Debates of March 30th, 2010

Aboriginal Healing Foundation

[Chuck Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Madam Speaker, we have a lengthy time for debate tonight and I am sure we are going to have lots of debates back and forth as the evening progresses, so we have lots of time, if not in this particular answer.

The short answer is that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is going to be another of the very important pieces of a very big puzzle of reconciliation with aboriginal people. It is not the be all and end all. Some people will never be comfortable telling their horrible stories in a public way. It is just too overwhelming for them, but it is a part of the big puzzle.

Part of that reconciliation commission work will involve counselling services and help to those who are participating in the commission hearings. It is important to remember too that in the foundation itself, there is still some $30 million to continue the work over the next couple of years. It does not all end on March 31. The foundation has more work yet to do, will do, and we look forward to its participation in both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission work and in other activities.

[Todd Russell, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Madam Speaker, I rise in the House today to speak to the issue of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, a very fundamental issue. I will be sharing my time with my hon. colleague, the member for Vancouver Centre. I also want to thank the Speaker for allowing this important emergency debate to take place.

As the Liberal critic for aboriginal affairs, I have been hearing from many of the impacted individuals, groups and organizations concerning the end of funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. In fact, despite being excluded thus far from the formal Indian residential school settlement, several organizations in my riding have obtained Aboriginal Healing Foundation funding for work with former students in Labrador. That is the beauty of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

In Labrador and throughout the country, 134 projects funded by the AHF have worked with residential school survivors in aboriginal communities to move beyond the residential school legacy. They are now on the chopping block.

The Nunatsiavut government represents the self-governing Inuit of Labrador. Labrador Aboriginal Legal Services works with members of all three aboriginal cultures in Labrador, the Innu, Métis and Inuit. Both organizations have operated important healing programs with this funding. They say that the trust and momentum is only now starting and only now building and they will need to lay off people. The capacity they have built will need to be downsized.

These organizations, along with others across Canada, have been very vocal in expressing their utter shock that the recent federal budget did not provide for a continuation. I share their disappointment, especially given that all Canadians and the aboriginal people who have been served through the foundation have received exemplary service.

The minister's own report from December 2009 finds 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;

Impacts of the programs are reported as positive by the vast majority of respondents....

The report goes on to state:

...that one of the most profound impacts of the healing programs (and the Apology) is that the “silence” and shame surrounding IRS abuses are being broken....

It is undeniable that Aboriginal Healing Foundation funded programs and services have been successful throughout Canada, from coast to coast to coast. They have been accountable, transparent and are delivering results. Enrolment and the demand is up by 40% among survivors and their families. More young people than ever are involved in the cases. Alcohol abuse and suicides are down. These are tangible results and real results.

I emphasize that the Aboriginal Healing Foundation also responds to all three aboriginal peoples of Canada, including the Métis and Inuit, who share in this history, who shared in the apology and who are sharing the healing journey together.

Just today, along with other members of this House, I received a very powerful and emotional open letter, jointly authored by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, describing the impact of the Healing Foundation and of the impending loss of funding on the Inuit in the Arctic. It states:

As the term of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation is coming to an end our people are anxious and fearful of the tremendous loss this means to them. ...The AHF is ours, and our people trust it and take pride in it.

The many aboriginal peoples of Canada are culturally and regionally diverse and often have differing interests or views but on this matter there is solidarity. The voices in support of the foundation have come from right across the country. We have heard voices from Nunavut where the Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous motion calling on the federal government to reinstate funding for the foundation. There were many passionate speeches in support of that resolution.

I want to briefly quote the words of the hon. Hunter Tootoo who said:

This is a long journey. The way I look at it, the two-year funding commitment from the federal government to help individuals along this road and then they paved the road, the road only goes for two kilometres, a kilometre per year of funding, for example, and then it runs into a cliff and then everyone’s standing there, they have been abandoned.

We have heard voices from Nunavik, Arctic Quebec, such as Annie Popert of Kuujuaq. These are her words in the Nunatsiaq News:

...it seems to me that any time we make some head-way, the governments cut us off. This includes the non-renewal of funds to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation by the federal government.

We have heard National Chief Shawn Atleo, representing the Assembly of First Nations, say:

We cannot heal one hundred years of abuses in twelve years. Ending projects supported by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation now will create a gap in support at a time when it's needed the most.

Those are powerful statements.

When we appreciate the history and legacy of residential schools and the efforts that aboriginal peoples and communities have made to overcome that legacy, we get a sense of where these leaders and individuals are coming from. They speak from the heart. Many others speak from the heart, like in the minister's own report when they used the words to describe the loss of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation as disastrous, a betrayal of trust, a removal of hope.

Aboriginal leaders spoke from the heart on the floor of the chamber almost two years ago, on June 11, 2008, just as the Prime Minister and all of the party leaders on behalf of all Canadians spoke from the heart on that historic day, the day of the residential schools apology. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation is intimately tied to the apology. It is part of the reconciliation and healing process and helps turn the words of the apology into action.

