides resources that promote reconciliation and encourage and support aboriginal people and their communities in building and reinforcing sustainable healing processes that address the legacy of cultural, mental, physical, sexual and spiritual abuses in the residential school system, including intergenerational impacts.

In December 2009, INAC released a report that stated,

The Government of Canada should consider continued support for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, at least until the Settlement Agreement compensation processes and commemorative initiatives are completed.

Will the Prime Minister honour INAC's recommendation and continue the healing so all those who seek healing can access it, so some mothers can build self-esteem, can teach their children and in some cases end the cycle of abuse and addiction?

These programs must be ongoing. It is impossible to erase 150 years, the generations and unspeakable abuses against children without healing. A mistake has been made. Will the government do the morally right thing and restore the funding?

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member gave us a very moving account of the result of the residential schools that still actually have continued with aboriginal people for generations until today. As she said earlier on, the Prime Minister recognized that in his speech, and I have no reason to doubt that when the Prime Minister made that speech in the House of Commons, he did not mean it with his heart.

What I am suggesting as a physician, and I know the hon. member for St. Paul's is a physician and I know this hon. member has done work with epidemiology in the past, is that if we want to improve healing among aboriginal communities, we would look at what works. We have heard here in the House all evening that in fact transferring our programs into other community-based programs and into Health Canada is going to deal with the issue.

I just want to give some indicators very quickly from a report from the department, INAC, itself. This report came in December 2009, so it is only about three or four months old. It is not an ancient report.

It said the referrals from other health institutions, that is physicians, hospitals and ministries of health in other provinces, to this particular fund has risen 65%. So major institutions are referring to the fund, and there has been a 65% increase in those referrals. We also see, in fact, 40% increased use of the program and that the program has a 15% overhead cost.

Does the member think she can find anything more cost-effective?

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I think we all agree that this is such an important program. It is evidence-based, it is cost-effective, and there is almost unanimous agreement among those canvassed that AHF has been very successful at both achieving its objectives and in governance and fiscal management.

The Native Women's Shelter of Montreal held a policy meeting with the leader of the official opposition to call on the federal government to reinstate its support for AHF. The shelter depends on AHF for funding.

The executive director said:

We have been receiving funds from the AHF for the last 10 years, and it goes toward our healing program, and the basics, a roof over the head and food to eat...A lot of people are out of work, and we are going to be grasping at straws now to try to meet the needs of the women.

According to an MLA in Nunavut, many of Nunavut's health and social problems, such as addictions and suicides, have improved. He says:

The momentum towards healing in our communities has begun.

Why take away this program?

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her moving speech and her message about how important it is for all of us, and calling on the government to save the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

Given the member's speech and the words that we have heard from so many in this House, not just given the good work that we have heard of but to go to the challenges that so many people face in communities across Canada, survivors, their families, young people, if we lose this kind of programming, which after midnight tomorrow will be gone, what will happen to the people who depend on that programming? What will happen to the young people who only have that program to go to in communities in Nunavut? What will happen to the elders who only have that program to go to in their community to share their pain? What will happen to those people, and what will the government say when those young people have nowhere to turn to--

[The Deputy Speaker, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please. The hon. member for Etobicoke North.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will start by saying again that a mistake has been by the government. Will the government do the morally right thing and restore funding?

I will talk again about the Native Women's Shelter of Montreal. The executive director explains:

Your mother didn't go but your grandmother went [to residential schools], so she couldn't raise your mother. It trickles down, and it has resulted in loss of dignity, loss of parenting skills, loss of community, loss of traditional ceremonies.

She states that the people who have suffered these losses cannot be helped by traditional Western healing. She says:

If you carry a lot of grief, your doctor won't prescribe a sweat lodge. But we do, and the women who participate can speak their traditional language and sing traditional songs. It's about releasing the pain in a healthy environment. They come back--

[The Deputy Speaker, Andrew Scheer]

Resuming debate, the hon. member for Medicine Hat.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to address the important issue of federal funding of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

My hon. colleagues have already spoken to the legacy that the Indian residential school system has left in Canadian history. Only by working together can Canadians come to terms with our past and create a better future.

Our Conservative government is committed to a fair and lasting resolution to the legacy of Indian residential schools.

Four years ago, the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement earned the approval of all key parties: the Government of Canada, former students, churches, the Assembly of First Nations and Inuit organizations. The agreement was the culmination of an exhaustive process of research, conciliation and negotiation.

The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement features both tangible and symbolic elements. It provides financial compensation, counselling and support services, along with commemorative activities.

The implementation of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement is continuing and all Canadians should take pride in this progress. More than $1.5 billion in common experience payments have been made, and more than 99,000 claims have been received.

The independent assessment process has achieved similar success. This out-of-court process aims to resolve claims of physical and sexual abuse suffered at Indian residential schools. So far, more than 15,000 claims have been received, and victims have received more than $270 million in compensation.

