Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Fifteen million dollars.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mike, a few years ago we built a 25-unit apartment building for seniors. Everybody said, “Who will live there?” There's a waiting list of 11 on that, with political lobbying of the council to put somebody out so they can live there. The other point I wanted to make was that timing is critical in this proposal because Ontario has offered a 128-bed licence to our community.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Capital funding from the federal government.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  They are not available, for one thing. There's a shortage of affordable housing in nearly every municipality. Oftentimes they're coming to the reserve to see if there's affordable housing only to find that there's a long waiting list. It's really that there's no place for them to turn.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In terms of data, a lot of our band members have graduated from nursing school. They are licensed nurses, RPNs, and RNAs, and all that. As one of the data points, there's a report there from the nurse who actually visits the people who receive care. The people also have relatives; and we know, from talking with the families, what the needs of their families are.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In terms of the non-insured health benefits program administered by Canada, they know the types of medications people are on and what kinds of health issues are out there. They would have data in terms of the health profile of first nations people by reserve, by age group. I think in the South East LHINs there are 5,000 people on a waiting list.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We don't have it. There is nobody who collects that data by band number.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think what we need to understand, Mike, is that when you get a licence from the Ministry of Health for long-term care, the beds have to be made available to people in Ontario who need them because they're subsidized publicly. We can prioritize our own members and other first nations first, but if there are beds available, they have to make them available to anybody who needs them because it's publicly funded.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There's an increase in home support funding, which means the personal support workers and the nurses go to the home and provide care, but a chronic number of people can't find affordable housing, and they are seniors who are vulnerable, who are at risk. Often when their health deteriorates to the point where there are chronic falls or they start to lose their eyesight or they get gangrene and they have to have amputations or the spouse dies, with a lower income, they can't afford the occupancy cost, plus they have a multitude of health issues and frailty combined, so they can't live on their own.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  When people progress and need care beyond that level, the only alternative is a long-term care facility.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There aren't any. Really, our community would be out of luck. There's no place. The people who are the most frail and most vulnerable have nowhere to go. These are the people who built the roads. They built the hospitals. They've been employed in every occupation. The only thing that this country can say to them when they are the most frail and in the most need of help is that there's no place for them to go.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  When people apply to go into a long-term-care home, if they could say whether they have access to non-insured health benefits, that would prove that they are a status Indian. But there's no data collected like that in any of the 14 men's.... It's based on what the community knows.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  One example is that FedDev should exist to create jobs, long-term jobs. That should be the ultimate goal of the FedDev. Yet they will say they might be able to buy some of the equipment for that place but that would be about the extent of it. With the CORP application, the criteria's still a little bit different.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  A lot of that is federally imposed. It's not imposed by the first nations. Some of their programs and services are designed for people who live on the reserve. The waiting list is usually made up of people who don't live on the reserve but want to live on the reserve. I gave you a list of the housing criteria to show the number of people who are pounding on our door wanting to live on the reserve.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte have an excellent track record with the First Nations Technical Institute, partnering with colleges and universities to provide training programs so people get the appropriate job qualifications. We would use that model there. There's plenty of money for employment and training for the skills that are definitely needed everywhere in Ontario.