1 EVIDENCE Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs NUMBER 023 1st SESSION 42nd PARLIAMENT Friday, September 23, 2016 Le vendredi septembre Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs CANADA [Recorded by Electronic Apparatus] EVIDENCE September 23, 2016 Committee Edited Evidence * Table of Contents * Number 023 (Official Version) Official Report * Table of Contents * Number 023 (Official Version) Témoignages * Table des matières * Numéro 023 (Version officielle) 23 23 09 2016 2016/09/23 08:40:00 House of Commons Comité permanent des affaires autochtones et du Nord Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs INAN Chair Mr.

Andy Fillmore 42 1 (0840) [ English ] The Chair (Mr. Andy Fillmore (Halifax, Lib.)) : Welcome, everybody. Before I officially start the meeting I would like to welcome Hunter Tootoo, the local member of Parliament, to welcome you to the room. Hon. Hunter Tootoo (Nunavut, Ind.) : Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome, everybody. I would especially like to welcome my colleagues from the standing committee to Iqaluit for this very important issue that we deal with here in Nunavut and across the north.

I think it's an important issue that has been called a crisis here in Nunavut, and hopefully you will have some very good discussions and presentations here today, and I look forward to the report you come out with. Hopefully there will be some strong recommendations for the minister to come up with some programs and some funding to be able to help alleviate this issue we face here in Nunavut. I look forward to presenting to you in Ottawa at a meeting there. Welcome to Nunavut.

I wish the weather were a little better but the hospitality is always warm here, so I hope you have a great visit, and thank you very much for coming. The Chair : Thanks very much for that welcome, Hunter, and with that we'll start the meeting. I want to say welcome to everybody who is in the room this morning. Welcome to our witnesses. I'll get to a proper introduction in a moment. Welcome to the folks in the audience and the gallery. Welcome to our friends in the media. With regard to the media, you can see the camera leaving now. When the gavel is struck, there won't be any broadcasting, for privacy concerns.

When there is a break or after the proceedings, the media may be broadcasting at that time, but just know that they are not recording during the actual session, other than the notes that are being taken behind me. We have French and English interpreters. We also have an Inuktitut interpreter. There are headsets. Please feel free to tune in to whichever language channel is your preference. I also wanted to let folks in the room know we do have some mental health support in the room. Mental health nurse Mary Griffiths is here and has made herself available for the day if anyone would like to have a chat with her.

I'll spend a moment framing this. This is the House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs. We're here because we are conducting the first study we are undertaking as a committee in the current government, and that is the study of indigenous suicide. Of the many issues that have been before us, this is the one that has risen to the top with the most urgency to be dealt with first by us. That's a measure of the deep concern each of the committee members holds for this tragic epidemic we're facing in so many communities in Canada.

Although the committee members here represent three of the major parties, this really is a non-partisan committee. Committees are not part of government. They advise government; they stand separate from government. The thing I would like to impress on people is that the members here represent eastern Canada, central Canada, western Canada, and northern Canada. We're carrying a very broad representation of Canadians. The words, stories, and suggestions we hear through this hearing will be folded into a report that will be completed sometime early in the new year, perhaps February or March.

They will be delivered to the Government of Canada and will indeed guide policy decisions and budgetary decisions, so there is real impact here. What we hear and what we learn from our witnesses today, and from the other communities we're visiting as part of the study, will have a real impact. We look forward to being a part of that. The committee members will be present as those changes get implemented, and will be keeping an eye on that as it happens. As far as how the process goes today, we have four panels. This is the first of four during the day.

The way it will work is our guests, who I will introduce in a moment, will have the floor for 10 minutes to give a presentation. Then that will be followed by a round of questions from the members of the committee. Both during the presentation from the witness and during the question period from members, we do keep a close eye on time so we can have fairness and make sure we hear all of the panels during the day. When there is one minute remaining in any of those periods, I'll be holding up a yellow card, so members and witnesses please observe that. Then when the time is up, I'll hold up the red card.

Please come to a close as quickly as you can at that point. I would also mention that when we get through those four panels at the end of the day, we are going to have an open mike session, so we can hear from other members of the community and other members of the audience. Unfortunately, the rules of committee procedure don't allow interventions from the audience during testimony, but we have created time at the end of the day for that. I expect that will be between p.m. and p.m.

(0845) With that, let's get into the first panel. It's my tremendous honour to welcome the Honourable George Hickes, Minister of Health and Minister responsible for Suicide Prevention, to present for 10 minutes. Hon. George Hickes (Minister of Health, Minister responsible for Suicide Prevention, Government of Nunavut) : Thank you, Mr. Chairman and committee members. Before I get started, I'd like to acknowledge the presence of Minister Johnny Mike, the Minister of Family Services here in Nunavut. I'd like to again thank you, Mr.

Chairman, for the invitation to appear as a witness in this committee's important work and for travelling to Inuit regions. I would like to acknowledge those who have appeared before the committee already: Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and Jack Hicks. Natan, Jack, and many of today's witnesses have spent years building the foundation of our suicide prevention work. I fully support their calls for social equity and knowledge-based interventions. I would also like to acknowledge the federal government for its recent investments.

We are in the third year of the territorial and pan-territorial health investment funds. These programs have invested over $7 million over three years to develop youth mental wellness, add mental health counselling capacity, and train current and future employees. With Canada's lead, we anticipate the reopening of the Mamisarvik in Ottawa, the only culturally grounded residential substance abuse treatment facility available to Nunavummiut.

Most recently, we anticipate that the announcement from this June for additional funds for suicide prevention in indigenous communities will allow us to pilot an on-the-land addictions treatment program and facilitate the development of men's groups. Nunavut is in a position to undertake these initiatives because we have a territorial suicide prevention strategy. The partners to the strategy—Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Government of Nunavut, and Embrace Life Council—undertook community consultations in and released a strategy in and an action plan in 2011.

Copies of these documents are available. There were some bumps along the road. The partnership model was weak at the beginning, and the first action plan was unfunded. Recently we took a renewed approach to our work. Premier Peter Taptuna declared suicide a crisis in our territory. We created a cabinet committee on quality of life, a minister responsible for suicide prevention, and a secretariat to improve collaboration.

In March, with our partners, we introduced Resiliency Within, an interim one-year action plan that allowed us to begin implementing the recommendations from the coroner's suicide inquest, while also engaging communities for the development of a longer-term action plan. What is important in all of this is that we're not reinventing the wheel. We are not looking for any magic solutions. We are working towards the priorities and needs of individuals and organizations in our communities. We are using knowledge and engagement at the core of our partnerships.

There is much work to be done, but we know what we need, and we are working together to get there. In May of this year, we engaged stakeholders for the longer-term action plan. Priorities identified during the United for Life Stakeholder Summit for Suicide Prevention were similar to those from 2009.