I turn back to the letter from Nunavut Tunngavik and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association. President Kaludjak and President Eegeesiak end with this plea:

Please join us and help to ensure that the words in the apology on June 11, 2008, are more than just words.

Those who lived the residential schools experience and those who experience the intergenerational impacts need more than words. They need a hand up, they need healing and they need support. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation provided it.

I urge the government to reconsider, to think about the words of the residential schools apology and to turn toward continued support, to put those words into action.

For many the healing has just begun. I say to the government that it is a time of opportunity, a time of healing and a time to raise individuals up, families up and communities up. This is an opportunity for Canada to grow as a country. I urge the minister to restore the funding to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

[Chuck Strahl, Conservative, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development]

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the words from my critic across the way, who I am going to guess is symbolic of what we will be hearing tonight. There is a lot of passion about this issue and a lot of heartfelt words because people want the very best for aboriginal people. I think we will hear that on all sides of the House in this debate and that is great. They are absolutely sincere and I agree with him that the Aboriginal Healing Foundation has done good work. In that sense, we will agree.

As I said earlier, there are many pieces to the puzzle. The part I worry about is not in the debate in this civil chamber, but what some people are trying to suggest outside of this place, which is that if the Aboriginal Healing Foundation is not renewed for some unknown length of time, all is lost. I hope that is not what will be communicated. I hope we will have a good debate on the efficacy of it and find the best way to move forward.

As I pointed out earlier, it is great to hear that in some communities the suicide rate has gone down but is it all because of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation or is some of it because of the national suicide prevention program or the youth suicide prevention work that is being done? Maybe it is the work in building communities that is being done through different programs, like Brighter Futures and Building Healthy Communities. A lot of work is going to be done and a lot of it is targeted toward aboriginal people.

[Todd Russell, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Madam Speaker, I would implore the minister to look at his own report and to honour the words of the survivors and those leaders in the communities who acknowledge that there are other pieces of the puzzle. They say that the puzzle is not complete and that the healing process will not be complete without the Aboriginal Healing Foundation because it set a new path, a new way of doing things, a new model for healing in this country and a new model for healing around the world for indigenous peoples and maybe for non-indigenous peoples.

When something is so vital to completing the puzzle and so vital in terms of completing the journey, I say to the minister that we must continue it. We must allow it to go to its logical conclusion. People have found the help there that they require, they will find the help there if he allows it and it will be there for people in the future.

This is the beauty of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and what it has done. It was done by aboriginal people for aboriginal people. It was the way they wanted to do it. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation was empowering in itself.

I would ask the minister to honour the words of the survivors, of those who give testimony to what the Aboriginal Healing Foundation has done for them and their families, and continue the funding.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Madam Speaker, I want to give the hon. member for Labrador the opportunity to talk about two projects I am aware of in Labrador that exemplify the kind of approach that the Aboriginal Healing Foundation programs take.

One project is the Labrador Inuit healing project operated through the Nunatsiavut government, which is a very new form of self-government in Labrador. Its project is focused on reviving cultural practices such as healing circles and approaches to coping, healing and counselling. Many of these practices were lost due to the residential school system. It has a five-week treatment program. It has healing circles. It promotes community and family wellness, traditional healing activities and a parenting program, all of which serve to help in rebuilding those communities.

The other project is the Labrador legal services project, which is focused on people who are incarcerated. It gives them the tools to go back to their communities and avoid reoffending. It helps them cope with the problems they had, such as solving problems of alcohol abuse, bringing down suicide rates and all of the things that are important to rebuilding aboriginal health.

Could the member make a few comments on those projects and his awareness of their personal successes?

[Todd Russell, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Madam Speaker, those two projects are indicative of other similar projects around the country where people can design the healing program to meet specific community needs. It can be done to deal with people on an individual basis, in groups or on a community basis.

This was what the Aboriginal Healing Foundation gave to various communities like Nunatsiavut, the new government in Labrador and the Labrador Aboriginal Legal Services. It gave them the opportunity to design things that they were comfortable with and that people would engage in. Healing is much more beneficial when it is done in this particular fashion.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Madam Speaker, I rise tonight to protest the Conservative government's decision to end funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation suddenly and with little warning, effective tomorrow, March 31.

This funding began with $350 million in 1998 by a Liberal government and it was meant to allow aboriginal indigenous communities to take charge of the healing, which they needed very sorely to recover from acts of colonialism that have created generations upon generations of aboriginal people with a legacy of pain, a lack of self-worth, a sense of shame and deculturalization. It left them with a legacy of physical, mental and sexual abuse and with family breakdowns, addiction, despair, suicide.

Many governments have subsequently tried to “heal” aboriginal peoples. Many governments have since tried programs and initiatives to ensure that these effects were no longer evident, and they all failed. They failed because they did not have the right vehicle.

The Aboriginal Healing Fund was meant to:

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

There are two words that I want to focus on: intergenerational impact. That means that it would not be fixed in one generation, that it did not just span one generation, that it would take a long time for the results and for the healing to occur. Sustainable means that it must go on until whatever time it takes for healing to occur.

