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Doug Mackie
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Doug Mackie
2021-06-22 16:44
Do I have to start off with a joke, or is that okay?
Thank you for the opportunity to be a witness today.
Men's Sheds is a volunteer-based organization that currently has 39 sheds, or groups of men, in Canada. It's part of a worldwide movement of over 2,200 sheds located in Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., Ireland, the U.S.A., Kenya, Iceland and other countries, as well as Canada. Men's Sheds opened in North America in 2010 here in Winnipeg.
Men's Sheds is a unique volunteer grassroots organization run by men for men. The activities and projects are determined by the men themselves within their sheds, not from a central office. The main goal of a men's shed is to offer a safe, convenient place for men to gather, socialize, enjoy camaraderie and participate in individual projects or group projects while working shoulder to shoulder.
When a man retires, he loses structure in his life, may leave his most important social contacts at work and loses meaning in his life. Senior centres do not fill the gap. The membership of most senior centres is made up of 80% women and 20% men. Men can be hesitant to seek help. There are no other programs in Canada just for men and run by men.
Men's sheds combat loneliness, isolation, anxiety and depression in men. The Men's Sheds Association is not a self-help group. The Canadian Men's Sheds Association receives no federal funding, or even provincial funding, unless it's on a sporadic basis. This is very much unlike the Men's Sheds programs in the U.K., Ireland and Australia. The benefit of a men's shed is the improved emotional well-being or mental health of the men involved, thus improving the lives of the men, their families and the communities in which they live.
This is respectfully submitted.
Thank you.
Violaine Guerin
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Violaine Guerin
2021-06-22 16:46
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The mission of the Conseil régional de développement social des Laurentides is to increase and support the capacity for community action in social development in the Laurentides region. Its members come from different sectors working with vulnerable people, including seniors.
The measures adopted during the pandemic have had a profound impact on the mental health of seniors, and we have seen an increase in the incidence of psychological disorders, including depression, anxiety, sleep disorders and post-traumatic stress.
The physical and psychological effects on older adults will likely continue after the pandemic and beyond the time when physical distancing measures remain in place. To minimize the negative impacts, it is appropriate to ensure that visiting policies in residential facilities, hospitals and hospices balance the need to protect others with the need of the residents or patients to see family and to socialize.
It would also be appropriate to study and review how and when we involve older adults across the country, to have them participate more in making decisions and developing policies that affect them. Social participation helps to protect the health of older adults. Those who participate have better cognitive abilities. While physical distancing measures are intended to protect the health of vulnerable people, the same measures also lead to social isolation, which in turn leads to the deterioration of mental health, physical health and cognitive abilities.
Elderly people who have felt they were isolated during the pandemic have tended to engage in behaviours that are detrimental to their health. In addition, the disruption of many community services and home visits due to the pandemic has had a significant impact on the health of older adults who rely on the services.
The pandemic has also given rise to more ageist messages and discrimination against older adults. These messages reaffirm a preconceived perception that older adults are vulnerable people whose lives are less valuable than those of younger people. [Technical difficulty], perceiving older adults as a homogenous group undermines their social identity, which makes them more susceptible to discrimination and exclusion, and fails to adequately portray their contribution to society or their resilience in the face of crisis. These messages may lead to a number of social consequences, such as discrimination against older workers and retirees looking to return to the workforce after the pandemic.
Internalizing ageist messages could also have significant consequences on older adults, such as a loss of self-esteem and a loss of a sense of purpose in society.
It is therefore important to use non-stigmatizing language to describe older people, to avoid stereotypes, and to avoid labelling all older people as frail and vulnerable. We should also refrain from referring to older people in words that have negative connotations and that convey prejudice. Intergenerational exchanges should be encouraged to increase solidarity between the generations and to fight prejudice. Awareness campaigns should also be developed to combat ageism.
