Mr. Speaker, insofar as Indigenous Services Canada, or ISC, is concerned, the response to part (a) is as follows:
The Mental Wellness program of ISC does not have targeted funding specific to recreational activities; as such, recreational activities are not part of the reporting requirement for Mental Wellness program funding recipients.
ISC’s Mental Wellness Program provides annual funding to support First Nations and Inuit access to mental wellness services to reduce risk factors, promote protective factors, and improve associated health outcomes. This includes mental wellness promotion; substance use prevention and treatment; life promotion and suicide prevention; crisis response services; harm reduction; and emotional and cultural support services.
ISC funds mental wellness services that include: a network of 45 treatment centres, as well as drug and alcohol prevention services in the majority of Indigenous communities across Canada, which began in 1975-76. Many treatment centres have reopened with reduced occupancy due to local public health measures. However, many centres are finding alternate ways of delivering services, including virtual approaches; a network of 71 Mental Wellness Teams began serving 359 First Nations and Inuit communities in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec, Atlantic, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Yukon in 2013-14; access to mental health counselling, emotional, and cultural support services to former students of Indian Residential Schools began in 2007-08, and to former students of Federal Indian Day Schools began in 2020-21, and their families and those affected by the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls began in 2018-19. Services include access to cultural and emotional supports, professional counselling services – individual and family – and assistance with the cost of transportation services to access counselling services and/or cultural supports; the Hope for Wellness Help Line began in 2016-17 and offers immediate help to all Indigenous peoples across Canada. It is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to offer counselling and crisis intervention; access to harm reduction measures including naloxone, and funding wraparound services at 72 opioids agonist therapy sites began in 2017-18. Opioid Agonist Therapy involves taking opioid agonists such as methadone or buprenorphine-naloxone to prevent withdrawal and reduce cravings for opioids. Wraparound services work to address underlying or associated issues through counselling and traditional practices.
With respect to part (b) of the question, funding for the Mental Wellness Program has increased from an approximate annual amount of $325 million in 2015-2016 to $580 million in 2021-22. An off-cycle amount of $107 million in 2021-22 to expand trauma-informed supports to all forms of trauma increases this investment to approximately $687 million in 2021-22. Funding is allocated to communities based on priorities and needs established through regional partnership structures and decision-making processes.