I am a physician. Healing does not occur because I will it to. Healing does not occur because I say I will do this for six months. Healing occurs in its own time. With all of the centuries of pain that aboriginal people have suffered, it will take a great deal of time for that healing to occur.

I would like the minister to note the words he said in his defence “that the healing fund had done good work but it was never meant to be a permanent policy or permanent service delivery”. That alone tells us the hon. minister does not understand the process of healing for indigenous peoples.

Even if he does not understand it, let us look at what his own department had to say a year ago with regard to the outcomes and the effectiveness of this fund:

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.

That was said by the minister's department in its evaluation of the Aboriginal Healing Fund. It noted that the majority of projects were not sustainable without AHF funding.

The department said as well that the evaluation “results strongly support the case for continued need for these programs due to the complex needs and long-term nature of the healing process” and that “this support is needed at least until the settlement agreement compensation processes and commemorative initiatives are completed and ideally beyond until indicators of community healing are much more firmly established and aboriginal people in communities either no longer need such supports or are able to achieve healing from other effects and through other means”. This is very clear. The minister does not have to listen to me. He just has to listen to his own department.

Yet the minister further argues that the government has transferred a lot of this healing fund to Health Canada for delivery. It will deliver $199 million over two years, $130 million of that over two years is going to go to claims settlement. Only $66 million over two years, which is $33 million a year, will actually go to the delivery of emotional support. Last year that emotional support fund spent $39 million, so in effect to give $33 million a year means the government has cut that fund as well.

What is really important is that people have to understand the nature of aboriginal healing. This is a people whose healing is based in communities. It is a holistic healing. It is culturally appropriate and delivered by their own people. When aboriginal people deliver their own healing in ways that are culturally appropriate, what they are also saying to each other is that they can do these things, they are worthwhile, they know how to do these things. They have knowledge, capability and are able. They do not need someone else to come and fix them. That is exactly why the healing fund is important.

The need for this fund is so great that not only has INAC, the department itself, studied this, and I quoted INAC, but the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission also said that this was an extremely important fund.

We heard from the territorial government of Nunavut that this was very important. We heard from the Women's Shelter of Montreal that it was important. However, I want to give hon. members a quote from the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The chair, Justice Murray Sinclair, said that to hold back during the duration of the mandate of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the healing fund, “We felt the aboriginal healing foundation's funding should be continued at least for the term of our commission”.

In Nunavut, when members of the legislative assembly unanimously voted on Thursday to press the federal government to continue the AHF, Mr. Ningeongan said these words, and they speak for themselves:

Mr. Speaker, to terminate the Aboriginal Healing Funding now would defeat the whole purpose of the apology that our Prime Minister made on behalf of Government of Canada. The federal government must recognize that healing takes time, recovery does not happen overnight.

In B.C. I know very fully that the B.C. Indian chiefs have also said the same thing. About 134 communities that depend on this fund that will have nothing as of tomorrow.

The irony of this, though, is that the Liberal government issued a statement of regret in 1998 and followed it up with $350 million. The Conservative Prime Minister in June felt regret was not enough, so he made a long statement of apology and then he removed money from the table instead.

I want to read what the Prime Minister had to say and let members hear the irony of it all. I quote the Prime Minister in June 2008, when he said:

The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian Residential Schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on Aboriginal culture, heritage and language...by tragic accounts of the emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect of helpless children, and their separation from powerless families and communities.

The legacy of Indian Residential Schools has contributed to social problems that continue to exist in many communities today.

That was two years ago. I do not believe that those problems suddenly disappeared in two years. The Prime Minister promised:

You have been working on recovering from this experience for a long time and in a very real sense, we are now joining you on this journey.

We do not join people by taking away the tools that they need to help themselves.

I do not believe the Prime Minister did not mean those words when he said them, but in order for words to have credibility. They have to be followed with concrete action. It is cruel to give hope with fine words and then pull that hope away by removing the means for realization of that hope. I may be cynical, but it seems to be to be typical of the government, that it says and does what looks good, that the optics are important, but it does nothing to achieve the objective.

We have come full circle. I have listened to the minister say that everyone wants the best for aboriginal people. The aboriginal people want what is best for them. We are no longer handing them something. This colonialization has got to stop, and inherent in those words is that full circle of “We know what is best for you”. Comparing the aboriginal healing fund to other programs that are non-aboriginal in nature also does not show he understands. The very ability of aboriginal people to heal means that they must be empowered, they must be given the right to heal themselves. They must let us know we can no longer think that we can tell them what is best for them and let them take charge of their own healing.

In order to bring back pride, culture and empowerment to aboriginal people, this is an absolute necessity, to bring back the aboriginal healing fund.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her most impassioned address on this issue. The issues surrounding the apology in the House of Commons were profound and they cannot be ignored. We cannot go back in a direction as she has stated.