Fraud and abuse in all their forms have increased during the pandemic. Seniors have been targeted at a time when they are more vulnerable and anxious. They need the right tools to be as informed as possible about the various scams and frauds to which they could fall victim. It is therefore appropriate to strengthen prevention and protection services for seniors against all forms of violence, abuse and fraud. Seniors should also be informed, educated, made aware and equipped so that they know that those problems exist.
The pandemic has come with its own set of challenges and has forced us to adapt very quickly to new technologies. However, the shift to virtual platforms socially excludes the elderly and places them at a lower level. Many older adults share a similar level of digital literacy, and few have been attending virtual gatherings during the pandemic. We are seeing deep inequalities in this group's social participation virtually, because it further excludes low-income seniors with lower levels of education, as well as those with underlying medical conditions.
The situation has widened the digital divide, especially for seniors living in rural areas where Internet access is still lacking, and for the most vulnerable seniors who cannot afford to buy the technology.
Seniors and their caregivers must therefore be helped to have access to digital communication tools or other ways of keeping in touch with family and social networks when actual travel is limited. We should also make it possible for older adults to participate in lifelong learning programs and improve their access to information and communication technologies.
This is not new: seniors want to remain in their homes as long as possible. Given what we have experienced during the pandemic, with many deaths in various types of housing for seniors, seniors are even more resolved to remain in their private homes. Governments will have to look at concrete solutions to help seniors stay in their homes. Home-based services will need to be more readily available, so that they can remain in those homes under the best possible conditions.
The shortage of affordable, adaptable and accessible housing is also a growing problem. This sometimes leads seniors to relocate and move closer to larger urban centres so they have access to housing that is more affordable and closer to amenities. It would therefore be advisable to increase mobile services to ensure access to more isolated seniors, or those with limited mobility, so their needs can be assessed and support provided.
It would also be advisable to ensure that appropriate care services are always available for older adults. These include mental health services and palliative and geriatric care. They also include support for unpaid caregivers who provide care in the home and community, as well as paid social workers who provide home care and institutional care.
We also need to ensure that community services and assistance to older adults, including social and legal services, are maintained despite physical distancing restrictions.
We must recognize the critical role of family caregivers and enable them to play that role with the necessary tools.
We suggest that programs be put in place to foster and support home care.
In addition, more affordable and accessible community housing for seniors is needed so that they can continue to live in a safe environment.
According to the market basket measure, in the Laurentides region, 6.3% of seniors aged 65 and over fall below the low income threshold, meaning that 5,930 individuals are in precarious situations. It's important that we gain expertise and be more vigilant with respect to the living and employment conditions of people aged 55 and over by ensuring that basic needs are covered and that they do not fall into the poverty level after they retire.
We need to make it a priority to ensure the right to a basic quality of life for everyone, in retirement as in an entire lifespan.
The social participation of seniors is no longer in question. The aging population certainly brings its own set of challenges—
Doug Mackie
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Doug Mackie
2021-06-22 17:04
Thanks, Mr. Dong, for your question.
On your first comment about New Horizons for Seniors, it doesn't work on a national basis. Other than the one big project every five years.... I have a New Horizons for Seniors grant that ends at the end of this month. There are no Men's Sheds in Saskatchewan, but I cannot take any of the money that I have—and I will expend it all—and go to Saskatchewan to help them open up a Men's Shed. New Horizons for Seniors is provincially mandated. It's to one province. It does not go across provinces. With our kind of situation, I need some funding to be able to go across provinces.
The second thing is that I'd like all of you to look at the New Horizons for Seniors priority 3. Why do I say number 3? I'm going to read only part of it. It says, “Combatting ageism, celebrating diversity and promoting inclusion”. Then it says, “particularly members of underrepresented or underserved groups including but not limited to: women, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, members of racialized and newcomer groups, and members of the LGBTQ2+ communities”.
I want you to note that I can find no place within New Horizons for Seniors with any mention of programs or opportunities for men, period.
