Health committee  You would have to reinstate the health directorates for our national aboriginal organizations. The funding for the health portfolio was cut for the Native Women's Association of Canada. It was significantly cut for Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Métis National Council. I believe there were significant cuts to the Assembly of First Nations and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples as well.

Health committee  So the first thing is to actually reinvest in our national aboriginal organizations so they can sit at the table, then recognize that there need to be some national standards, because the other thing that has happened is that FNIHB and PHAC decided that all of this should happen at the regional level.

Health committee  No.

Health committee  No. There's a huge international double standard around indigenous data collection, and it's in a shameful state in Canada in terms of actual health assessment data. We can have both. We can have indigenous communities in charge of the governance of our data, and we can have high-quality data.

Health committee  We need to have some national standards around indigenous health data collection. Statistics Canada was moving in that direction. I sit on the National Statistics Council, though, of course, I'm here as an individual today. When I first joined the council five to ten years ago they were meeting with our national aboriginal organizations and working on those kinds of partnerships, and there still is some good partnership work, but we need to have national standards.

Health committee  Yes. Canada is doing poorly internationally with respect to indigenous specific data. There are two issues. One is the need to build partnerships with indigenous communities and governing organizations. We were moving well in that direction about five years ago, but it's gone backwards with the cutting of the resources of our national aboriginal organizations and health directors at provincial and territorial levels.

Health committee  Basically, in terms of the roots of these issues, there are the gendered impacts as well as poverty, overcrowded housing, dislocation from traditional lands, and residential school attendance by family members, which have also been linked to negative mental health impacts. With respect to the insufficiencies of existing services and programs and next steps to take, from what I've said already with respect to systemic and attitudinal racism, it should be clear that there are gaps in the availability of non-stigmatizing and culturally secure services.

Health committee  Yes, I could.

Health committee  Good afternoon. I want to acknowledge my colleague, Dr. Lalonde. [Witness speaks in Cree] My name is Janet Smylie. I'm a family doctor and public health researcher living here in Toronto, the land of the Mississauga people. I want to touch on four content areas. The first one is the burden of mental health challenges and the inequities that face indigenous people in Canada compared to non-indigenous people.

Health committee  Yes, I can.