In my riding in the Northwest Territories many small communities took advantage of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation to establish processes within their communities to bring people closer that complete nature, to the understanding of the damages that happened to them and their community, to view their trauma as a wholeness.

When we look at changing this now, where individuals will apply to Health Canada, this will be so difficult for so many people in many small communities. We are tearing apart a structure that we invested in, that we created with the full authorization and full intent of the aboriginal people. They created this institution and now we are tearing it apart.

How will this work for the people in the small communities that I represent?

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Madam Speaker, I think the hon. member knows that if Health Canada is again in charge of programs, it decides what programs are best. It makes a decision about what will happen and there we go again: we are making decisions for aboriginal people once more and telling them what is best for them.

The aboriginal healing fund allowed aboriginal people to decide what was the best thing for them to do, depending on their communities, depending on their needs. It worked because it gave them back a sense of control over their lives. Healing must be theirs if we are to empower aboriginal people again, and in empowerment will come healing.

[Chuck Strahl, Conservative, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development]

Madam Speaker, perhaps I was expecting too much to think we were going to debate on the issues and the facts at hand.

For example, to set a few things straight, the hon. member said that the Prime Minister signed the apology and then took money off the table. We signed the apology, something the Liberals did not do, and we fully committed, fully funded and fully carried out the agreement that we negotiated with the Assembly of First Nations and others on the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. It was fully implemented, every dollar of it.

The NDP said that we were withdrawing funding from the Labrador Inuit. That is totally a separate program. It deals with people who went to day schools. It is not affected by what we are talking about tonight. The Labrador Innu, the people of Natuashish have a separate healing strategy, different and separate from this. It is not affected by this.

The member talked about the money, and the member for Yukon also raised this, that was not in the budget for Indian residential schools resolution and health. They talk about numbers and that it has been reduced. It is not true. The money has been increased. It is in fact money over and above the base funding from last year. Therefore, it is much more money this year than it was last year, but the members keep perpetuating these myths, telling aboriginal people that there are no services for them.

Services will be there. It will be sensitive to their culture. It will be administered by aboriginal healing people in their community, including traditional healers.

I urge hon. members to get the facts straight, debate the issue by all means, but do not spread the fear when the facts do not back it up.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Madam Speaker, I do not know how to answer that because it was a statement rather than a question. It is a statement that says if we look in this part, there will be that program there. At the end of the day no one in the House of Commons is telling aboriginal people to be afraid, that this is changing. Aboriginal people themselves have said that this is what they want, to allow them to heal. To remove the aboriginal healing fund will surely damage their ability to heal.

If we truly believe aboriginal people know what is best for them, we will listen to them for a change. It does not matter how the minister spins it. It does not matter what he says and whether we add a penny here or take a penny from there. The government has taken money off the table, and that is the money for the aboriginal healing fund.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Madam Speaker, I would be very happy if this debate could rise above the issue of whether funding should be cut or reinstated or whether this funding will be replaced by another program. I believe that that is not the issue.

Should the Aboriginal Healing Foundation continue to exist for a time in order to help the aboriginal peoples, the aboriginal communities, the individuals and the families affected by everything that happened in the residential schools?

I say that it should, and so do my Bloc Québécois colleagues.

I will try to explain the importance of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation to the minister and the people who are watching by giving a very specific example.

Near Amos, there is a small town named Saint-Marc-de-Figuery. An Indian residential school was set up there in the 1950s and remained open until 1963 or 1964 or maybe even a little later.

In the fall, all the Algonquins who could be found along Lake Abitibi or the railway were brought by force to the Indian residential school in Saint-Marc-de-Figuery. Terrible things went on in this school and probably in many other Indian residential schools. The government acknowledged that there had been abuses and put in place a system to help communities and individuals deal with what they had gone through.

The National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Shawn Atleo, is a true visionary. He said this nearly three months ago:

As we look forward we must also remember our history, and this is especially true of residential schools survivors. The resources in this do not specifically reference the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. This concerns us because the Foundation delivers critical programming to help survivors right at the community level. [Every word is important.] This work is needed now because the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is underway and survivors will be telling their often-times painful stories.

There is no better way to express the importance of preserving and renewing the funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, which does a remarkable job.

I am going to explain what happened. The consequences of the forced assimilation policy, and I do say forced, of the Indian residential school scheme continue to burden the aboriginal people even today.

Many people who were in the residential schools did not have the opportunity to develop parenting skills. They had to fight against the elimination of their identity as aboriginal people, and against the disappearance of their language and culture.

Even today, generations of aboriginal people remember the trauma they suffered, the neglect, the shame and they poverty they were victims of. Thousands of former students have publicly disclosed that physical, emotional and sexual violence was endemic in the system, and that little effort was made to stem it, to punish the people committing the abuse, or to improve conditions.

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation operates, and I hope it continues to operate, in a culturally and politically complex environment, often finding itself embroiled in controversy. That being said, the foundation itself is an apolitical entity that is concerned only with healing, and it maintains excellent relations with aboriginal political organizations, aboriginal people, the government, the churches and the Canadian public in general. The foundation is considered to be a very successful experiment, a model to follow.