Of course, no amount of money can ever hope to compensate for the damage caused by Indian residential schools. All we can do is hope that these funds enable individuals to move forward with their lives and that reconciliation brings aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians a little closer together.

Remember, there is no precedent for such a large-scale reconciliation.

As acknowledged by our Prime Minister, individuals and communities affected by Indian residential schools have been working on recovering from the impact of the residential schools legacy. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation has played a leading role in that effort, and for that role we thank it.

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation was established in 1998 in response to the recommendations arising from the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation funded projects to help aboriginal individuals, families and communities to address the effects of abuses and cultural losses suffered as a result of attendance at Indian residential schools.

The Government of Canada appreciates the Aboriginal Healing Foundation's valuable contribution. It is precisely for this reason that the parties to the settlement agreement negotiated an additional $125 million endowment for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. These funds effectively extended the organization's mandate through March 2012 and supports the operation of the foundation's 12 healing centres until that date.

In all, the Government of Canada has contributed a total of $515 million to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation since 1998. The work of the foundation has been significant, providing healing programs and services to address the experiences of survivors of Indian residential schools, their families and communities.

The Government of Canada's decision to fund the Aboriginal Healing Foundation beyond its original mandate demonstrates a commitment to accountability for the legacy of Indian residential schools.

The good work of aboriginal organizations funded by the foundation forms the reconciliation with aboriginal peoples.

The government continues to ensure that the appropriate supports are in place throughout the duration of the settlement agreement. This includes $199 million over two years in budget 2010 for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Health Canada to address the increased demand for services due to the common experience payment and the independent assessment process. The bulk of this money, $133.2 million over two years, will cover the greater than anticipated cost of implementing the agreement.

These funds will help Indian and Northern Affairs Canada to manage the independent assessment process and common experience payment. The remainder of the money, $65.9 million over two years, has been allotted to help Canada's Indian residential schools resolution health support program. These programs provide mental health and emotional support services to former students and their families as they participate in the various components of the settlement agreement, such as the independent assessment process and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

It is important to note that this is new money. Budget 2010 does not reallocate funds once allotted to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. It is also important to note that these funds enable Canada to fulfill its ongoing legal obligation to provide emotional and mental health supports to former Indian residential school students and their family members as they participate in the various components of the settlement agreement.

Through the resolution health support program, Health Canada provides access to over 1,600 service providers, including professional counsellors, community-based aboriginal workers, elders and traditional healers in every province and territory, in communities throughout Canada. It also provides assistance with the cost of transportation to access services not available in the home community.

This is not a cookie-cutter approach to programming. We recognize the diversity of needs and are responding accordingly. We understand that western-style counselling is not always a preferred service. In fact, while it is important that there is access to psychologists and other counsellors, we are also aware that former students often request to spend time with aboriginal workers from their community or elders who can assist them in their traditional ways.

The resolution health support program is designed to meet these diverse needs. It provides access to community-based cultural and emotional support, as well as professional counselling.

Cultural support services are provided by local aboriginal organizations. Through them, elders or traditional healers are available to assist former students and their families with specific services determined by the needs of the individual and include dialogue, ceremonies, prayers or traditional healing.

Emotional support services are also provided by local aboriginal organizations. Through them, an aboriginal community-based worker who has training and experience working with former students of Indian residential schools will listen, talk and support former students and their family members throughout the settlement agreement process.

In addition, the Government of Canada also funds two other initiatives designed to provide support to survivors of Indian residential schools: the national Indian residential school crisis line; and future care, which provides additional funds for counselling of eligible former students. Future care is linked to the independent assessment process. Claimants can apply for funding to cover costs of future treatment or counselling services worth up to $10,000 for general care and up to $15,000 for psychiatric care. To date, the average independent assessment process award is $125,000, and the average future care component is more than $8,000.

The establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is intended to promote reconciliation among all Canadians at both the national and community levels. The creation and preservation of a complete and accurate historical record of the Indian residential school system and its legacy will allow Canadians to confront the past and build a better future. The commission will honour the experiences of former students and their families, pay tribute to their experiences, assign responsibility appropriately and foster healing across the nation.

Further, $20 million has been allocated for ceremonial activities that will promote awareness and public education about the residential school system and its impacts.

Our Conservative government remains committed to a fair and lasting resolution to the legacy of Indian residential schools. This government recognizes that bringing closure to the legacy lies at the heart of reconciliation and renewal of relationships between aboriginal people who attended these schools, their families, communities, and all Canadians.

This government will continue to promote reconciliation for the legacy of Indian residential schools by supporting the settlement agreement. This government also continues to support a range of programs and initiatives that aim to improve the quality of life experienced by aboriginal people in this country.

