Committee
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Add search criteria
Results: 61 - 75 of 126
View Pam Damoff Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Chair, since the pandemic began, I've been working with urban indigenous organizations to ensure that they have the support they need to deliver their services. The majority of indigenous people in Canada live in urban areas or off reserve, and we know that they're facing unique challenges. Organizations like the Toronto Aboriginal Support Services Council have had to change their service delivery models to provide food, shelter and culturally appropriate services.
Recently the Prime Minister announced $75 million to support indigenous peoples living in urban centres and off reserve. This funding is in addition to the $15 million allocated in March to urban indigenous organizations.
June is National Indigenous History Month, and on June 18 I will be hosting author Jesse Thistle to talk about his memoir From the Ashes, which highlights many of the issues that indigenous peoples face in urban centres.
I'm proud of what our government is doing and I know there is still more work to do.
Amanda Meawasige
View Amanda Meawasige Profile
Amanda Meawasige
2020-05-26 17:31
That's a really great question.
I think one of the underserved populations is our off-reserve first nation membership. That's a gap in terms of.... A lot of pressure is faced at the first nation community level to respond from reserve, even though there isn't the adequate funding there to provide on-reserve residents with adequate assistance.
That's one of the vulnerable populations we're hearing about.
Our data collection process, in collaboration with the provincial government, is to try to accurately track those types of people. The data-sharing agreement we've created with the province allows us to know all first nations, whether they're on reserve or off reserve, and that will allow us to tailor a better response and have better surveillance, and appropriate health services will be provided.
View Pam Damoff Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to all our witnesses for being here.
I want to start by acknowledging that I'm on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.
I want to begin by talking a little about jurisdiction. Last week we had the B.C. First Nations Health Authority with us, and Ms. Meawasige, as Mr. Viersen mentioned, you sit on the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat in Manitoba, and you've talked about collaboration there. From Chief Mckenzie's remarks, I don't think they're having the same kind of collaboration in Quebec that we've seen in B.C. and in Manitoba.
Something that has come up repeatedly from witnesses is the ability to determine the impact off-reserve for indigenous peoples in Canada. You mentioned that data is being collected in Manitoba. How did that data collection come about, and how well is that going?
Amanda Meawasige
View Amanda Meawasige Profile
Amanda Meawasige
2020-05-26 17:56
A data-sharing agreement was negotiated between the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat and the Province of Manitoba. It's a first nations identifier, so once a person tests positive for COVID, they're asked to identify as a first nations person. That gives us real-time data on where these people are from. It allows us to communicate to communities that there is possible infection and that contact tracing needs to be made.
More importantly, we're getting that off-reserve data information. In Manitoba approximately 40% of the population live off reserve. That's a huge number of people who sometimes require extra responses and services. This process allows us to see that.
View Pam Damoff Profile
Lib. (ON)
What are you seeing in the off-reserve data in the rates of COVID? I'm curious.
Amanda Meawasige
View Amanda Meawasige Profile
Amanda Meawasige
2020-05-26 17:56
Right now, we know there are no COVID-positive cases on reserve. We have some cases in first nations off reserve, and they have higher rates of requiring hospitalization. This indicates they're a vulnerable population, which is why this kind of data is super important in allowing an appropriate response to be made.
Mike Mckenzie
View Mike Mckenzie Profile
Mike Mckenzie
2020-05-26 17:59
For the Innu Nation, we don't have any data on people living off reserve. However, there's one thing I'd like to say to all the MPs. Dr. Stanley Vollant is an Innu surgeon and physician. He's a facilitator who serves as a liaison with the Quebec health network. That's important for the Innu Nation. I think it's important to have first nations members in public health. It's important to learn more about what first nations are going through. The data are often very limited. Quebec has Dr. Stanley Vollant. Western Canada has indigenous doctors who can also help make decisions about first nations. We already need to start getting ready for the second wave. We mentioned the need to plan, with the first nations being so vulnerable. We're reaching out to you. There are concerns about first nations.
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Kwe. Tansi. Ulaakut. Good afternoon.