Doug Mackie
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Doug Mackie
2021-06-22 17:06
Again, it's interesting. We started Men's Sheds here in Winnipeg. It's now spread throughout B.C. and somewhat around Alberta, but nowhere east of Montreal. How do we start supporting it, or how do I, as an individual? I live on a fixed income. I'm 80 years old. How do I reach out to those people or get a program to those Men's Sheds or possible groups of men in other communities? It's time-consuming and it's a process. I certainly have enjoyed the challenge over the years. It gets me up in the morning.
If there was funding that would allow Men's Sheds to do their outreach outside of an individual province, that would be of assistance. If there was potential funding—and we'd have to be careful here—for a one-person advocate or manager on a national level, I think that has some merit.
We also need to try to work with Canadian mental health associations wherever we can. It's interesting that CMHA has different priorities depending on where they are. Recently I gave a Zoom meeting instruction on how to open up a Men's Shed to the rural part of the Alberta division of the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Jocelyn Downie
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Jocelyn Downie
2021-06-21 19:13
Well, it's phase two, so you will be coming back to this. That's why I didn't go into it in my actual remarks. Concerns that have been expressed about mental illness—debates that were held in the process of the Council of Canadian Academies—relate to “irremediably”. Can you assess capacity? Is there discrimination against persons with mental disorders if you don't allow them to have access? All those issues were canvassed.
They're also in Truchon. Everything was tested in the Truchon case. All of these concerns about mental disorders were tested in the Truchon case.
View Patty Hajdu Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much for the question.
I had an opportunity to meet with the volunteers at the Kids Help Phone just this week. What an enormous piece of work they're doing for Canadians. They're responding to calls from people, often young people but actually people of every age, across the country. We knew early on that we needed to support that work.
Wellness Together also grew out of a sense that the pandemic was going to create such change in Canadians' lives that it would exacerbate mental health conditions and put people in distress at all hours of the day or night. We wanted to make sure that no matter what a Canadian's circumstance, no matter what a person's circumstance in this country, they would have access to that service.
We'll be extending these services for another year. We know that, first, we're not out of this yet, and second, as people return to their lives, many things have changed. People have suffered tremendously. There's been enormous sacrifice, some that we know and some that we don't know. People's routines have been disrupted. Their relationships have been disrupted. Their work settings have been disrupted. We know that Canadians will continue to need support for some time to come.
This is our contribution to ensuring that Canadians have that help when they need it, through emergency helplines but also through the Wellness Together portal that helps connect people to the help they need, when they need it and in the language they need it.
David Wiens
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David Wiens
2021-06-15 16:53
Well, it's a huge concern for us, obviously, because we feel the stress of people coming onto the farm. One of the things we see where some strengthening is needed is that there should be the requirement to have knowledge of what they're doing, or recklessness.... Those things should be removed, because to plead ignorance is unacceptable. Because of the damage it causes, there is huge stress on farms. We feel extremely vulnerable. To have people come onto the farm and simply claim ignorance and help to destroy the animals on the farm is simply unacceptable.
David Wiens
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David Wiens
2021-06-15 17:10
I think it will go a long way towards addressing some of those concerns. Right now, like I said earlier, we're extremely vulnerable. We feel like we have very, very little control about who comes onto the property and what they do.
Pierre Lampron
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Pierre Lampron
2021-06-15 17:11
I want to make clear that Bill C‑205 is a very important step to give farmers long-term peace of mind. As was mentioned, this is long awaited. To feed people, we need healthy animals, and this bill helps us keep animals healthy.
Tom Littlewood
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Tom Littlewood
2021-06-11 13:18
Thanks, Barb.
Regarding COVID-19 and its effect on mental health, overdoses, self-harm and psychosis incidents have increased 50% with our youth clients. We serve about 300 clients a year currently, and that is about to double. Hospitalizations, because of this, cost $1,500 to $2,500 a day and up.
