Status of Women committee  I think it would and it used to be and for some reason they cut it and brought in another program, and I'm not sure what the name of that program is. We provide that program. It gets into, how do I say, the guts of the pain, the colonialism, the trauma that these women have suffe

Status of Women committee  We don't just send women back. Believe me, we work with them. We got a women the other day who was drinking, but it depends on what they do when they're drinking or using drugs. We've got children there, so we have to protect those children, and we have to protect the community

Status of Women committee  It's okay.

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  Yes. We have a mother-child program. We have several little ones there at once. It makes it a home for everybody. It also gives a clear message to everyone that there cannot be any drugs or alcohol at Buffalo Sage or we will lose the children. They're all mums, even if their kids

Status of Women committee  Well, we've had a few that we've kept a little longer until their mums went a bit further. We do bend our own rules to help the women. That's what our policy is.

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. It makes the whole house settled. Everybody takes care of those children. It's really quite amazing to watch. We have had times when there haven't been any children there, so when the little kids come back in and somebody brings their child now.... I think we have thr

Status of Women committee  Okay.

Status of Women committee  My name is Claire Carefoot and I'm the director of Buffalo Sage Wellness House on Treaty No. 6 territory in Edmonton. I want to acknowledge that we're on the traditional unceded territories of the Algonquin nation. I'm here representing Native Counselling Services of Alberta, o

Public Safety committee  We have a 19-year-old at Buffalo Sage right now. Two weeks ago, the Regina city police wanted to come to talk to her. We agreed that they could talk to her. They went into a room and they wanted to question her about her behaviour in the community. When they left, the police offi

Public Safety committee  I have one woman at Buffalo Sage who was in 58 foster homes. She was pregnant at 14 from the last foster father she stayed with. The foster care system has to be looked at.

Public Safety committee  Many of the women and men—the women in particular—have never known their culture until they come to prison. It's really interesting to be able to help them learn and to see the lights go on when they say, during our warrior program, “Oh, my gosh. That's why I behave the way I do.

Public Safety committee  First of all, we agree with Ms. Frank. We have an elder who lives at the women's facility, and we have an elder at the men's facility as well. The woman who lives at the women's facility comes in on Monday and stays for three days and three nights, so she is there in the evenings

Public Safety committee  I will.

Public Safety committee  I have two minutes? Okay, I'll get going. Currently, the Buffalo Sage Wellness House is a 16-bed facility. Actually, we've now added 12 beds to our facility. It's for federally sentenced minimum security women and conditionally released women on day parole, on statutory release