Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The right to be educated until grade 12 in many of our Inuit communities wasn't realized until sometime in the early 1990's. In many cases, people were in residential schools until that time period. Now every single one of our communities has educational opportunities. There are many communities that do not allow for any of their students to go directly into the programs of their choice within post-secondary education because of the lack of infrastructure and the inability for different schools to teach some of the core curricula that are prerequisites for some university courses.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll start with your first question. Instead of trying to spitball about what possible scenarios underlie why there are elevated rates of suicide in some communities rather than others, we have chosen to focus on the established evidence on what the risk factors are for suicide.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. My name is Natan Obed. I'm the president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national representational organization for Canada's 60,000 Inuit. The first objective in our 2016-2019 strategic plan is to take action to prevent suicide among Inuit. It is a priority of the highest degree for our national organization and for all Inuit in Canada to do something meaningful to prevent suicide.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  This gives me an opportunity to talk about our vision statement, “Canadian Inuit are prospering through unity and self-determination”. The ITK is a vehicle for self-determination for Inuit. The expression of self-determination at this table, say, is that Inuit have a chance to speak to you clearly without any limitation about the priorities we have and the way in which we would like to interact and work with you.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I have been in conversations with Minister Bennett about the nutrition north program, but not specifically about the dollar amounts, because I think that's a secondary issue. The primary issue is the purpose of the program. If the purpose of the program is that it's a social program with 100% of the money going to the people who need it in Inuit Nunangat and other northern remote communities, then we need the program to be completely transparent and accountable.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  ITK is a representational organization. We also advocate for Inuit interests. In our advocacy efforts to the federal government, we play a role in ensuring that any economic development or business development programs or initiatives are conceptualized and implemented so that Inuit can benefit from them, and Inuit businesses or organizations can make the most of them.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Sorry, I don't have that information for you. I can get that information for you.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  You can start in any number of places. I'll give the example of Nunavut, where many Inuit speak Inuktitut at home and will always identify Inuktitut as their first language. They go to school from K to 3 or K to 4 in their language, but then transition in grades 4 or 5 to English.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The way that our land claims agreements are structured is that we have a very clear path towards the very beginning of the discussion about whether or not Inuit would like to see development on our lands, the environmental assessment process, the development of impact and benefits agreements, and overarching financial and other considerations for training and employment.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much for that question. I won't go list by list, but I think there are a number of key departments that can play meaningful and substantive roles in helping us achieve success in our strategic plan, and I think that we're very practical and focused in the way that we would ask for that support.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you again for the question. It's a lifelong-learning holistic approach to increase the educational attainment for Inuit. In the early years, we focused on bridging the gap between parents and students, and the education system. With the legacy of residential schools and the newness of formal education as a whole, we still have to create a path where parents feel as though it is in their own and their children's best interests for there to be a strong bond between parents and children, and the education system.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I will now speak very quickly about the strategic objectives that we are laying out as we move forward for the next three years. Suicide prevention is our first objective. To take action on suicide prevention, we will be releasing a national Inuit suicide prevention strategy this summer.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for having the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami here this afternoon. I look forward to the discussion later. I want to thank you for the invitation. ITK is the national representational organization for Canada's 60,000 Inuit. We are spread across Canada's Arctic or as we call it Inuit Nunangat: Nunatsiavut in northern Labrador; Nunavik in northern Quebec; Nunavut, which is its territory and also has a land claim body within that territory; and then Inuvialuit region in the western Arctic.

Finance committee  Yes. In our organization, we have four land claim regions that have their own processes. At the national level, we've created a system in which, on technical issues, we bring representatives from each of those four regions into the same room to then inform the way in which our positions, as the national organization, are structured and finalized.

Finance committee  The core funding from the aboriginal representative organizations fund was a much smaller cut than the Health Canada and other project funding that allowed for Inuit to participate in various projects or work on various issues. I believe we're looking in the neighbourhood of $2 million in cuts.