Anxiety and depression are widespread. These mental health issues paralyze young people, causing many to retreat and hide in their single-room occupancy, SRO suites, or basement suites.
The opioid crisis has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. We predict that the situation will only get worse, as there are thousands of young people in line to become the next wave of addiction to hit our streets.
Every year about 1,000 youth age out of care in British Columbia, and a further 1,000 hit the streets, running away from dysfunctional homes. Over 60% of these youths aging out of foster care will descend into entrenched addiction to numb their psychological pain.
However, there is a critical period between the ages of 15 and 25, when these young people usually ask for help. If trauma-informed therapy is provided to them for free and without a waiting list, up to 75% of these youth will respond and achieve success in school, work, recovery, housing and job-skills training. They can be diverted from the path towards homelessness, entrenched addiction, overdose and suicide and on towards lives they will enjoy living.
The initial effects of past trauma, which include physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse, poverty and intergenerational trauma experienced by our indigenous clients, are normally expressed, to begin with, as anxiety, depression, eating and sleeping disorders, and self-medicating behaviour.
Our therapeutic intervention of four months of trauma-informed counselling costs approximately $2,500. Once the youth descends into entrenched addiction, it costs the community millions of dollars when police services, first responders, hospitals, corrections system, etc., are factored in. This does not even begin to take into account what the addict has to steal, or the sex acts they have to perform in order to get the money to buy the drugs they need.
Harm prevention, specifically trauma-informed therapy, can divert a youth's path away from addiction and homelessness, which not only saves valuable lives but saves millions of dollars in costs to the community.
Trauma-informed recovery is a new idea, and it's still controversial. Rather than the 12-step abstinence recovery programs, which are not best practices with youth, especially regarding opioid addiction, trauma-informed recovery involves a doctor, a therapist and a client agreeing to a contract whereby the physician prescribes an opioid replacement for the client while the client is undergoing trauma counselling.
When working with a therapist, typically over a period of four months, the client first learns self-regulation techniques. This is followed by the counselling trauma work, to help youth gain insight into their past trauma.
Once the trauma work is complete, the client has no need to self-medicate for the psychological pain, and this is when the physician steps in to provide something like an opioid replacement of Suboxone to help them come down without the drug sickness.
This approach is new and controversial, but it is becoming the best-practice model for young people with opioid addiction. Using prescribed stimulants as a replacement for street drugs like crack or meth is also being explored.
The side effect of the opioid crisis and the overdose crisis is the growing number of permanent brain damage situations caused when someone is brought back using Narcan or Naloxone. Some youth brag about how many times they have recovered using Naloxone; however, as therapists we can see the gradual deterioration of cognitive function after multiple applications of Naloxone over multiple overdoses.
A practical harm prevention idea that you can take from this is a CERB forgiveness program for young people who engage in recovery, education, work or training for a year. The money is gone; it's not going to be recovered. These kids don't have this, but it will create an insurmountable obstacle for these young people and cause thousands to give up and go underground to the street, speeding up the path to addiction and homelessness. I have had a youth end their life by suicide when faced with $1,000 in transit fines, which come due when they are about to get their first driver's licence. Imagine the chaos we're going to find when thousands are asked to repay the thousands of dollars they received from CERB fraudulently.
In summary, our goal is to get ahead of the curve of both COVID-19 and the opioid crisis by employing harm-prevention strategies of trauma-informed therapy, training and recovery.
Thank you.
Ansar Ahmed
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Ansar Ahmed
2021-06-11 14:12
Thank you, Chairman McKinnon, and thank you, Vice-Chairs Rempel Garner and Thériault, for the opportunity to speak to the committee today.
I'm pleased to be here today representing Jacobs Engineering. First of all, on behalf of all of us at Jacobs, I'd like to extend our deepest condolences to the families of the nearly 26,000 Canadians who have lost their lives during this pandemic.
As engineers and architects, we approach problems from a very simple perspective of an unbiased lens. We examine the causes, and we identify what needs to be done differently in order to achieve more favourable outcomes in the future.
