Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would say that you transfer jurisdiction, allowing first nations to make the decisions and find alternative ways to create and maximize the use of that funding.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I wouldn't go down that route, simply because you're sort of trying to put a brown face on a system that is failing already. I think it needs to be controlled by first nations leaders and first nations experts. I think that's really the only way. We will have our elders with us t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think that's the only solution at this point. The reason is that the life expectancy gap is not changing right now. It's not changing in its trajectory. It's actually getting worse. We need to be innovative in utilizing the very limited health resources that are already allocat

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  You'd have to go outside of Canada. Let's look at Alaska, where they're running the whole system over there with the school. I think that has been the best example for us. We went there. We saw it. We saw a patient-focused model that's about the patient. It's fulsome. It's not si

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Obviously, the navigator has done a lot of advocacy and navigation, within the NIHB, trying to find solutions to some of the problems our citizens are facing. It's been a tremendous help, I think, in connecting the dots and providing support for many of our citizens. It is one po

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Absolutely. What's going on is huge in terms of what the additional costs are. Food security is a huge problem that's going on and a concern. Even our nurses have been restricted from the north, except in emergencies only, as a result of the high need for nurses in the urban are

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's quite simple, actually. If you're not healthy, you can't help people. You have to have a great deal of the mental capacity to provide direction and knowledge, and to transfer that knowledge on how to live healthy and to participate in activities in the community that are hea

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There's also a loss of the enrichment of that knowledge in creating a better health system, not only for indigenous people but for all.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We have communities that are 100% Anishinaabemowin, and they speak the Ojibwa language. Absolutely, they face those challenges. It's a daily occurrence. We have to be able to address that in a way that is appropriate. I think training is certainly a huge part of that, but you h

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, I think you have to take a combination of that. That can be a solution in a general sense, but in urgent situations I think the medical facility should already be prepared for those scenarios. We already have an idea of the current fluctuations in terms of health needs with

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would talk about independent indigenous staffing from these facilities. We've already engaged in this with Jordan's principle, for example, with the children's health centre here in Winnipeg.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think that is going to create some unique cultural interaction within the facility, which would create a better outcome. The task of our citizens within these institutions would simply be to ensure that our citizens are adequately dealt with and adequately understood, in the ev

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Absolutely. I think we are quite prepared to engage and show the added value and impact that grassroots control, first nations control, over health can have on the health system.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Absolutely. I would think upstream thinking in health prevention is absolutely essential to changing that 11-year health expectancy gap—that rate of life expectancy.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's absolutely critical. The knowledge that is being passed down is less and less available to us. Our traditional healers, for example, have less and less ability to transfer that knowledge. We're in a state of crisis in many of our communities. It is quite difficult to create