They included community-led action and decision-making, transmission of Inuit language and culture, early childhood development grounded in Inuit culture, supports for children and youth grounded in Inuit culture, healing gatherings and support groups in all communities, and more mental health services for all ages, with a focus on involving communities and Inuit practitioners. I will circulate the summit report to this committee after its final review by our stakeholders.

The mechanics of each priority boil down to local infrastructure, responsive and predictable funding programs, capacity development, research, and jobs in wellness and healing. As the chairman said, you are here to better understand how Canada can be part of the solution. First, Nunavut and Inuit need to be full and equal partners with Canada. We need to be engaged in the design and delivery of new programs, services, and research so that they meet our needs and we have adequate time to develop capacity for delivery.

As just one example, the national native alcohol and drug abuse program does not fund our country's two Inuit-specific residential treatment centres, and neither will it recognize a Nunavut facility. As a result, we continue to rely on costly medical travel and on English-language facilities in the south.

(0850) Our unique language and vast geography mean that we have health centres providing services in four official languages. We need to be at the table, working together, to design programs and services to meet our unique needs. Indigenous people have spoken about and documented many traumas, and have worked towards restoring wellness in our communities and our country as a whole. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Qikiqtani Truth Commission warrant the arrest of individuals charged with child sex abuse. The list is long and will soon include the inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.

I call on Canada to acknowledge these historical wrongs and to implement the recommendations with Nunavut and Inuit as full and equal partners. Second, indigenous suicide prevention needs long-term, stable, and predictable investments. Given the need, our communities require more mental health services, not less, than the average Canadian jurisdiction. We need a breadth of services utilizing both western and Inuit healing methods that respect and reflect our language and culture. Given the need, we need more youth and early childhood education centres than the average Canadian jurisdiction.

This requires both program and capital investments. We need to address the immediate risks through intervention and by addressing underlying needs such as affordable housing, early childhood education, and food security, so that children born today can live in a healthier society. This is not a shortcoming of Inuit. Our people are dealing with rapid social and cultural change. Within our living history, Inuit have faced tremendous injustices, all well documented, which created the conditions for suicide risk factors.

In some individuals, these traumas compromised their ability to cope and heal, and they in turn passed the trauma on to younger generations. The situation we are facing today is the result of decades of social injustice. The Government of Nunavut does not have adequate resources to self-fund the solutions. I want to be clear in the need for Inuit-specific and Inuit-led approaches. We are past the days when we had no other options. Today, we have an accredited training program for counsellors called “Our Life's Journey”, thanks to the dedication of Ilisaqsivik Society in Clyde River.

Those counsellors are critical to the wellness in our communities, yet they are not recognized as equals in pay or title by current federal programs. Today, we have documented and accessible wellness resources, such as the Inuit language preschool curriculum, Inuinnaqtun songbooks, and research by Inuit scholars. To scale up these programs, approaches, and interventions, our territory needs long-term, stable, and predictable investments. I would like to address your specific request for indicators for Nunavut's place on the KidsRights Index and the need for more data.

Many of the indicators from the index are not relevant here, such as running water, sewers, and education for both genders. Our desired outcomes should inform our monitoring, not the other way around. With the partners to the suicide prevention strategy, we are in the planning stages for collecting and analyzing more robust data specific to the strategy. This could be achieved under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement's Nunavut general monitoring plan, if additional resources were made available.

Finally, we need a national dialogue with regard to our country's recent history, cultural safety, and opportunities to address common misconceptions. Suicide is not the Inuit way. Being indigenous is not a risk factor. I'm going to quote Natan Obed in his committee appearance earlier this year. We are here because: At the base of this issue is social inequity. We can talk around this issue all we want, but if we don't provide health care, housing, education, and a basic level of security for all Canadians and all indigenous Canadians, then this issue is not going to be addressed the way that it could be.

Not only are the issues we are faced with relatively new, we have significant strength as a people who have long thrived in what others considered a hostile environment. Public health efforts should be built upon these and our many strengths. In closing, I thank you for undertaking this important work. My list of priorities is short: Nunavut must be a full and equal partner with Canada; we need stable long-term funding; and, the time for a national dialogue on cultural safety is now. That is a tall order, but we're optimistic. I'll leave you with some hope.

The Arviat Wellness Committee has introduced Young Hunters, an after-school program for youth, which has resulted in increased school attendance, food security, mental wellness, transmission of traditional knowledge, and intergenerational connectedness.

(0855) In Hall Beach, a men's group to serve those who were spending too many nights in jail began last September. Men and their relationships with each other, their spouses, and their families are healing. This has been supported by a reduction in jail cell use. These examples demonstrate the strength of the individual and community initiatives that serve as the foundation for mental wellness, resiliency, and suicide prevention through our communities.

They also serve as a reminder that the most effective programs and initiatives are locally initiated, culturally appropriate, and based on Inuit societal values and traditions. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just in closing, I'd like to recognize my associate deputy minister Karen Kabloona. As I mentioned in my opening comments, Nunavut has taken the step to create a ministry portfolio responsible for suicide prevention, and my associate deputy minister leads that division. Thank you. The Chair : Thanks very much, Mr. Hickes. Welcome to Ms. Kabloona as well. It's nice to have you here.

As I understand it, you both may answer questions, depending on the questions asked. Thank you for that. We'll move right into questions from committee members. The first-round questions are seven minutes, so each member will have seven minutes to ask and to hear the answer for the question. I would just remind members, as always, to try to come to the point as quickly as you can so we can have more time to hear from the witnesses. The first member to have a question is Gary Anandasangaree. Mr. Gary Anandasangaree (Scarborough—Rouge Park, Lib.) : Thank you, Minister and Associate Deputy Minister, for being here.

It's a pleasure to be here in Nunavut. I was just glancing through your report on Resiliency Within, and we looked at the partners and I noticed that the federal government is not listed as a partner. What are the impediments for the federal government to be a partner on this? I think it's an important place for the federal government to be, and it's a great responsibility. What were some of the challenges, and what does the government need to do to be a partner? Hon.

George Hickes : To start off, in going forward we do want the federal government to be an equal partner, as I mentioned a few times in my opening comments. When we're developing the national suicide strategy, I think there's definitely room for more partnerships. The Public Health Agency of Canada has assisted us in some components with creating two positions. That's basically what we're asking. You guys are here, and hopefully what I see in the report is for the federal government to sit at the table with us. Thank you. Mr.

Gary Anandasangaree : With respect to social inequity, housing has become a recurring theme in the last couple of days as one of the major areas of inequity. What are the housing needs of the people of Nunavut, and what kinds of solutions can assist in alleviating some of that inequity? Hon. George Hickes : That's an excellent question, and I thank you for asking that one. Housing is obviously a critical need across the entire territory; the lack of infrastructure and the infrequency of investments.