That is why we, as parliamentarians, must absolutely speak out against the risk, if it were only the risk, that the Aboriginal Healing Foundation will disappear. It has to continue to operate and to work with aboriginal people and communities. I have had it explained to me that near Amos, an aboriginal community called Pikogan, and I apologize for saying it so bluntly, scraped up the pieces of the survivors of the Saint-Marc Indian residential school near Amos. These are people who suffered severe trauma. In recent years, they have started to set up an Aboriginal Healing Foundation in the community of Pikogan. For the Algonquins of Pikogan, Lac-Simon, Kitcisakik and Winneway, of Notre-Dame-du-Nord—I could name them all—it is extremely important that this Aboriginal Healing Foundation continue. I do not want to limit my comments to the Algonquins, but those are the communities I know in my riding.

We have to go back a ways into the past, but it was the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples that produced the famous Erasmus-Dussault report, which prompted the government to set up the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. It was created in 1998. I do not want to go over that again, it has been discussed at least three times in recent speeches in the House. But it must be understood that the reason why a need to create an Aboriginal Healing Foundation was perceived was that the job was going to take a very long time.

People do not recover from the trauma suffered in the Indian residential schools from one day to the next. Whether named Kistabish, McDougall or Blacksmith, these people have passed on the problems they experienced from father to son, from mother to daughter.

At the residential school of Saint-Marc-de-Figuery near Amos, the first thing they did was to cut the hair of the aboriginals brought there to be educated. If the residential schools were not reform schools, I do not know how else to describe them. There were all kinds of abuses. This mistreatment left wounds that take a very long time to close. They will never heal completely.

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation works in the various communities, which is very important. This evening, I heard that individual therapies are available as well as competent personnel—I am very sure of that—to provide individual assistance to the people marked by these experiences.

Who will take care of the community when people start to relive everything that happened? As National Chief Atleo said, “This work is needed now because the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is underway and survivors will be telling their often-times painful stories.”

The government had difficulty establishing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I say that with respect because I can understand the reasons. I have been sensitized to the problem. Still, the commission is just beginning its work. It will go to a number of communities to meet people and try to understand what happened then and what is happening now.

The wounds will never heal. I spoke with Jackie Kistabish, an aboriginal woman who was affected by what happened in the residential schools. She told me that when her mother came back from the school, she did not recognize her. When she herself came back from the school, her parents were no longer able to take care of her. She had lost her culture. Relearning her culture was very difficult for her. All sorts of things happened in the residential schools.

Without taking anything away from the government, I would say they may have been surprised. Maybe they did not realize how great the impact would be of the failure to renew the funding of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. However, that impact is huge and could well cause irreparable damage to aboriginal communities.

We are not asking the government for a lot: we just want it to maintain the funding. It is extremely important to take care of the communities affected by what happened in the residential schools.

I want to speak briefly about the amount of money.

I do not think that this $45 million would cause irreparable damage to the federal government’s budget. I listened to the minister and am not deaf. I understand we are running deficits now, but the government has to understand as well that the Aboriginal Healing Foundation is essential. It plays a key role in the re-establishment of connections between aboriginal peoples, aboriginal communities and non-native communities.

I want to thank my colleague in the New Democratic Party who sought this emergency debate and obtained it, as well as the Speaker who granted her request. I repeat that we think it is essential to restore this funding. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation has done nothing wrong. It took a long time to establish the foundation because nearly a year was needed for it to really begin its work. It was officially established in 1998, but a year or two were needed for it to really start working and disbursing funds.

We must help aboriginals not only by acting on an individual level, which the government claims to have done by giving money to Health Canada, but also by acting act on a community level. I cannot stress enough the importance of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation in helping communities take charge of their situations. If the alcoholism and dropout rates are so high, and if there are a number of problems in many aboriginal communities, it is likely because of the problems they have had in their childhood or even early childhood. In some cases, we are talking about people who are now grandmothers and grandfathers.

With all due respect to the minister, it seems odd to me that on the one hand, they are cutting funding and not renewing the budget for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, and on the other hand, the minister has introduced Bill C-3, which will soon be examined in committee, to review the Indian Act. Section 67 of the Indian Act was also repealed, which means that the Canadian Human Rights Act will now apply to aboriginals.

There is one more big step to be taken, and I do believe that the Canadian government will soon adopt the declaration on indigenous peoples. It took a long time to convince the Conservatives, but these good intentions could be forgotten if funding is taken away from the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

In conclusion, I urge my colleagues and the minister to reinstate funding, not only for the sake of aboriginal peoples and their communities, but also for the sake of all of Canada. It is in our best interests to reinstate funding so that the Aboriginal Healing Foundation can continue to do the extraordinary work it has started and has yet to finish.

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

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the comments from my colleague on the aboriginal affairs committee. He did open up by saying he wanted to elevate the debate and the discussion. He did indeed do that, and it is most appreciated.