I'd like to focus my remarks today on the impact of COVID-19 in our long-term care homes.
In January, Jacobs hosted an industry round table to examine how the built environment—the actual interior and physical space—may have contributed to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 within our long-term care homes. The round table report outlined a series of nine recommendations, and I'd like to speak to two of them today.
Many jurisdictions have design standards for long-term care homes that have not been updated for years, and in some cases decades. In homes designed to those outdated standards, residents were confined, for the most part, to their rooms. They had little, if any, physical or social interaction with others, simply because the facility was not designed, or improved over the years, to meet the challenges of containing the spread of COVID-19.
It was acknowledged in the round table that the built environment is as important an element of health care as any other medical or clinical intervention. There needs to be a legislated framework that mandates regular updates to design standards, so the built environment within our long-term care homes keeps pace with the latest clinical research on caring for those with physical or cognitive impairments.
A second recommendation involved evidence-based decision-making and value-based procurements. Following the January round table, Jacobs and the Ontario Association of Architects, in consultation with the Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care, have funded a research study by the University of Toronto’s Centre for Design + Health Innovation to conduct performance assessments of long-term care homes. This is the type of experiential data that governments need to have access to in order to ensure they are making the right investments in the right areas at the right time.
The findings of such work must become the basis for value-based procurement. In a sector as sensitive as long-term care, seeking out the lowest-cost and technically compliant bids should not be the benchmark we are striving to achieve. Rather, it should be about value creation in design, construction, maintenance and operations to help secure the best outcome for our most vulnerable citizens.
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged governments at all levels to respond with urgency to its devastating outcomes, including the loss of over 15,000 lives in long-term care homes. In examining the root causes of these losses, it's important to recognize the pre-existence of structural and systemic vulnerabilities that heightened the risk of such outcomes occurring in our long-term care homes.
To make the most of proposed investments in long-term care, it's vital that governments first identify and, through updated standards and guidelines, resolve those structural and systemic vulnerabilities. Without this first critical step, we miss an important opportunity to ensure the best results for the investment of public funds.
If I had three recommendations to make, they would be that governments at all levels need to come together: first, to establish grant-based funding programs to vigorously re-engage Canada in public health research and development; second, to activate and mobilize Canada’s manufacturing sector to produce vast supplies of PPE and other mission-critical supplies and equipment; and lastly, to mandate regular updates to design and operating standards governing long-term care homes, to ensure these remain resilient places of care for our most vulnerable citizens.
In closing, I'd like to make one last observation with respect to mental health. This pandemic has raised awareness of the importance of mental health. As we emerge from this pandemic, it's my sincere hope we do not lose the momentum that has been created, and that the attention drawn to mental health does not fade away. All levels of government have a role to play in ensuring that hospitals across the country have access to stable and long-term funding for mental health programs, and that local non-profit organizations, delivering invaluable intervention programs, similarly have access to predictable and long-term government funding and support.
Thank you very much for your time and attention today.
Ansar Ahmed
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Ansar Ahmed
2021-06-11 14:46
There's a small organization here in my hometown of Newmarket called Inn From the Cold. I've seen the tremendous work that they're doing first-hand, primarily through the support of volunteers, to try to support those suffering from mental health, homelessness and other issues. I think there is definitely a role for government to play in providing those non-profit organization some line to stable, long-term funding, so that they can continue to provide these invaluable services.
The other thing is that if we don't do that early intervention in terms of those mental health programs, then by and large we're going to end up paying a price through other social services, the justice system or other areas. It behooves us as a society to make sure we do that early intervention.
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
Kwe kwe. Unnusakkut. Tansi. Hello.
Hello.
Before I begin, I want to acknowledge that in Ottawa, I'm on the traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.
First and foremost, I do want to say a few words for the communities, families and friends impacted by the tragic news of the children whose remains were recently found at the former Kamloops residential school located on the traditional territory of the Tk'emlúps te Secwe̓pemc people.