We're doing the best we can with the monies we have to promote housing and home ownership and develop public housing. Other than the infrequent funding investments that we do have, one of the real challenges is O and M. The costs of maintaining a unit across this territory are in the neighbourhood of $25,000 a year with our extreme costs for power, water, and sewer. It's an ongoing challenge and this is something that you're probably going to get tired of hearing me saying: long-term, stable, reliable funding. Mr.

Gary Anandasangaree : The other major issue we saw was the need for education and the need to have attainment rates that will allow young people to go on to further education. I think it's a cycle, and it's important to have people from the community who go through an education system and come back and serve. What are some of those impediments, and how do we work to fix them? I know it's a huge question, but if you can give your thoughts, that'll be appreciated.

(0900) Hon. George Hickes : That would almost take another committee meeting, but in a nutshell, the consistency of education across the territory is very important. It starts at the early childhood level. When we have our youth going into early childhood curriculum, their success at the K-to-12 level improves dramatically. When we're looking at funding for our schools—and we've taken some steps within our education act to be at least equal to the Canadian average or better—the challenge is that we're holding to a statistic. I think we need to do more on a needs base.

We need to recognize the population of some of our schools, and the resources that are available to them, not just to maintain, but to enhance the education process with the science labs, the gymnasiums, the arts sector. We do have our Nunavut Arctic College, which has a number of great programs. Some of them are degree-granting partnerships with outside universities. We need to further enhance those relationships. We need to encourage our youth to take on post-secondary education opportunities, and—this is our goal as well—make sure they are incentivized to come back so that we don't lose that brain power. Mr.

Gary Anandasangaree : Just to probe a bit more on the education front, one of the issues that was identified last night by a small-group gathering is the lack of post-secondary education locally. If somebody wants to study, they need to go south. Oftentimes there are some serious barriers when someone leaves the community. They're disconnected from their day-to-day life as well as many of the social supports they've had. What is your government's overall position on establishing a post-secondary institution here, and what are the things you need in order to do that? Hon.

George Hickes : There was very recently a study done on just that: creating an actual university of the Arctic or a northern university. One of the challenges is to receive university accreditation. There are a number of different protocols or guidelines to be able to be considered a university, one of them being enrolment, which, with our numbers, we probably wouldn't be able to make. We have taken a very serious look at partnerships. We have a nursing program here. We have a teacher program. We're in the process of revitalizing the law program.

In addition, there are a number of other training opportunities through our Nunavut Arctic College, and we have satellite campuses in all of our communities. So the access to initial post-secondary education is there at the local level. If you are going into different academic streams than what we can provide, we have relationships with different Inuit associations in the south for support. There are different organizations in Manitoba, and I think Montreal has one, and there's one in Ontario. There are groups out there to help some of our students.

You have travelled here to Iqaluit, and as I mentioned to a couple of you during discussions, Iqaluit is not the norm for Nunavut. When you take a kid from a community of people and put them in Laval university, the cultural challenges are pretty overwhelming. The Chair : Thanks, Minister, and thanks, Gary, for the questions. The next question is from David Yurdiga. Mr. David Yurdiga (Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, CPC) : Good morning. I'd like to welcome you to our committee. Obviously, we have a passion to make a difference within the north and throughout our indigenous populations.

There's a significant increase in suicides, and this is a concern to all of us. I understand that you have created an action plan for suicide prevention. What are some of the short- and long-term measures identified in those strategies? Hon. George Hickes : There are a number of them. Again, this would take a pretty long answer, but one of the key things to take from our strategy is working with the community, at the community level, and we talked about that a little bit earlier. It's one of the things we really need to focus on. We know what we need to do to move forward.

We need some help with the resources and to develop the capacity to work with our communities. We have some very active communities, as I mentioned earlier—Arviat, men's wellness and keeping people from the judicial system. The engagement within some of our youth groups is very prominent. You met with some of our great youth leadership last night. I was very happy to see that occur. There are a number of strategies outlined, for example, monitoring and program funding.

We need some help in gathering some of this capacity to be able to analyze the data so that we can move forward, see what's working and what's not working, and enhance those that are.

(0905) Mr. David Yurdiga : During our conversations in the past few days, a lot of people have been concerned about sustainable funding. Programs come and go, and they want to see a longer period when they are guaranteed this funding. A lot of times, when they just get going, the program changes, and then it goes through the whole process again of making application and all the barriers that are put up when you have to fit into this or that category. Is that a huge challenge with a lot of these suicide prevention strategies—dealing with the funding itself that is always changing?

Are there any plans to have a longer-term process where somebody says, yes, we can do this for 10 years, or whatever, so we can develop the program and maintain it over a longer period of time? Hon. George Hickes : Absolutely. One of our main goals out of this exercise is to reinforce the belief that, given some stable funding with some flexibility to it.... Again, as things adjust, as things adapt, we need some fluidity within the parameters of the programming so that we can adjust as we recognize things that are working and things that aren't working.

As I mentioned in my opening comments, there is the Nunavut general monitoring program funding, which could be utilized to gather and assist with a lot of these programs, but stable long-term funding is the key message. Mr. David Yurdiga : You mentioned that programs should have flexibility. Every community is a little different. If you go kilometres and compare one community to the other, there are similarities, but there are also a lot of differences. In these programs, how much flexibility is allowed, so they can tailor that program to fit that community's particular needs?

Is that one of the strategies, to make it more and more flexible so it can be tailored to that community? Hon. George Hickes : That is one of the challenges with the funding that we do have and that we are able to provide at the community level. It is more the community initiatives that are developing the programs. We are trying not to be Big Brother. We want the communities to develop their own programming, if they can.

We also need the funding and the resources to be able to, again, take advantage of best practices, take advantage of a program that has worked in one community and modify it for another community so that those positive impacts can be territorial. Mr. David Yurdiga : We understand that you have a quality of life secretariat. What does that role entail? Hon. George Hickes : I am going to let Karen respond to that one, if you don't mind, Mr. Chair. Ms.

Karen Kabloona (Associate Deputy Minister, Quality of Life, Department of Health, Government of Nunavut) : The quality of life secretariat is just getting built right now, and the main purpose is to collaborate within the Government of Nunavut so that the Government of Nunavut is a partner in the Nunavut suicide prevention strategy implementation committee. That is with Nunavut Tunngavik, the RCMP, and the Embrace Life Council.

Prior to that, the other partners worked quite regularly with each other but then had to call in other departments one at a time, so it just helps with the collaboration within the Government of Nunavut. We are also able to move faster on the implementation, because somebody is responsible; it's not off the corner of a desk.

(0910) Mr. David Yurdiga : What is the exact role of the quality of life secretariat? Whom do you report to? I want to understand the mechanics of it all. I understand the position is created, but how does it fit in the whole region? How does that work, the mechanics of that position? Hon. George Hickes : That was one of the things we did as a jurisdiction, and it is a very new concept across the country. I am the minister responsible for suicide prevention.