I would like to ask a question, because the member has a very solid point of view that does not take into account the fact that Health Canada, which is the one that is going to be delivering these programs, has a presence and a mandate in each and every community, whether it is on reserve, off reserve, in the north or in the cities, and indeed is already present in many first nation communities. We are actually moving in a very inclusive direction. I have been in first nation communities where Health Canada certainly has a presence and is very respected. I appreciate that it is doing a great job and has been reaching out. The minister did talk earlier about the positive feedback on a survey done in this regard. I wonder whether the member would like to address the fact that in almost every way Health Canada has a bigger presence and is willing to deliver aboriginal-based programming to aboriginals in a way that would meet our legal and moral responsibilities.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Madam Speaker, I listened closely to my colleague's question and the answer is yes; I agree. I say what is on my mind and I think Health Canada is doing good work in first nations communities. There are five first nations communities in my riding. I have visited a number of them as the Bloc critic for Indian Affairs and Northern Development Canada. I do not have anything negative to say about Health Canada.

However, that is not the problem. The problem is that Health Canada is working on an individual basis with people who have mental, physical, psychiatric, psychological and other problems. Health Canada provides individual assistance, unlike the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, which does community work. I received a good explanation of how the Aboriginal Healing Foundation works in Pikogan, near Amos. It works with and within the community. It is not individual work, as Health Canada does. I respect that. I know that and we understand that this work will continue.

However, we are concerned about putting an end to the magnificent work the Aboriginal Healing Foundation is doing, the reconciliation work and the community-based work, because that is where we might run into problems.

[Carol Hughes, NDP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his comments and especially for reminding us what the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Shawn Atleo, said.

I would like to ask him some questions. The hon. minister said that the Conservatives were willing to provide services to aboriginal people in their communities, and if this is not possible, they would be willing to pay for those people to travel. Once again, we see that the government wants to take these individuals out of their communities and provide services elsewhere. Yet that is exactly what happened with residential schools. They took aboriginal people out of their communities and that is not what they want. Aboriginal people want to receive services in their communities.

Right now they have a great service that is serving them well, but that service is being eliminated. This is not the right way to go about this. This service is needed.

Does the hon. member know if the Health Canada program is for survivors only, and not for their families?

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Madam Speaker, I hesitate to answer “yes” to that question. From having worked with aboriginal communities, I know that not all treatment is offered in aboriginal communities. Things like psychiatric care and child psychiatric care are given elsewhere. I respect that and can accept it.

Some aboriginal people probably have to leave their communities to receive such care. Like my colleague, I cannot help but wonder who will give this care to the communities. The entire community cannot be removed from the land. Problems that stem from Indian residential schools must be dealt with in the community, with the help of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

That was the mandate of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, and I hope that remains its mandate. Community work must be done on the reserves or within the aboriginal communities.

[Chuck Strahl, Conservative, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development]

Madam Speaker, first of all I want to answer a question that the hon. member from the NDP raised, asking who can receive the services I talked about earlier. It is in Health Canada's definition. It involves the family of former students as defined as a spouse or common law partner, those raised by or raised in the household of a former Indian residential school student, and any relation who has experienced the effect of intergenerational trauma associated with the family member's time at an Indian residential school. It is quite inclusive.

I would like to thank the hon. member for his speech. I can tell that he is passionate about the issues that are important to aboriginal people.

The member mentioned in passing that $45 million does not mean much. The government can accept that, but in all the many appearances I have had before the standing committee, I have never yet heard a recommendation from the opposition to cut one dollar of a single program of any kind anywhere in Canada. So these are difficult decisions.

I ask the hon. member to look at what we are talking about: cultural supports that involve ceremonies, prayers, traditional healing, with aboriginal mental health workers to work with former students and their families. I would argue that this, combined with many other programs that are not strictly this one from Health Canada, are meant to address both community needs and individual needs. My hope is that people will look through the services available and understand it is a complete package of services available to all survivors.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Madam Speaker, I understand perfectly what the minister said, and I accept that. I have been asking him the same question from the outset. I know that there will be counselling for individuals, that they can get a helping hand and that there is funding. But who will take care of the community as a whole?

When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission goes to Pikogan, who will pick up the pieces? There are people who have never been able to speak about what happened to them who will speak about it then. Jackie Kistabish might be able to access services, but who will help bring the community back together? Who will replace the Aboriginal Healing Foundation?

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

Madam Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to share my views on this important and difficult issue of federal funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. I will begin by setting some context in terms of information about this.

The idea for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation grew out of the report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples published in 1996. I will add that I have been involved in this portfolio since prior to 1996, so I fully comprehend how we got to where we are now. It has been a long journey and it is a continuing journey. The government is continuing to be actively engaged and we want to ensure that every community and every eligible person continues to receive the programs and services that they will require.

The report of the royal commission described some of the lingering social and psychological effects of Indian residential schools and how these effects continued to have an impact on many aboriginal communities. To address these effects, the Government of Canada chose at that time to invest $350 million over 10 years in an independent organization mandated to promote healing among aboriginal peoples.