As we are learning from past experiences in responding to pandemics in Canada, and specifically in first nations, Inuit and Métis communities during H1N1, we need to recognize and understand from that experience that these communities have a higher risk of being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. That remains the case.
The first nations and Inuit health branch continues to provide effective, sustainable and culturally appropriate health programs and services that contribute to the reduction of gaps in health status between first nations and Inuit and other Canadians. I would like to remind members of the House and all Canadians that improving the health of indigenous peoples is a responsibility shared by federal, provincial and territorial, and indigenous partners. Our common goal continues to be to work together in partnership to ensure that indigenous communities receive the care they need. By working together, we can save lives.
As of May 19, we've seen 198 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in first nation communities on reserve and 16 cases in Nunavik. It is important to note for the House that of those mentioned cases, 148 first nation cases have recovered, and the entirety of the Inuit cases in Nunavik have recovered. This is due to incredible first nations and Inuit leadership in stopping the curve, aggressive screening and testing when cases manifest themselves in communities, and the amazing work in tracing contacts as quickly as possible when a case arises in a community. It is thanks to that aggressive action and the passage of time that these cases have recovered.
In addition to the direct funding of approximately $300 million that we've provided to indigenous communities and in addition to business support in excess of $300 million, to date more than $107.8 million in funding has been allocated by my department specifically toward the health response to COVID-19 to ensure the procurement of supplies and nursing services in communities, as well as preparedness measures led by the communities themselves, the leadership of which has been exemplary.
We continue to monitor closely the situation in northwestern Saskatchewan in particular, and to support communities in response to the outbreak, we've provided $2.3 million in funding that has gone towards the northwest Saskatchewan pandemic response plan. This pandemic plan is a collective effort of first nations, Métis, municipal, provincial and federal partners. Meadow Lake Tribal Council and Métis Nation Saskatchewan in particular have undertaken an exemplary collaboration in leading the response to this significant and concerning outbreak.
Indigenous Services Canada also continues to work with the northwest communities incident command centre in the area, including provincial health authorities, first nations and Métis communities to support their efforts through increased access to testing, enhanced surveillance, strong contact tracing, and infection prevention and control measures.
We are all focused on the health response that will save lives. I want to reassure first nations leadership that we are committed to supporting first nation communities in activating their pandemic plans and providing the support and collaboration with provinces that best respond to each community's needs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Urban and off-reserve first nations, Inuit and Métis communities face unique issues when it comes to preventing and fighting the spread of this virus. Since the start of the pandemic, urban and off-reserve indigenous organizations and local community organizations have been working around the clock to provide direct services to indigenous peoples.
We acknowledge that COVID-19 has placed additional pressure on the activities of these organizations and has increased their overall spending. In response to these needs, we've taken immediate steps to support these organizations through the indigenous community support fund. A total of $15 million has been allocated to regional, urban and off-reserve indigenous organizations. These organizations can also receive funding from other federal initiatives under Canada's economic response plan, such as Employment and Social Development Canada's reaching home initiative, and the additional funding allocated to shelters for women who are fleeing violence and to sexual assault centres.
Additional funding for food banks has also been made available to Canadians, including indigenous peoples and northern communities, to meet their urgent food needs. In addition to federal funding, the provinces and territories along with individuals, through charitable donations, play a role in supporting these organizations.
However, we acknowledge that more support is needed. We're actively working with communities to identify the support that they need. We're working with government partners to explore other ways to further assist urban and off-reserve indigenous organizations.
As part of our COVID-19 economic response plan, and as mentioned by Minister Monsef earlier today, Indigenous Services Canada is currently distributing $10 million to its existing network of 46 emergency shelters on first nations reserves and in the Yukon to support indigenous women and children fleeing violence. In response to the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, the Government of Canada committed to working with territories, provinces, and indigenous governments and partners to develop a national action plan that will address violence against women, girls and LGBT and two-spirit people.