Karen reports directly to me, so it has that direction and responsibility from the very top, from a cabinet level, which I think is a key component, not having departments work parallel to each other, with duplication and passing the buck, in some cases. The buck stops here. I will let Karen elaborate a little more on the actual mechanics of it. Thank you. The Chair : Be brief if you can, Karen. Ms. Karen Kabloona : We have a new cabinet committee, as you heard from the minister. Also in the department we have a new Inuusiq committee, which is the life committee, so all of the departments feed into it.

The Quality of Life Secretariat holds those meetings, disseminates information, and brings information back. We're the lead for monitoring the implementation of the action plan you have there, for reaching out to communities, and for engaging with communities and our other partners. We're just starting to do some research specific to the strategy, so we are focused on delivering the commitments of the original strategy. The Chair : Thank you for that. Our next question is from Romeo Saganash. Mr. Romeo Saganash (Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, NDP) : Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to both of our witnesses for their contributions to this committee. I have a couple of questions, but I want to go back first of all to the issue of housing, because it's such an important component to this debate on suicides of our Canadians. I know that you mentioned, in response to Gary's question, that there's a critical need in the territory. I understand it's a critical need for all regions in the north, but can you give us a specific number of units that will be required in the territories, let's say tomorrow morning? Hon.

George Hickes : We wouldn't be able to build that many units in a short term, but again it is a question of stabilization of funding. The latest numbers I have show that we're more than 3,000 units short across the territory. That may not sound like a lot to some people from larger jurisdictions, but it's a huge component here and we're going backwards, anywhere between and units per year, due to population growth. So we're not even maintaining what we're growing, never mind tapping into the backlog of needs. Mr. Romeo Saganash : It's comparable.

I have a riding in which there are indigenous communities: 14 Inuit, 9 Cree, and two Algonquin, and the amount is about the same. Three thousand units would be required tomorrow morning if we were to meet the needs. Just to follow up on that issue, one of our witnesses in Kuujjuaq yesterday said that if we were to tackle the issue of housing in our communities, it would solve 50% of our problems. Would you agree with that? Hon. George Hickes : That's a very long discussion. Housing has a very diverse impact; you're talking about health, education, and mental health.

The opportunity for violence in a household when you're living in overcrowded scenarios, I would say is at least 50%. It would alleviate some of the pressures on a lot of our social issues. When we talk about housing, it has such an overarching effect on our quality of life. I live in a home with my wife and two children. I've seen people living in that size of unit with people in it. I can't fathom the complexity and the challenges of just finding a quiet corner to do your homework or finding a spot to have a good night's sleep.

(0915) Mr. Romeo Saganash : I want to go back to that cabinet committee on quality of life. I think it's an important initiative for your government. I was wondering whether or not you are also looking at the whole question of cost of living in the north. I recall a couple years back, during your previous Parliament, I wrote to the Auditor General to look into the nutrition north program, for instance. He responded positively to that request. He examined the program and concluded that the program doesn't work.

He even went on to say that the department responsible for the program did not have any mechanisms in place to check where the money was going or who was benefiting from the program. Is that part of the work that's going to be involved with that cabinet committee? Hon. George Hickes : I'll let Karen enhance it a little afterwards, but in general, yes, to a degree. We are looking at social inequities, which Mr. Obed brought up in his appearance, and I reiterate that. When we're talking about people living at or below the poverty level, food security is obviously a huge component of that.

However, it just goes more to general social inequity if our people, our residents, and our fellow Canadians don't have access to opportunities the way everyone deserves and the quality of life that people deserve in Canada. We export a lot of funding and financial aid to a lot of places outside Canada while we have people in our country living in overcrowded conditions, who lack food security, and opportunities. That's a huge component. I'll let Karen elaborate. I've covered it? Thank you. Mr. Romeo Saganash : I have a general question perhaps.

With all these strategies and plans that are being proposed by many different organizations and levels of government, local and throughout the region, is there an organization or government that can play a leading role in coordinating all these plans and strategies with respect to suicide prevention? Hon. George Hickes : That's our office. Right now, we're working on our action plan. There are a number of different indicators we want to have an impact on, but we need assistance. We need partnerships. The federal government is one of those partners.

The RCMP has been a great resource, NTI , and a number of stakeholders. We also want to participate in the national suicide strategy as it rolls out. The ITK strategy that came out a couple of months ago is a step in the right direction. I was in Kuujjuaq for that announcement as well. The Government of Nunavut is a representative government, but 85% of our population are Inuit, and we have to make sure that we are working with our population to overcome the challenges that society has thrust upon us in such a short period of time. The Chair : That's the end, Romeo. Thank you. That's rather ominous.

It's not the end, but it is Michael McLeod's turn to ask a question. Mr. Michael McLeod (Northwest Territories, Lib.) : Thank you, George and Karen, for appearing in front of us. I'm from the Northwest Territories, as you know, and this is certainly an issue that we share in terms of jurisdiction across the north. We've been hearing presentations and talking about this issue for several months now as a committee. During that time I've been trying to put together numbers as we hear presentations and as we start to see the broad crisis situation that's developing and has been in place for a long time.

It's important that we put it in perspective, and I think between Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Nunavik, Yukon, and Labrador, in the last 15 years we've probably seen well over 1,000 people commit suicide, and that is something that the nation did not recognize for the longest time. But I think now we have the attention of the nation on this issue. We've had strong voices from youth across the north, from the leaders across the north, and we're certainly starting to have the political attention to this issue that it requires.

I think it's no surprise to all of us that one of the factors that leads to the condition of despair is that people feel there's no way out. We have some challenges in the north. The high cost of living is one of them. Housing and socio-economic inequity are right across the north. Our youth are starting to experience cultural disconnect that is really causing a lot of confusion in our communities. I think we all recognize that there is no magic solution. We've heard it in the communities that we visited. We were in Kuujjuaq and we were in Nunavut yesterday, and I think everybody recognizes that is the case.

There are a lot of things we can do for prevention in this situation, but it's going to require adequate investment in the north, as you pointed out. We need to deal with the issue of housing. We need to increase the number of dwellings in our communities. We need to have more on site and better educational opportunities. The economy has to perform a lot better. We need more jobs. We need people to get to work. We have to deal with the issue of trauma, physical and sexual abuse in our communities.

That may be a result of a number of things, but residential schools have certainly been mentioned throughout our visits. We certainly need to find a way to deal with the addiction issues we have in every one of our communities, including mine. For the most part, we don't have the resources. We don't have the facilities to do so. We heard many things during our visit. We heard about the need for crisis centres in the communities and cultural centres. We heard about the need for family centres.

I would like to raise the program of friendship centres that we have in southern communities that seem to work quite well, and education-based programs for early childhood. Throughout our visits we have heard that people want to see community-based solutions by our own people, our own communities, and the people who live there. So I wanted to ask you in your capacity, and I know you've been around for a while, what you have seen that works, what approaches work in our communities? What would you like to see happening in our communities to help us deal with these concerns that we're experiencing?

