Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In the development of the national Inuit suicide prevention strategy, we have worked with Health Canada, and hopefully on day one, on July 27, there will be commitments from the Government of Canada to work with Inuit on the first steps toward suicide prevention. Across the gover

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  At the federal level, the only program I am aware of that has been introduced was the national aboriginal youth suicide prevention strategy. That was approximately 10 to 15 years ago, and there was an Inuit-specific framework associated with it. It largely funded community-based

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First and foremost, I do not believe that it is respectful for the government to prescribe solutions for indigenous peoples when it comes to suicide. As for many of the reasons that our communities are the way they are, it's because colonization and programs and policies of the

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. That is a wonderful question. Youth are often expected to come up with solutions in a vacuum within this issue, and I know that youth carry a tremendous burden already. There are expectations from their families, from their communities, and within themselves about wh

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'd say that poverty is definitely a part of this discussion. The way it sometimes has been the solution to this issue is irresponsible, but economic development and economic opportunity are absolutely positives for families and for individuals.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. Inuit had to have been—this is subjective as well—some of the most resilient people on the planet. The experiences that many Inuit had to go through to survive on the land is extraordinary. There are many accounts of Inuit who went through starvation

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There have been a number of discussions over the past decade about best practices in suicide prevention. It's difficult, because the area of research around suicide prevention is highly subjective. There are many differing views about what constitutes suicide prevention. The mere

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

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 hi

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 s

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 pro

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 Inu

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