To that end, we are supporting national indigenous organizations in reaching out to their members to identify their priorities and best practices, and further understand how they want to be involved in the co-development and implementation work that lies ahead. That's why last week my colleague Minister Bennett attended the Yukon engagement session on violence against indigenous women and girls, co-chaired by Yukon territorial minister, Jeanie Dendys, and women and gender equality minister, Maryam Monsef. The engagement session was a great opportunity to allow Yukon to share wise and promising practices, initiatives, priorities, challenges and views regarding the systemic and disproportionate violence experienced by women and girls and LGBT and two-spirit people, with jurisdictions and other stakeholders from across the country.
In addition, we've recently concluded a proposal-based process to distribute $15 million to organizations that provide critical services to first nations off reserve and indigenous peoples living in urban centres. This funding is part of the government's indigenous community support fund. To date, over 94 proposals have been supported through the urban and off-reserve stream of the indigenous community support fund. This includes support for friendship centres as they continue their important work to serve urban indigenous communities in the face of this pandemic.
Supporting indigenous youth is another key area of our focus. Among our recent measures, we've included in the nearly $9 billion for post-secondary students and recent graduates, a one-time increase of $75.2 million in 2020-21. This is dedicated to providing support to first nations, Inuit and Métis Nation students impacted by COVID-19 so that they can continue, maintain and pursue their academic studies. To be clear, this funding is in addition to the existing distinctions-based support for first nations, Inuit and Métis Nation students pursuing post-secondary education and the Canada emergency student benefit funding, which is available to all Canadian students.
We are also working with indigenous partners, including youth organizations, to support and promote indigenous resources for youth. For example, We Matter is an indigenous-led youth organization focused on life promotion and messages of hope and resilience. They have developed important tool kits that are available for youth, teachers and support workers to help youth and those who support youth.
In closing, let me reiterate that we are committed to responding to and supporting the evolving needs of first nations, Inuit and Métis communities and individuals as we transition together through the various stages of this pandemic.
Meegwetch. Nakurmiik. Marsi. Thank you.
Christopher Sheppard-Buote
View Christopher Sheppard-Buote Profile
Christopher Sheppard-Buote
2020-05-19 17:42
Good morning, committee. My name is Christopher Sheppard-Buote. I'm the president of the National Association of Friendship Centres.
I want to recognize that I'm on Treaty 6. I'm joined by Jocelyn Formsma, the executive director of the National Association of Friendship Centres. We represent over 100 local friendship centres and provincial and territorial associations in every province from coast to coast to coast, except Prince Edward Island.
Friendship centres are urban indigenous community hubs that provide a wide range of programs and services for every demographic of indigenous people, including prenatal, healthy baby, family, children's, youth, adult and seniors programming. We offer services in health, economic development, entrepreneurship and employment and training, housing and homelessness, head start and child care, violence prevention, education, languages, culture, justice, and sports and recreation.
Collectively, we are the largest and most comprehensive urban indigenous service delivery network in Canada. Last year, 93 centres served approximately 1.4 million first nations, Inuit, Métis and non-indigenous people across over 1,200 programs and services in 238 buildings, and employing over 2,700 people. We are proud to be a largely indigenous, women-led network.
What I need you to hear today is this: The federal government needs us to help navigate through the remainder of the COVID-19 response in urban indigenous communities. They will need us to help re-establish Canada's economy after COVID-19, and they need to effectively resource us to do so. The first friendship centres have been on the front lines of support for first nations, Inuit and Métis people for 70 years. COVID-19 is but one emergency that we are helping the communities we serve to navigate. The matters and conditions that we help our community members with every day will still be here, even after this pandemic ends.
Among the systemic barriers to doing this essential work are the distinctions-based approach to COVID-19 funding, which left many of the urban indigenous community members we serve unseen; the ongoing jurisdictional wrangling between federal and provincial governments; the chronic lack of resources, training and personal protective equipment; and not being engaged nationally on urban-specific approaches.