(0920) Hon. George Hickes : I agree with everything you said, Michael. One of the things is that I think you'd be very hard-pressed to find somebody in Nunavut, NWT, Labrador, or Nunavik who hasn't been touched by this issue of suicide. When we're talking about some of the things that have been working or some of the things that need to be enhanced, you talked about that cultural disconnect. A lot of our youth don't know where they fit in right now. Are they living in a western society? Are they living in a cultural Inuit society with the values associated with that?

We've got a foot in both and we have to find ways to bridge that and celebrate our cultural connectedness to each other, to the land. On the values that our elders are passing down to us, we're losing more and more every day. I'm also involved with the seniors file obviously, and there's so much knowledge and so much desire to assist our youth to overcome this adaptation to today's society. We have to work and we have to be able to give our kids the tools to overcome their challenges. We have to give them the opportunity to be able to live and learn, and to know that suicide is not an option.

When you said earlier in your comments that when we've put our children in a place where they consider that they don't have any other options, we have to put more options out there then so that suicide is not one of them.

(0925) The Chair : You just have seconds. Mr. Michael McLeod : I have a number of questions, but since I have such a short time.... Language has been raised many times as an important part of growing up in those communities. Can you just tell us what your plans are in Nunavut to continue to support languages in schools and other places? Hon. George Hickes : I'm probably the worst person to respond to this, Michael. I lost my language as a child, but I think that gives me a higher focus on how important it really is.

There are a number of different words in the Inuit language that you just can't translate into English. Working with the Department of Education, working with the official languages division, we are streamlining a lot of the processes through recommendations. We are working with NTI and our regional Inuit organizations to accelerate language training opportunities for not just our youth but for people like me who have lost their language yet who desire to at least be able to function at somewhat of a level. The Chair : Thank you, Minister. We're moving into a five-minute round of questions now.

The next question is from Arnold Viersen. Mr. Arnold Viersen (Peace River—Westlock, CPC) : Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for being here today. We've been really inundated over the last couple of days with this topic and so the questions just keep piling up to some degree. You're the health minister. One of the things that comes to mind is smoking because that was something that our nation tackled over 30 years ago. We've seen a dramatic reduction in the use of cigarettes and things like that. There was a several-pronged approach to that. There was a taxation approach and there was an education approach.

That's one of the things I'm looking at in this. Do you have an education approach as Health Canada did with smoking? You think that education is education, but it was a Health Canada initiative, advertising and all these kinds of things, something that would hold up a good story, a positive message. A lot of this is dark, depressing talk about these things. We were even told that just having these discussions may actually trigger some suicide attempts. That's the question. What are you doing for more of a positive approach? I really appreciate the ITK report and the talk about all those mitigating factors.

You can go through that list. I think it's five items. Do we have a family that you can hold up and say, these are good intergenerational connections, this is a cohesive family unit that works well together, so a good-news story basically or some things so that you could say, just don't go here, and we'll have a better outcome eventually? Is there an education program, an advertising program, or something like it that you're running? Hon. George Hickes : Health has a number of different programs with a smoking cessation program.

We have a number of different campaigns on smoking cessation, specifically, where we have posters of residents that people know. Mr. Arnold Viersen : Yes. Not specifically for smoking, but are we doing the same thing but for suicide? Hon. George Hickes : We have a promotion of life campaign that's ongoing. A lot of it is still being developed, even as we speak. With this specific focus on suicide prevention, out of my office, there's a number of different initiatives, such as injury prevention and not hurting yourself, and promotion of a good quality of life across the territories.

There are a number of different campaigns that we're looking at, and that's where we need some assistance to be able to focus our energies on specifics.

(0930) Mr. Arnold Viersen : Is there an Inuit leader we can look to as a role model? I think in our Internet age, we all end up in our silos. Where are the guys we need to follow? For me, it's some of the snowmobilers who do the high arctic snowmobiling and stuff like that. I think that's cool. I'll probably never do anything like that, but I'd like to do that some day. Is there a range of Inuit role models we can look to? An inspiration, I guess, is what I'm looking for. Hon. George Hickes : Absolutely. You've hit the nail on the head. We have to celebrate.

There are individuals in our society, and the first one who comes to mind is...we do want to focus on the everyday people, but we do have leaders. Jordin Tootoo is an example. He's led a number of suicide prevention initiatives internationally. He's done some great work on bringing focus to the Inuit. He lost his brother, my cousin, to suicide a number of years ago. Instead of dwelling on the negatives of that, he's taken a leadership role. We have a number of people who live in the Territories, and we've all been touched by suicide in one way or another.

We have a lot of people we want to continue to work with at the community level. They're everyday people who are seen every day, and we celebrate their lives and their healthy life promotion. Mr. Arnold Viersen : That's my time. The Chair : Arnold is self-policing. Thank you for that. The last question in this panel is from Michael McLeod, for five minutes. Mr. Michael McLeod : I'll try not to have a long

preamble this time. We talked about funding. There have been some new resources identified through your government. I think there was $4.5 million identified for the Quality of Life Secretariat. The Government of Canada has recently announced $9 million in funding. There are more resources to draw from. We've heard in the last while from different people about the difficulty of trying to access money. The proposal requirements are fairly difficult to manoeuvre through, such as the drafting. The funding that is available is inadequate.

For a lot of the organizations and groups that want to use this money, it seems the criteria doesn't fit the need. Could you talk about that a little? We've also heard there's a 32-week waiting period before you get your money, and then you have to scramble to spend it. There seems to be a lot of issues around funding. Have you experienced any of that? Hon. George Hickes : We have, to a degree. I wasn't familiar with the waiting period. I hope that's not the case. I was with Minister Philpott when that announcement was made in Kuujjuaq on the $9 million. We've been working on putting proposals together.

I know there have been some back and forth challenges, and there's a lack of clarity in the requirements of the proposal. That being said, we need to look at more of a needs-based approach, where if there are programs in place that we can enhance, then it should streamline the proposal process. If there's one recommendation out of the many that I'm sure you will put forward, I hope it is a way to streamline the funding process so we can utilize the funds that are provided. There are additional monies coming from Health Canada over the next few years, as well, for core funding.

When we're talking about specific proposal-based funding, I hope there's a way to streamline that process to take more of a needs-based approach to it.

(0935) Mr. Michael McLeod : My next question is around the trust factor that seems to be of great concern with the youth, and more so with elders and the adult population, when it comes to dealing with police, social workers, nurses at the health facilities, and schools. We've heard of people not wanting to enter the schools, and not wanting to even attend graduations because they've had very negative experiences through the schools, through the residential school program. A lot of the time, the people who are employed in these occupations cannot speak the Inuit language, so it really puts up a barrier.