I'd like to thank the members for their continued advocacy and echoing indigenous voices here in Parliament.
While this discovery has shocked and disturbed the nation, for indigenous peoples across the country, these findings are deeply painful, traumatizing and triggering, although they are not surprising, particularly for the indigenous peoples who have known this truth for far too long.
Our thoughts remain with the families and communities impacted not only by this discovery but by the residential school system. It is essential that we respect and continue to respect the privacy, space and mourning period of those communities that are collecting their thoughts and putting together their protocols as to how to honour these children.
We recognize that there is a continuing need for psychological wellness services associated with childhood and intergenerational trauma. We will continue to work with our partners and the communities, first and foremost to ensure adequate access to appropriate services.
The survivors and the families affected by the indigenous residential schools system have access, among other things, to the national Indian residential schools crisis line if they need it. The Indian residential schools resolution health support program also offers access to elders, to traditional healers and to other appropriate forms of cultural and emotional support, as well as to professional mental health counselling.
In addition, all indigenous peoples can access the hope for wellness help line, online or by phone, to get help. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we are offering additional support so that indigenous communities can adapt and broaden mental health services.
We also recently announced $597.6 million over three years for a mental health and wellness strategy based, of course, on the distinct characteristics of the First Nations, the Inuit and the Métis Nation. The strategy includes continuing support for former residential schools students and their families. It will be based on existing competencies and will help to fill gaps and respond to the existing, emerging and future needs of indigenous communities.
I'm here today to answer your questions on the supplementary estimates (A) for 2021-22 and to provide you with an update on continuing efforts to confront the evolving COVID-19 pandemic. I will also answer any other questions that the committee chooses.
For this year, the total authority will be $18.9 billion, which reflects a net increase of $5.4 billion. This includes support for initiatives such as funding for COVID-19 responses, including, notably, $760.7 million for the indigenous community support fund that has been so welcomed, $64 million for the continuation of public health responses in indigenous communities and $332.8 million for indigenous communities affected by disruptions to their revenue due to COVID-19, which we announced, made official and launched yesterday.
The net increase for the supplementary estimates (A) also includes $1.2 billion for out-of-court settlements to advance Canada's overall commitment to reconciliation by paving the way to a more respectful and constructive relationship with indigenous peoples.
It also includes $1.1 billion for child and family services to support a proactive agreement on a non-compliance motion before the CHRT. The funding is crucial. Since the CHRT issued its first order for Canada to cease its discriminatory practices in 2016, we have been working with first nations leaders and partners to implement the tribunal's orders, and we are in compliance. The $1.1 billion will go to communities that are engaged in activities that prevent the apprehension of kids and contribute to the transformation of the system that has been so broken.
Let me be clear once again. We share the same goal: First nations children historically harmed by the child welfare system will receive fair, just and equitable compensation. The government is not questioning or challenging the notion that compensation should be awarded to first nations children who were harmed by the historical discrimination and underfunding of the child welfare system. The question is not whether we compensate; it is a question of doing so in a way that is fair, equitable and inclusive of those directly impacted.
To this end, we have already consented to certification of the consolidated class action filed in the Federal Court by the Assembly of First Nations and Councillor Xavier Moushoom regarding the same children who were harmed by the system, as contemplated by the CHRT. Furthermore, we are currently in mediation with the partners, but as is set out in the mediation agreement, those discussions will remain confidential out of respect.
We remain committed to providing first nations children access to the necessary supports and services in partnership with indigenous peoples. To that effect, it's important to note that 820,000 claims under Jordan's principle have been processed since 2016, which represents close to $2 billion in funding.
Most notably, in January 2020, An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families came into force. It is key to this conversation in transforming the relationship, responding to the calls to action and setting a new way forward. Indigenous governments and communities have always had the inherent right to decide things that people like me take for granted; that is, what is best for their children, their families and their communities. The act provides a path for them to fully exercise and lift up that jurisdiction.
