Health committee  I think first and foremost there really needs to be a clarification about who is responsible for Inuit. We don't have a piece of legislation in the same way that our brothers in first nations do. That creates some challenges. I think there also has to be recognition that given the geography and culture of the Inuit, we will require a separate strategy.

Health committee  As someone who lives in an Inuit region in a province within an Atlantic FNIHB region, there is a serious disconnect. The people most disconnected are we, the Inuit, who are engaged with FNIHB but not engaged with the province, which has responsibility for our public health. That's a real challenge.

Health committee  Good morning. Current data reveal that the rate of TB for Inuit Nunaat is 185 times that of Canadian-born non-aboriginals. The significance of this cannot be ignored or dismissed. Social research has provided ample evidence that TB is a disease of poverty and social inequality.

Health committee  Can I comment?

Health committee  I think it varies across Inuit regions as well. I live at the top of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and on a good day, without H1N1, we have no capacity. We have no hospital beds; we have one anesthetist, so additional ventilators won't really help us; and of course we always have the challenge of geography and weather.

Health committee  Thank you. I beg your indulgence, but I would like to continue just for one more minute, if I could, please.

Health committee  I'll move on to speak to some of the challenges, and then I'm into what we're calling on this committee. I'm appalled, on a daily basis, at the lack of knowledge by bureaucracy at all levels in this country on who Inuit are and where and how we live. In closing, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Inuit of Canada call upon the Standing Committee on Health to support the creation of an Inuit-specific annex to the Canadian pandemic plan, support the mass immunization of the remote communities as high priorities once the H1N1 vaccine is available, and begin the very serious work of addressing the social determinants of health that keep Inuit in Canada on the bottom of the health status scale.

Health committee  I will be speaking.

Health committee  [Witness speaks in Inuktitut] Good afternoon. I wish to thank the Standing Committee on Health for the opportunity to speak today representing Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Canadian Inuit on the issues of H1N1 and its impact on us. I am an Inuk public health nurse currently working as director of health services in Nunatsiavut, northern Labrador, and the current chair.