This foundation is managed and operated by aboriginal people for aboriginal people. It follows a holistic approach. It funds community-based programs to promote healing, reconciliation and self-determination. Its slogan is “Helping Aboriginal People Heal Themselves”, which echoes this approach.

The foundation's website describes its mission statement:

Our mission is to provide resources which will promote reconciliation and encourage and support Aboriginal people and their communities in building and reinforcing sustainable healing processes that address the legacy of physical, sexual, mental, cultural, and spiritual abuses in the residential school system, including intergenerational impacts.

There is little doubt that the community-based approach adopted by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation has produced positive results. Hundreds of thousands of people in communities across Canada have participated in their projects. Last year alone, the foundation funded more than 130 community projects and continues to operate 12 healing centres.

A team of independent auditors evaluated the foundation on behalf of the department last year, and the evaluation was very positive. I can quote:

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.

The Government of Canada does appreciate 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. This funding effectively extended the organization's mandate through to March 2012 and supports the operation of the foundation's 12 healing centres until that date.

The budget tabled earlier this month, however, does not allocate additional money to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, and that is what today's debate focuses on, the merits of that decision. I encourage my hon. colleagues to consider this matter in an open fashion.

Two important facts are germane to today's debate. One is that the Government of Canada allocated the foundation's funding for a fixed period of time, and while this period was later extended, there was no expectation to provide permanent, ongoing funds.

The second factor is that the foundation predates the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement by nearly a decade. The agreement involves a massive commitment of public funds, a total of more than $5 billion, to address the legacy of Indian residential schools.

So we cannot do an evaluation of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation without a review of the settlement agreement.

Nearly four years ago, our government proudly concluded the historic Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. It represents the consensus based on an agreement between the Government of Canada and legal counsel for former students, churches, the Assembly of First Nations, and other aboriginal organizations. It is to achieve a fair and lasting resolution of the legacy of Indian residential schools.

The agreement represents a historic milestone. It is the largest class action settlement ever negotiated in Canada, and certainly one the largest in North America. It is an important act of reconciliation between non-aboriginal and aboriginal peoples. Never before has a nation acknowledged as tangibly the devastating role that its policies and actions had on the peoples who originally inhabited its lands.

However, as momentous as this acknowledgement may be, the settlement agreement also aims for much higher goals. It strives for truth, reconciliation and reparation.

The agreement was the culmination of a lengthy process of research, conciliation and negotiation. It features five main elements: a common experience payment for all eligible former students who resided at recognized Indian residential schools; an independent assessment process to investigate and resolve claims of sexual and serious physical abuse; the Truth and Reconciliation Commission commemoration initiatives; and measures to support healing, such as the Indian residential schools resolution health support program and the endowment to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

Each of these elements aims to deal with the negative impacts that Indian residential schools had, and continue to have, on former students, their families and other citizens of Canada.

The Prime Minister spoke of the enduring nature of these impacts when he rose in the House nearly two years ago and apologized to former students on behalf of Canada. To quote from his address:

The legacy of Indian residential schools has contributed to social problems that continue to exist in many communities today.

We all recognize that many former students and their families suffered terribly during this regrettable phase of our history. We must also recognize that Indian residential schools, effectively, diminished all of us.

The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement aims to confront these truths and help us overcome them. This is why the settlement agreement features both tangible and symbolic elements, why it provides financial compensation, counselling and support services along with commemorative activities.

The Indian residential schools legacy affects each of us in different ways and to different degrees. The particular components of the settlement agreement contribute to the full range of healing and reconciliation processes.

The implementation of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement continues steadily, 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 settlement 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 fully 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 achieve a sense of peace, and that reconciliation brings aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians a little closer together.

Remember, there is no precedent for such large-scale reconciliation. As citizens of Canada, we must find our own way, and we have.

The Government of Canada 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 a renewal of the relationship between aboriginal people who attended these schools, their families and communities, and all Canadians.

Budget 2010 supports these goals by allocating additional funds to ensure Canada honours its commitments and obligations under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. The bulk of this money is spread over two years and will cover the greater-than-anticipated cost of implementing the agreement. These funds will help Indian and Northern Affairs Canada to support the independent assessment process and the common experience payment.

In addition, funds and a full commitment have been allotted to Health Canada's Indian residential schools resolution health support program. The program provides mental health and emotional support services directly 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. This is a moral and legal obligation.

It is important to note that this is new money. It is also important to note that these funds enable Canada to fulfill its ongoing legal obligation to provide emotional and mental health supports directly to former Indian residential school students and their family members as they participate in the various components of the settlement agreement.

Since its inception, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation has received a total of approximately $515 million from the Government of Canada. This is a large amount of taxpayer money which was entrusted to an independent agency, and the Government of Canada is very grateful to the foundation for providing effective community-based programs and services.

The current context will also provide the range of services delivered, except it will be through Health Canada.