While we are appreciative of the funds we have been able to secure through the indigenous community support fund, we need you to know that this money was spent even before it hit the ground. The $15 million that was set aside for urban indigenous needs was never going to meet those needs. We must see a second wave of funding soon. Urban indigenous people cannot continue to be left behind.
Now is the time to leverage the friendship centre movement's expertise, networks and programs to support urban indigenous people and provide them with the support they need during this crisis and afterward. The NAFC continues to seek funds to ensure that urban indigenous communities are served in this time. Friendship centres should not be decimated because they answered the call when others could not or would not, because they spent and served without proper equipment, and because they put aside their regular fundraising activities or shut down their social enterprises. Our network is highly effective, agile and competent at sharing information and caring for each other.
Instead of looking at us as another handout asking for more, we encourage the federal government to look to us as an answer to the question of how to reach this priority population. Properly equipping and resourcing friendship centres now and including friendship centres in response and recovery strategies is but one way to care for and invest in the viability of urban indigenous communities and economies.
The NAFC has offered and continues to offer its perspective, expertise and knowledge of urban indigenous communities and community members to inform the federal government and guide effective remedies both now and post COVID-19. We look forward to being a part of the ongoing conversation and the continued investment in our work.
Thank you so much.
Christopher Sheppard-Buote
View Christopher Sheppard-Buote Profile
Christopher Sheppard-Buote
2020-05-19 18:06
Thank you, Mr. McLeod.
Jocelyn and I have previously stated in front of other parliamentary committees our frustration that the jurisdictional issues around health information and the current structure of case identification do not include urban indigenous people. There's a reason that the cases in La Loche, for example, outnumber the total declared indigenous cases. If you are not on reserve, you typically don't get the same disaggregated data, which you would need to create good policy.
I would also argue that even when we have good data, public policy has not matched what that data tells us. For example, the majority of indigenous people live off reserve, off Inuit-governed territory, off Métis homelands, but the financial contributions have never matched that number.
We've already reached out to try to gather as much data as we can with our partners—I'm sure Jocelyn can follow up with some specifics—but we also want to make sure that this data is communicated in a way that's appropriate and comes from indigenous ways of knowing. Indigenous people don't typically talk about mental health. When we hear that word, it's not something we're comfortable talking about, but if you ask people, “How are you? How are you managing during this time?”, they're much more willing to tell you that they're not doing that well.
Jocelyn has some more specifics on the health data and the work we're trying to do in that area, but I'll just be very clear: We don't know how many urban indigenous people have died from COVID-19, period.
Jocelyn Formsma
View Jocelyn Formsma Profile
Jocelyn Formsma
2020-05-19 18:09
I can jump in and add a bit on the data.
A lot of the indigenous data that's being collected is very rightfully being collected by indigenous entities, such as The First Nations Information Governance Centre, various Métis nations and Inuit-formed entities. What we're saying is that we don't currently have a similar entity that collects the data within an urban landscape.
Anecdotally, we know there have been hundreds of COVID cases in the indigenous population within, say, Toronto, but we do not have any way of formally recognizing those cases of illness or any of the deaths that have occurred. Furthermore, a lot of the community members who have had the virus and passed away from it are largely unseen by society in general, such as the unsheltered homeless. We've had numerous young people in care. It's not to say that they've had the virus, but as a population, unless you know who they are and where they are, it can be very difficult to do outreach.
As our president said, we've been there from the beginning. This is another emergency in a long line of emergencies that friendship centres have responded to. Whether it's flood, fires, extreme heat, extreme cold or previous pandemics, friendship centres have been there on the front line. We were there previously, dealing with violence prevention, trying to advocate for affordable housing and dealing with homelessness for those very.... I don't want to say “vulnerable”, but I'll say they're a population that has been pushed to the margins through systemic measures.
What we're calling for is to look to us as an answer. We know this community very well. We think indigenous people living within urban settings are going to be very key for Canada's economy, not just now, but going into the future. We'll need a workforce. We'll need their thinking, and we'll need their leadership. We'll need young people to have the skills and knowledge to engage with the workforce and lead through entrepreneurship. We need this population, and we need to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to support them to participate fully.