Often, people in these positions haven't been trained in cultural awareness, nor are they familiar with the history of the Inuit, nor all that should be known about living in a small town, or isolated situation. Are there any programs that your government provides to help alleviate this situation, to tackle this challenge? Hon. George Hickes : Without going too much into specifics, it's a very diverse approach.

First, we need more of our residents getting into those careers as teachers, mental health practitioners, counselling, so our people at risk are seeing people they know, or at least come from a similar background and do speak the language. In the meantime, we do have to rely upon outside expertise and bringing professionals from the south. But going back to the cultural competencies and knowledge of people, when people come up here they ought to understand what they're going into, and that needs to be taught in the schools and universities.

There are a number of challenges, as I mentioned earlier, traumas that our people are working to overcome today. That's where we need the tools to heal, so we don't dwell upon those traumas over and over and keep that cycle of repetition ongoing. We need to work on programs to help people heal, so they can walk into that school and feel okay about walking in there, that they've dealt with their trauma and have got past it. We need to focus on employment levels of local professionals as one of the key things. The Chair : Thanks for that. We're over time now, Michael. Thank you.

That brings us to an end of this panel. On behalf of the committee, I would like to say thank you, Mr. Hickes and Assistant Deputy Minister Kabloona, for your testimony today and for the thoughtful answers. As I said at the start, everything you've said will have a direct impact on our final report and, ultimately, on policy and budgets, so thank you very much for that. We will now suspend for 20 minutes. (0935)

(1000) The Chair : We're going to resume the hearing of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs and the study of indigenous suicide. My thanks to everyone in the audience for joining us, and I want to extend special thanks to our witnesses. I'd like to welcome three organizations that will be speaking from Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. We have James T. Arreak, the CEO; Jeannie Arreak-Kullualik, the director in the Department of Social and Cultural Development; and from the Nunatsiavut Government, Johannes Lampe, president.

Finally, from the Government of Nunavut, we'll hear from Shuvinai Mike, director of Inuit Qaujim. I think we have Mr. Arreak starting. Thank you. Mr. James Arreak (Chief Executive Officer, Executive Services, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.) : Qujannamiik. Ullukut , members of the committee. Standing committee, my name is James Arreak. I'm the chief executive officer of Nunavut Tunngavik, the land claims organization responsible for ensuring the rights of the Inuit of Nunavut set out in the Nunavut agreement, the Constitution Act of 1982, and elsewhere are upheld.

On behalf of the president and the vice-president and the board of directors of NTI, I want to thank this committee for coming to Nunavut. I join you today to discuss a very sensitive and important issue that affects every Nunavummiut. Over the last few decades historical trauma and social problems at the community and individual level have contributed to a steep and unfortunate rise in the rates of suicide in Nunavut. To give you some perspective, in the suicide rate among Inuit in Nunavut was 83.9 per 100,000, while in the rest of Canada it was 11.7 per 100,000.

Other data from to shows deaths by suicide in Nunavut. In the conclusion of the coroner's inquest into the high rates of suicide in Nunavut led to the declaration of a public health crisis in Nunavut by the Government of Nunavut. The Nunavut suicide prevention strategy partners, NSPS, which include NTI, GN, RCMP, and the Embrace Life Council, have since released a one-year action plan for suicide prevention, and we are working to develop a suicide prevention plan for to 2020. The coroner's recommendations directly and indirectly implicated key systemic causal issues in the suicide crisis.

These include intergenerational trauma as a result of their residential school and other colonial experiences, inadequate housing, lack of early childhood education, and the failure of the current Nunavut education system to deliver on the rights for Inuit and our children to be educated in our own language and in accordance with Inuit culture. The NSPS partners are working closely more than ever to see that these recommendations are put into action. We need investments in all these areas to improve the overall quality of life.

In recent years we've struggled and worked hard to understand this issue in ways that we can address in our communities. We've developed and contributed many resources: The community consultation report was submitted; the Nunavut suicide prevention strategy; the Nunavut suicide prevention strategy action plan; evaluation of the NSPS; research documents on child sexual abuse, substance abuse, and early childhood education; the Nunavut Youth Centre Environmental Scan; as well as a historical look at deaths by suicide in Nunavut from to 2014.

It's been extremely difficult to engage communities at times because it's an extremely painful and difficult issue. Some elders have suggested that talking about suicide too loosely is irresponsible and draws more of it into our lives, while others acknowledge that we need to talk about it to address it and prevent it from continuing. Examples are: a Inuktitut term used to describe suicide in itself is a concern, imminiiriq “to do by oneself”; suicide prevention is imminiiqtailimaniq , “to prevent one from doing something on their own”.

We also got instructions from Nunavut Inuit not to sensationalize suicide because so many are deeply affected, at first second-hand, either by direct family relations or through other relationships in the community, the workplace, or through their support systems. Page of the NSPS describes the impact of rapid societal change, historical and intergenerational trauma: The trauma experienced firsthand by Inuit in the settlement transitional period has had an immense impact on all generations....This unresolved trauma compromised their ability to cope with stress in a healthy manner.

(1005) As a representative of roughly 30,000 Inuit in Nunavut, NTI knows that suicide is preventable and that we must do all we can to reduce the rates and advocate for programs and services, which is why NTI continues to invest in this area and treat it as a priority. In May, Atausiuqatigiingniq Inuusirmi United for Life Stakeholder Summit on Suicide Prevention took place in Iqaluit.

The summit was a successful initiative taken by the partners to get a better understanding of resources, programs, and initiatives in our community, as well as the challenges communities are facing and their perspectives on the issue of suicide. The themes included the need for healing at the community level, the need to address intergenerational trauma and build confidence in Inuit identity, the need for education that is reflective of Inuit culture and language, the need for addiction treatment throughout Nunavut, and the need for parental programming.

Among other historical government policies that have impacted Inuit, it is the crown's responsibility, alongside Inuit organizations, to help Inuit reclaim our identity, language, and customs. You, as the federal government, hold fiduciary responsibility to provide continuous, multi-year funding and assist Inuit organizations in funding services in suicide prevention and addictions treatment. I emphasize that Inuit need to heal from intergenerational trauma that exists within our families, communities, and our society. Identity is a key issue for us.

Our youth are currently straddling two worlds, being told that in order to be Inuk and be confident in oneself, you need to do A, B, and C, yet also being told that their language and culture are insignificant and of less value than that of western Canadian society. These beliefs are reinforced through the education system, through the media, popular culture, and everywhere. In June of this year, Prime Minister Trudeau observed that restoring indigenous languages is a key to addressing youth suicide. Loss of language is one of the most serious threats facing Inuit today.

The biggest factor in the erosion of Inuit language and culture is the predominantly non-Inuit school system. In Nunavut, there are 9,247 students enrolled, and are non-Inuit students, yet there are non-Inuit teachers and only Inuit teachers. There are more non-Inuit teachers than there are non-Inuit students. Ninety-five percent of Nunavut students are Inuit, yet 80% of the teachers are non-Inuit. These numbers reflect a continuation in present-day terms of the cultural assimilation experienced by Inuit in the residential school era.