Canada continues to make significant progress on a broad range of issues that prevent aboriginal people from sharing in the full prosperity of this nation. From specific claims and drinking water to education and family services, a variety of reforms and initiatives are under way.

Tripartite agreements with provinces and aboriginal groups will increase access to programs that are more effective and that respond directly to specific needs. The implementation of a comprehensive northern strategy has generated opportunities for aboriginal people and northerners. Legislation supported by Parliament establishes a specific claims tribunal and extends the protections accorded under the Canadian Human Rights Act to residents of first nations communities.

It is vital that my hon. colleagues consider the issue of Aboriginal Healing Foundation funding in this larger context. This government continues to support a host of programs, initiatives and activities that benefit aboriginal people, including those affected by the legacy of Indian residential schools.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, one of the saddest points in the debate tonight for me was when the minister said that we have to look at the fiscal situation of the country when we are cutting this program.

We judge a government by how it deals with the most vulnerable in the country, and why not? What is more important for our government to do, because if not the government, who else? The government should be dealing with those who are frozen in life by the trauma of residential schools, those who cannot continue in life because they have not healed enough to complete their education and therefore cannot raise their families, those who are on the verge of entering the dark world of crime, those on the precipice of falling into the crippling pain of substance abuse, and those who are on the edge of ending their own lives.

Every single member in the House tonight has spoken about this great work for the vulnerable of this country. The most vulnerable should be the highest priority of the government, but the sad thing tonight is that they have been shown to be the lowest priority. This is a terribly bad error in judgment. It is a very sad day for the vulnerable people of this country, and I hope the member will work to rectify that situation.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out to my hon. colleague that this agreement was started in 2007 and had a five year program in place for aboriginal healing. I would like to point out that in addition to that, the Government of Canada has provided another $199 million over the next two years to provide services to aboriginal people. I would also like to point out to the hon. member that we are also continuing the healing centres, 12 of them across the country, and they will continue until 2012. I hope he understands that we are not giving up on this. We are continuing to support this healing process.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, keeping 12 out of 134 programs going is a concern to many of us on this side, simply because many of these centres are located in remote and sometimes hard to reach communities. The government has suggested that a 1-800 line is going to compensate for the loss of local counselling, which of course, anecdotally and intuitively, makes no sense whatsoever.

I am not sure if my hon. colleague would have the capacities to answer my question, but I am going to try anyway.

The government oftentimes suggests that it does a cost analysis of any program it either runs or cancels, to understand what the savings would be to Canadians or how it is going to benefit the country. I am wondering if he is aware of any assessment that has been done by his government, by Indian Affairs, Health Canada, the Prime Minister's Office, any department, to study what the cost impacts are going to be on communities when these programs are shut down.

One of the things we have heard, which is in the government's own report, and this is why this is important. The government itself knows that part of the success of the aboriginal healing program has kept people away from some of the more costly government programs such as prisons and addictions services.

Has his government done any assessment at all that he is aware of, assessing the costs to Canadian taxpayers, never mind the human costs but just the costs to Canadian taxpayers, by cutting this program? Is he aware of any such analysis?

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out to my hon. colleague across the way that, in fact, the government has put over $515 million into this particular program of settlement, and that has been very beneficial to the aboriginal people in allowing them to certainly be able to grieve, to set up and talk with elders as well as professional help throughout this country.

We are continuing that by providing another $66.9 million to Health Canada in order to ensure that people can continue to have access to the grieving process and to help them in that process.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member across has joined in with his colleagues who, one after the other, have expressed a plan as to what the government is going to do, and that we have heard for the first time.

Not only that, but with speaker after speaker, that plan shifts, whether it is the 1-800 number that is going to be in all the languages, whether it is the transportation that is going to take people to we do not know where, whether it is the NADAP workers who already exist and are already overtaxed with the work that they have in their communities, or the notion that every community has Health Canada employees that do this kind of work, which is patently not the case. Representing 63 communities in northern Manitoba, I can tell members which communities have NADAP workers and which do not.

There is much comfort that the Conservatives are trying to give us with these plans. Where is it in writing? Where is the Minister of Health to tell us this? Where are these answers and how are these answers going to be given in fact form, on paper? When will they be given to first nations, Métis and Inuit people who, after tomorrow, will be left out in the cold, thanks to the government?

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague across the way for her comments--

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

Her rant.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

--or her rant or tirade, whatever it happens to be.

However, I would like to point out that our hon. parliamentary secretary has responded to these questions on several occasions and provided the answers that she is looking for. We are continuing to work with the aboriginal community, as well as Canadians right across the land, to help resolve this whole issue of residential schools that has created a bit of a problem for everyone in this whole country.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the question was very direct. Apparently the Minister of Health is seizing the day and will take charge of this whole thing but she could not bother to be here for any of the multiple hours of the debate.