The Government of Canada continues to fund initiatives that directly support survivors of the Indian residential schools. The national Indian residential school crisis line, for instance, helps people access counselling services. The independent assessment process, a component of the settlement agreement, enables eligible victims to access thousands of dollars worth of future treatment and counselling services. To date, the average independent assessment process award is $125,000, and the average future care component is more than $8,000.

Canadians recognize that the Government of Canada must regularly make difficult decisions. We continue to ensure that the Indian residential school survivors will be able to access services. The government will continue to provide reconciliation for the legacy of Indian residential schools by supporting the settlement agreement.

This government will also continue to support a range of programs and initiatives that aim to improve the quality of life experienced by aboriginal peoples in this country.

Canada continues to make significant progress on a broad range of the issues that prevent many aboriginal peoples from sharing in the full prosperity of the 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 increase access to programs that are more effective and respond directly to specific needs.

The implementation of a comprehensive northern strategy has begun to generate a multitude of opportunity for thousands of aboriginal people and northerners. Legislation supported by Parliament established a specific claims tribunal and extended the protections affected under the Canadian Human Rights Act to residents of first nations community.

This government continues to support a host of programs, initiatives, and activities that benefit aboriginal people, including those directly affected by the legacy of Indian residential schools.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his speech although I just cannot believe he does not get it. Here we are talking about a program that was designed, implemented, and carried out by aboriginal people to deal with their issues regarding the residential school issue. It is their solutions that will lead them forward.

I am sure my hon. colleague understands that concept. He understands that concept of self-actualization, of people taking care of their own destiny, of healing themselves.

Why does he continue to ignore our questions about that part of the solution for this particular issue? Why does he want to continue to say, “we will do this for you”? When will he turn his head and look the other way?

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, this is a case of people not hearing each other. We have said very clearly that the programming that is intended to continue to support services for former students and their families will be the kind of counselling and paraprofessional services which are provided through aboriginal community-based workers, many of whom speak aboriginal languages; culturally appropriate supports through elders; and transportation to access supports not available to the home community.

We have results of a survey that would indicate that these kinds of programs have been very well received. I would argue there are more available generally and we will ensure they are applicable to all people. As I said several times now in the House, there is a moral and legal responsibility for us to do that.

The programs run by Health Canada are under the Indian residential schools national resolution framework and have been accessed by people who responded to the survey. Some 90% who responded said they had accessed programs and 93% indicated their experience was safer and more supportive as a result of the support they received. About 89% said what they had received in the way of counselling was a very positive experience. Who would argue with that?

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member stated that the settlement agreement strives for a higher goal. I would like to ask the member, is there a higher goal than healing? As a physician and a healer, I like to think, it is part of my professional training to evaluate the efficacy of any healing or therapy based on sound evaluation and good evidence-based outcomes.

Since the hon. member himself referred to his department's evaluation of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation in 2009, I would like to quote from it. It said:

--keeping in mind...the fact that Health Canada support programs are designed to provide specific services that are complementary but different to those of the AHF...there is no equivalent alternative that could achieve the desired outcomes with the rate of success the AHF has achieved.

This is from the evaluation by his own department. Does the member not agree or listen to his own department's advice and recommendations?

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I am not sure of the context of saying something about a higher goal, but I will say that healing is a higher goal. I certainly agree with that.

In terms of the statements regarding specific programs from Health Canada, over the last period of time, Health Canada has made a major effort to ensure that all of the communities that were touched by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation have accessed those programs. They are looking at ensuring that they can provide all of the services that were served, plus the existing services.

It is not like they are going to be exactly the status quo. They recognize that they have some new responsibilities and obligations, and they have received funding accordingly.

[Chuck Strahl, Conservative, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. parliamentary secretary and I were first elected back in 1993. Prior to that and since that time, he has been involved both in a policy development side on the aboriginal affairs file and in the community as well. There are a number of aboriginal people in his riding who he has had positive contact with over many years.

I was just thinking about the case of B.C., where there are some 200-plus first nations groups. I think there are 42 first nations in my riding alone. Those that have been fortunate enough to have access to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation's services have been very pleased with them. Everyone agrees that they have done some great work.

However, in the B.C. reality, there is a lot of small communities spread over a big territory. In his experience, does he think that the services that might be available going forward are going to be available to all those communities, or is it just to a select few? In both the talking points and the reality of the many programs we have talked about here tonight, will they be available to all the survivors, or just in the major centres? Can he tell people whether he thinks it is going to work, especially in the B.C. context, which is a little different than some parts of the country that have larger but fewer communities?

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is true that we have 200 first nations. I have 24 in my riding. I can say with certainty that Health Canada has a much bigger footprint than the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. It is integral to the community. It is community-based and community driven.

I have visited other ridings in British Columbia with similar observations. I do not think this is restricted to British Columbia. We have 634 first nations in Canada. We have the North and we have our urban off-reserve aboriginal people. There are residential school survivors in all of those locations.

The programming that the Aboriginal Healing Foundation provided is great programming. However, if we want inclusiveness, I would like to point out to the viewers that, in my mind, this will create inclusiveness that is much more comprehensive.