Rona Ambrose

[Aboriginal Affairs, April 29th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, Health Canada supports 734 aboriginal health facilities across the country, including investments of $30 million annually to ensure that those are maintained, and it has just built another five facilities across the country.

However, most importantly, any aboriginal Canadian living on a first nations reserve, even if it is for a routine appointment, has access at all times to emergency transportation and that is available to anyone at all times should there be any concerns on a first nations reserve.

One of the biggest issues is recruitment and retention. We have launched a recruitment and retention campaign for more nurses and it is going well.

[Aboriginal Affairs, April 29th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to report that Health Canada is well on its way to addressing all of the issues that the Auditor General has raised.

Our number one priority is ensuring aboriginals on first nations reserves have access to health care providers. We are ensuring that we have nurses on reserve. We are encouraging more practitioners, whether they be nurses or doctors, to work on first nations reserves, so we are giving them Canada student loan forgiveness.

We also have a new recruitment and retention strategy that has been very successful. We have over 250 applications. No matter what, if anyone is sick, we will, of course, use our emergency—

[Aboriginal Affairs, April 28th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I had a chance to meet with the Auditor General to assure him that we are working on every single issue that he has raised in his report. Our number one priority is to make sure that aboriginal people on first nations have access to health care providers. That is where our nurses come in. Nurses on first nations are all highly educated, qualified individuals, and a big part of the community. We are working to make sure that they are all trained with the additional credentials that they may need to work out of scope in terms of their scope of practice.

In addition, we need to encourage more people to come to work on first nations. We have our Canada student loan forgiveness and we have a new nurse recruitment strategy.

[Health, April 28th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, we announced historic assistance to cover survivors' needs and that includes up to $180 million that will be distributed throughout the survivors, until every last living survivor is taken care of. We have already given each survivor $125,000 tax-free cash. They received that payment already to get them through the next year. We also have $168 million tax-free, ongoing yearly support, and in addition, the extraordinary medical assistance fund.

Right now, Health Canada is working out the particular issues around dealing with a third party administrator and working out details of the yearly compensation.

[Health, April 28th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, we are working closely with TVAC, the organization. It was always our understanding after we announced the historic assistance to cover the survivors' needs that we would be working with the organization on the tax-free, ongoing yearly support. We have already, obviously, and as identified by the organization, given a cheque of $125,000 to every individual in TVAC so that they can deal with any urgent needs immediately.

[Aboriginal Affairs, April 28th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, let me just explain to the member how access to health care providers on remote first nations works.

First of all, we have over 734 aboriginal health facilities on first nations. We are investing over $30 million toward the maintenance of these facilities, and we are constantly working with first nations to ensure that they are maintained. In fact, we have built five brand new facilities in the last three years. We also have Telehealth available. If any first nation aboriginal cannot get access to the health care they need, we are willing, of course, and always have the opportunity, to use emergency medical evacuation at no cost to the first nation.

[Aboriginal Affairs, April 28th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, that is actually not what the Auditor General said, but I do thank him for the work he did, and I had a chance to meet with him to describe the comprehensive nature of the responses to his audit.

It is important that Canadians know that we have actually increased funding on first nations for health by 31%, and our number one priority is making sure that aboriginal Canadians have access to health care providers. Nurses on first nations are highly educated and qualified individuals, and they are a big part of the community. We are increasing our efforts so that nurses meet public service requirements, but we are also encouraging more practitioners to work in remote first nations by having Canada student loan forgiveness for doctors and nurses. We have also launched a nurse recruitment and retention strategy, and I am pleased to say that we have had over 250 applications since February. We are well on our way to addressing all of the issues the Auditor General--

[Taxation, April 23rd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I want to underscore the commitment that this government has made, particularly under the leadership of former finance minister Jim Flaherty, to support families that are struggling with this very difficult condition. Budget 2015, just a few days ago, put funding together to support a Canadian autism partnership. I will be consulting with stakeholders across the country to support families and research. Since our government came to office, we have invested almost $35 million directly into autism research.

[Health, April 23rd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, this Conservative government supports a network of now 44 community-based addiction treatment centres in aboriginal communities.

Just last week I was at the Leading Thunderbird Lodge in Saskatchewan with Chief Kimberly Jonathan to announce further support for addiction treatment on reserve. This includes a $13 million national investment to combat prescription drug abuse that will enhance prevention and treatment, support drug intervention, and create prescription drug abuse crisis intervention teams on first nations. We will continue to support treatment and recovery programs to get addicts off of drugs and help them recover a drug-free life.

[Health, April 1st, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, this Conservative government has a strong record of keeping our streets and communities safe from dangerous and addictive drugs, and we will continue to support treatment and recovery programs that actually work to get addicts off drugs and help them recover drug-free lives.

The Liberal leader's pledge to blindly open drug injection houses in neighbourhoods is a disturbing and a risky proposal, and as Minister of Health, I will make sure that communities are consulted before any of these open up.