Mr. Speaker, I am happy to take this opportunity to revisit the important issues and specific challenges related to mental health for first nations communities.
Last spring, the Conservative's omnibus budget undermined any government intention to take this issue seriously. At that time it became clear that the actions of the Conservative government speak volumes while its words mean nothing.
No amount of rhetoric will fill the void that is created when reporting agencies are cut. No sympathetic message will pick up the slack created when groups that help focus services based on community needs are cut, which we are seeing now, as tribal councils have become the next in line on the Conservative chopping block.
Why is that? Is it because we have a government that values its own opinion more than the experience of those on the ground? Is it because the government wants to protect that opinion from any facts or information that might challenge it?
What we do know is that mental health problems happen more regularly in Canada's first nations population. We know that for men, the suicide rate is five and a quarter times greater among the first nations population than it is for other Canadians. For women, too, even though the total occurrence is considerably less, the rate among first nation women is seven times the number for other Canadians. This speaks to a true epidemic, and the government must pay attention to the problem and address it in a meaningful way.
However, the magnitude of the problem is much bigger than suicide. Suicide can only be seen as a horrible culmination of deteriorating mental health, not as a stand-alone phenomenon.
This government must engage with our first nations to address the issue of mental health. The government has a responsibility to provide health care to the first nations. This is a quote taken from the Health Canada website:
So many factors can influence your health, including your mental health. These factors are commonly known as the determinants of health and include such things as how much money you make, how much education you have and your relationships with family and friends
We know that for the determinants of income and education in many of our first nations communities, there is much work to be done. These are items that can be measured, that can be addressed by proper regional strategies informed by local knowledge and the nuance that can only come from responsive bodies like tribal councils. By understanding what we are hoping to achieve, we can reasonably expect that good statistical analysis will only help us focus those efforts and ensure we are using all available resources in the best way possible.
This is not the view of the Conservative government. What we have learned is that the Conservatives are decidedly anti-information. They are the same people who hobbled the census under false pretenses. Behaviour like this ensures that they can challenge statistical information and rely on anecdotal stories to back up their ideologically driven opinions.
We see this in the way they callously abandoned funding for the First Nations Statistical Institute. They labelled it a waste, but we know it is more of an inconvenience to the stories they like to tell themselves. However, the real waste is the time that is not being used to address the mental health challenges in many of our first nations communities, challenges that are significantly out of proportion to those in the rest of Canada. It is a waste to make flashy announcements and promote strategies while taking away the ability to organize and report that would only ensure better success.
The Conservatives like to talk about partnership, but first nations in my constituency and throughout Canada feel dismissed by the government. Aboriginal people face unique and serious health challenges, yet the government has slashed funding to the few organizations in the country that specifically address challenges faced by aboriginal people. There is a huge need to address first nations mental health concerns. This is widely known.
How can the Conservative government believe that the best way to solve mental health problems that disproportionately plague our first nations is to reduce resources?