The Inuit of Nunavut and our children have the inherent aboriginal right to be educated in our own language and culture. The right is not being honoured today. It is instructive to note that federal investment in Inuit language education and services is a slight fraction of the figure for the comparable French language services in Nunavut. NTI welcomes the recognition and support of French language, but the expenditures for Inuktitut should be comparative with the Inuit population.

As a means of addressing suicide, low graduation rates, and other problems, both levels of government must ensure that adequate funding is available to implement the Inuit right to be educated in their language.

(1010) Our education system needs your investment. NTI has requested Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit become a core curriculum subject or core element. Why does it take eight years for curriculum on staking the claim in Nunavut, based on the negotiations that happened and why the territory was created, to get approval and implementation into the classroom? That's eight years. Regarding mental health services, there are urgent needs for mental health workers in our communities to speak Inuktitut and understand our culture. We must train Inuit to fill these roles.

We have to start the process of engaging bodies like Ilisaqsivik, which is in Clyde River. We know measures have been taken by the GN, Government of Nunavut, in recent years to enhance the capacity, but we need much more in this priority area. Proper intervention measures must be put in place. In partnership with the NSPS and our health partners at the table, we are trying to figure out what the healing, grief counselling, and bereavement support groups are going to look like, and implement the action plan, Resiliency Within.

NTI continues to advocate for access to culturally appropriate mental health services in Nunavut. This includes being able to receive care in Inuktitut. Mr. Chair, the “Annual Report on the State of Inuit Culture and Society” was tabled in Parliament. The report focused on the state and the status of Inuit children and youth in Nunavut, and emphasizes the importance of the need to access early childhood development programming in the language of their homeland.

We also need to shift our work in monitoring programming for men and inunnguiniq parenting, which directly create reinforced protective factors in suicide prevention. I cannot overstate the appreciation and the gratitude we have had for many years with this initiative, the front-line workers who continue to lead these initiatives, and the community leaders who spend countless hours standing at the front line; so we accept them, and we appreciate them. Lastly, I echo what our elders have said, that there is hope and there are many ways to celebrate life.

Many of our elders survived hardship and starvation, and have a proven way to survive millennia, to pave a way forward, and to always embrace a new day. Qujannamiik , Mr. Chair. Thank you. The Chair : Thank you very much, Mr. Arreak. Mr. Lampe.

(1015) Mr. Johannes Lampe (President, Nunatsiavut Government) : [ Witness speaks in Inuktitut ] I know first-hand just what it is like to lose a loved one to suicide. I have lost a brother, a nephew, and a son. There's a lot of hurt and pain, and a lot of suffering. The impacts are far-reaching. I've spent many sleepless nights, struggling to understand why people choose to take their own lives. August 9, 2008 will forever be ingrained in my mind. It is the date my son took his own life. For a long time, I felt lost, hopeless, and confused.

But I eventually realized that I had to find the strength to pick up the pieces of my shattered life and to move on, not only for own mental health and well-being but also for other family members who leaned on me for support. My story is not unique. It's a common story throughout Nunatsiavut. A paper published in The American Journal of Public Health , May of this year, on suicide mortality in Newfoundland and Labrador, revealed substantial disparities in suicide between indigenous and non-indigenous populations in the province.

The results showed that over a 17-year period, the suicide rate in Newfoundland was deaths per 100,000 person-years. By contrast, the age-standardized suicide rate in Nunatsiavut was deaths per 100,000 person-years, 20 times higher than the rate in Newfoundland. According to the study, this trend holds across all age groups. However, the disparity was greatest among those aged 10-19 years. It also accounted for a majority of deaths. Suicide rates were elevated among females in Nunatsiavut communities.

Research has consistently shown high rates of suicide in northern and indigenous populations in Canada and elsewhere in the circumpolar world. This study underscores the need to close the gap of the persistent health inequities in northern Canada. The study, conducted in partnership with aboriginal governments and groups in Labrador, combined community-based methods, including consultations with elders, youth, mental health and community workers, primary-care clinicians, and government decision-makers.

During the launch of the national Inuit suicide prevention strategy on July 27, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed listed the following factors as contributing to the high suicide rate: trauma due to relocation, inadequacy of schooling, our self-determination being taken away, and our inability to live the life we lived before we knew alcohol, drugs, or any other types of addictions. I was born in Nutak in 1965. When I was nine months old, my family and all of the people in the community were forced to relocate south. The same thing happened to the people of Hebron in 1959.

These were disturbing times for our people, and a sad time in our history. Many Inuit could not speak English. When we moved to the new location, we didn't have any choices. We lost our traditional hunting grounds. There was no work. There was no support to help us adapt.

(1020) Our lives were turned upside down. Relocations have had a profound impact not only on those who were displaced, but on their families, and they will for generations to come. We continue to struggle with high rates of suicide, particularly among our youth. Unemployment rates in our communities are several times higher than the national average. Our literacy rates are several times lower. We continue to struggle with the pain and suffering caused by alcohol and substance abuse. Many of our people continue to live below the poverty line. We are in danger of losing our language and our culture.

Those are huge challenges that we have to overcome as a people, but the challenge is even greater for those who were forced to move away from their homes and for their children, grandchildren, and many generations yet to come. The northern territorial government has worked very hard over the years to raise awareness of mental health issues and suicide prevention. We continue to provide many prevention, intervention, and post-intervention programs, and we work closely with other governments, organizations, and groups in dealing with these issues. As we move forward, we must not forget who we are as a people.

We must take pride in our cultural identity and we must strive to find ways to revitalize our language. I believe these are key as we travel down the road to healing. A national Inuit suicide prevention strategy, I believe, is a good step forward, not only in increasing awareness, but also in giving people more hope. I look forward to seeing this strategy implemented for the benefit of Nunatsiavut and Inuit Nunangat. Nakurmiik . The Chair : Thank you very much, Mr. Lampe, for speaking on behalf of the Nunatsiavut government. I very much appreciate it. Now we'll hear a voice from the Government of Nunavut, please.

Shuvinai Mike, you have the floor for 10 minutes. Thank you. Ms. Shuvinai Mike (Director of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, Department of Culture and Heritage, Government of Nunavut) : I'm honoured to be here. When I read the requirements, I said I was going to come here as an individual, but I would also like to speak about some of what I do in our department. To start with, there is an inquiry to get a better understanding of how to help those who have been impacted. I am asking this because— [ Witness speaks in Inuktitut ] The way we comprehend or interpret is different.