As a result of this work led by indigenous communities, two indigenous laws have now come into force under the federal law, the Wabaseemoong Independent Nations law in Ontario and the Cowessess First Nation Miyo Pimatisowin Act in Saskatchewan. In each of these communities, children will have greater opportunity to grow up and thrive immersed in their culture and surrounded by loved ones.
I will now move on to an update on COVID-19.
Throughout the pandemic, and still today, Indigenous Services Canada has been aware of the particular vulnerability of indigenous communities to the virus.
From the outset, we knew that immediate, decisive measures were necessary to protect the communities as best we could. Our absolute priority was the safety, health and well-being of the First Nations, the Inuit and the Métis.
However, without the dedication and determination of all of the leaders of those communities, none of that would have been possible. I want to thank them for their continuous work over the last year, in particular in encouraging the members of their communities to get vaccinated.
With respect to vaccine roll-out, as of June 7, 687 indigenous communities had campaigns underway. In total, that corresponds to 540,581 doses administered, including first and second doses.
This means that 41% of eligible people aged 12 and over in the communities or living in the territories have received two doses of the vaccine. This is crucial in the communities where the population is predominantly young.
In addition, 80% of people have received a first dose, and if we consider those aged 12 and over, we are talking about 72%. So this is tremendous progress.
With respect to the number of cases, as of June 9, in First Nations communities, we are aware of 761 active cases, which is, fortunately, a decline from the previous week. That brings us now to just about 30,568 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of those, 29,459 people have recovered, and, tragically, 348 others have died.
I see that perhaps that you're flagging me, Bob, or do I have a couple of minutes?
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
Yes, and thanks for that comment, MP Battiste. Those names were in the TRC report, but I thought, given the context, they should be read into the record of the House of Commons so that they will always be remembered. I think there are more names to come, and that's, I think, what's gripped the entire country, including your community, and really triggered a number of people. Some of the most poignant testimony I've heard has been from those people who are not prepared to speak about these things. They haven't cried since they were 15. It's a recurring theme that I've heard when communities reach out and say they are not ready for this, but will we be there when they are? The answer is yes, and for those who are ready and who want to accelerate things, we will be there.
What we haven't gauged completely,...although my team that's here today is reaching out to communities to get a sense of what mental health needs are. Obviously, there are the mental health needs that I highlighted in my introduction, and obviously a phone line, as important as it is, is not sufficient. This is magnified as well by what we've seen through COVID, which is an increased stress on indigenous communities' mental health.
One of the budget items that was announced in budget 2021 was over $500 million for mental health supports. We don't do very well as a government or as a country in talking about mental health. Some of us who are probably best to speak about it don't, and those who are not so good do, and I'm the latter, but that is my job. I think it is important to recognize that everyone in the country is hurting, and even long after some of the news stories have died down, people will remain hurt and triggered, along with feeling the effects of intergenerational trauma.
For the immediacy of the communities in question, we've deployed additional mental health supports and perimeter security, as you can imagine. We're also working with FNHA. As you know, it's first in class in B.C. and is doing some great work with health resources in communities.
The mental health support is yet to be fully understood and engaged as it relates to the particular events that have happened in the last two weeks, but we're getting a sense of that, and it is very important and again, magnified by COVID.
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
Absolutely. I think that, as we've seen, it's been a learning lesson with proof points. I think that's been said to us often and has been advocated and is self-evident for indigenous communities and less self-evident for federal government bodies. What we've seen through COVID are proof points, such as on-the-land learning and on-the-land isolation for physical health and mental health and the proven tangible results. I think there's something to learn from this COVID epidemic in how we can support local knowledge for protecting their own people, particularly as it relates to mental health. Obviously, that is no excuse for the federal government stepping back when there is a need, but it is a further reminder that we should do so in partnership and not with Ottawa in a top-down position.
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