We certainly need the infrastructure. We need the physical space, safer spaces, for friendship centres. We need enhancements to our current programs. This will allow us to not just provide the status quo in the programs and services we currently provide, but also be a lot more innovative with those programs, as we have also had to move to a virtual type of service delivery. Quite frankly, there should also be a vast investment in child care, young children's development, early childhood development and young people.
I think those are the things we would be calling for as part of the recovery for and investment in friendship centres.
View Marc Dalton Profile
CPC (BC)
Thank you very much. I'm pleased to be here.
Thank you to all the witnesses who are sharing their knowledge here today.
I'm substituting for Gary Vidal, and I'm glad to be joining the committee today. I'm the member of Parliament for Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge in the greater Vancouver area and the traditional territories of Katzie First Nation and Kwantlen First Nation. I am Métis and a member of the Métis Nation base B.C., and locally, the Golden Ears Métis Society.
As we find throughout Canada, and in B.C. in particular, about 75% of indigenous peoples live off reserve, particularly in the urban centres. In my riding, surprisingly, the indigenous people are the largest, if you want to say it, group of people, more than the Chinese, Indo-Canadians or anything like that. It's really very surprising for a suburban riding. It's about 4,000 people, of which about two-thirds are Métis.
I was talking earlier with Chief Grace Cunningham of the Katzie First Nation, and she expressed the concern that funding and supports for her people are not for those off the reserve. For example, they might reside a few blocks away, but the funding, the supports, are not there. They feel that they're being left behind.
Lorraine, I'm wondering if you want to perhaps make a few comments regarding supports for urban indigenous peoples, particularly women.
Lorraine Whitman
View Lorraine Whitman Profile
Lorraine Whitman
2020-05-15 15:26
Thank you.
Yes, I believe that with the dollars base for our women, there has to be a gender-based analysis when it comes to dollars. We're seeing funding that's being given out, but it's to just one source. It doesn't give the definite area where the funding is going. With regard to our indigenous women—our children, our girls and our gender base—we need to be able to make sure that each and every one of them are taken care of and not forgotten.
As it was mentioned earlier, we're always running through hoops to get proposals in, and then not to be able to hear from the proposals that have been given.... I know when anything comes on my desk, I will let them know that, yes, I've received it. However, it's not that way when we put in proposals. We don't hear from them or we're not given the dollars, yet when we receive what funding we do receive, when our report is due, they're on the line asking us for the report or our funding will be disrupted. That adds extra stress on the added stress that we have as well, working with our women, our girls and our gender-diverse. It makes it difficult that the funding is not there for us women. We need to be inclusive in order to give our women what they need.
We need to go back to the matriarch society that we once were and know that we are important in the whole scope of this.
View Marc Dalton Profile
CPC (BC)
That's great, Lorraine. Thank you very much.
There are about 600,000 Métis in Canada, of which about 75,000 are in British Columbia. There was recently an announcement of $305 million for supports for indigenous people in this time of COVID, of which only $15 million was for off-reserve indigenous people and Métis.
I'm wondering, Melanie, if perhaps you can share how you feel about this. Is it an appropriate distribution, allocation of the funding? Maybe you could make a few comments on that.
Melanie Omeniho
View Melanie Omeniho Profile
Melanie Omeniho
2020-05-15 15:28
Thank you for that opportunity.
There have been very few resources that have been able to go to urban indigenous issues and urban Métis people. I recognize that there have not been the necessary supports to even deal.... I live in Edmonton. I appreciate the British Columbia issues as well. However, we're in one of the largest indigenous urban centres in Edmonton, and there's been very little, if any, funding at all.
I know that when the federal government came to us as a national indigenous women's organization, we supported the money for COVID-19 going to grassroots community organizations. We were pushing for that and hoping there was going to be more of that, so that people delivering services on the ground would have those resources available to them.
Results: 61 - 75 of 126 | Page: 5 of 9

|<
<
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
>
>|
Export As: XML CSV RSS

For more data options, please see Open Data