For example, to my understanding, the term “suicide survivor” can mean “I have survived my own attempt to commit suicide”. Inuit elders, parents, and families advise those of us who have lost a loved one not to dwell on grieving. They say we need to let go of them so that their spirit is not lost. In Inuit tradition, one of the ways to cope with losing a loved one is through kinship naming after a loved one who has passed away. I will tell you, though, that it is difficult to do right away. At least for me it was. I had to listen to my elders' advice and respect and honour our ways and accept that.

As the saying goes, it was easier said than done. I lost a daughter to suicide, and it was hard to accept that babies were named after her, shortly after, but I had to accept that and honour that as well. I have been struggling to find support from teachers who have training and understanding about what kinds of trauma and impacts suicides can have on students. I heard a professional say that there is a difference between having compassion and discipline. It pierced my heart to hear that since there is a lot of difference. When one has compassion, then trust can be built up with a student who has been impacted.

If discipline comes before trying to understand what the student may be going through, that is a concern. We need aftercare services. We do have family support and friends. The missing

part is understanding and knowing why. We parents tend to just protect and provide for a child to cope with a traumatic experience, and try to figure out how they can learn to live without their loved one. It can be mentally hard and draining. The school system has a huge role, because our kids are with them more than they are with their parents. It's a lot to expect, but they are the most important professionals we rely on. I am trying to be involved, but to meet someone else's expectations. I can recall hearing some saying, “Get over it.

It's now the child's excuse.” These comments, to me, are heartless or show a lack of understanding. I keep repeating myself, asking them to understand a child who has lost their parent, to have more understanding and not to treat them like a child who has not been impacted. I am sharing these real life experiences only because all the suicides have no answers, only assumptions. We have to learn how to feel those angry moments. And as a mother, when will I stop crying and asking myself what else could have been different? Why do I feel so much shame?

What did I do wrong, and why do I have to keep saying, “Have compassion, and not pity”? I wanted to start off like that only because I want to share, as an individual who has been impacted, and who is also providing aftercare to my two grandchildren, one of whom is parentless. I know the government and other organizations have all the good intentions and are starting up groups or even walks.

(1025) But sometimes the terms, especially “suicide prevention”...as I mentioned during the first inquiry, to us when it comes across in Inuktitut, it means you were preventing the suicide. Inuit say those words in our native language, it means they're preventing it, as if they were present at the time when an individual was attempting it. We have to find ways to work with people who have been impacted in order to find proper resources for after-care, and that's the part that's really missing in the experience that I have as a director of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in culture and heritage.

A lot of the funding that is provided through that department is for the people to retain their initiative and their own way of promoting life. They might not like the goal or the objective to be suicide prevention. The goal is for people to relearn the traditional ways and values that are relevant in their communities and in our communities as well, because today, as James said, the young people have two worlds. When I was a teacher, I used to say the elders had the two worlds because they had to live the nomadic life and the life that is modern.

Now it's as if we have to provide workshops that are promoting identity and building self-esteem in parka making and similar things—all these initiatives that are relevant to the people—and those are the ways to promote life. In the experience that I have with the elders, I coordinate the terminology and when they are not from an Inuit concept, it's hard for them. That's the part, the Inuit perspective, that I promote in the government so that departments at least have an understanding of the needs of the people through their perspective, not the other way around . Thank you for this time.

(1030) The Chair : Thank you very much for that. With that we'll move into rounds of seven-minute questions without wasting any time. We'll start with Michael McLeod, please. Mr. Michael McLeod : Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the witnesses for appearing in front of us today. We've been talking about the issue of suicide for several months now as a committee. We've heard a lot of testimony, some of it very heartbreaking, as we're hearing today. A lot of the youth have also testified in front of us. They're going through some very difficult times, and this issue doesn't have a magical solution.

There are many factors that we can point to. Some of those factors were raised earlier today: housing, lack of jobs, difficulty in getting a good education, physical and sexual abuse. All these things are ingredients of it. We also heard from the youth who came in front of us about the loss of identity and the inability to be proud of who they are, and that really is of concern. I'm from the Northwest Territories, and this is discussed with the aboriginal people there. People always connect language, land, and culture as part of their identity.

Many of our youth can't do that anymore because they've lost the ability to go out on the land or to speak the language, or they don't know their own culture or their history. I think there are many things we can try to do, many recommendations we can make, but one of the main goals is to try to get people to be proud of who they are, especially our youth. Everybody should be proud, Inuk proud or proud if they're a Dene or a Métis.

I'm very curious to hear from all of you, if you were here holding the pen, what kind of recommendations we should be making as a committee and what you would say about recovering identity. I know we talked a bit about it, James, and I'm really curious to hear what you would say to help us formulate what we should say. Thank you. The Chair : Go ahead, James, please. Mr. James Arreak : Thank you for the question, Michael. I appreciate that youth is a big concern for you. I think it is the same here, because the majority of the Nunavut population is under the age of 25, so it's really a big concern for us.

We have efforts. For example, in Clyde River they've built mitigation measures into the community when issues like this come up, when youth are vulnerable. They have engaged elders to help stabilize them by taking them to the land for a time so that they can have a sense of being cared for, being around familiar environments, and just being in a place where they can really look at themselves and receive the care they need. Youth, in terms of identity, is a big concern for NTI. While we have this initiative going on, the government is also closing much-needed group homes for youth in Iqaluit.

To me, that doesn't make sense. At the same time, it's a challenge to try to bring some balance to this in terms of helping the youth forge ahead. They need attention, because they're being faced with issues that I never faced. In some ways I did, but it's different now. When I was growing up it was different. I had discipline and I had caring parents. Today, there are youth who don't have the same kind of care and opportunity to be cared for by parents who are ready at the same time.

It's a very difficult and sensitive issue, but at the same time I want to share with you that restoring pride in our young people and who they are is a major goal for us.

(1035) The Chair : Thank you. Mr. Michael McLeod : The issue of residential schools has come up many times in our discussions. Senator Sinclair appeared before us. He said that since the residential school policy was put in place, the government spent seven generations kicking the crap out of our culture and identity, and it will probably take seven generations to recover. I honesty believe it's going to take a long time, and we have to start reclaiming our identity. You mentioned in your presentation, James, that identity had to be reclaimed. You also said it was a federal responsibility.

I'm assuming you meant through investment and resources. Perhaps you could explain or elaborate a little more on that. Mr. James Arreak : Thank you for the question. NTI is prepared to work with the federal government to develop curriculum that is relevant and would reflect Inuit culture. Also, in terms of funding, it would really be beneficial if we could set multi-year funding arrangements, as opposed to piece by piece, because this challenge is really in need at this time. I hope that helps answer your question. I think we have other comments. The Chair : Does anyone else want to answer?

Please go ahead, Jeannie, and then Johannes. Mrs. Jeannie Arreak-Kullualik (Director, Department of Social and Cultural Development, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.) : Thank you, Mr. Chair. For every committee, for every consultation and working group that we go to, the number one recommendation is always that we need healing from intergenerational trauma and loss of our loved ones first before we can even tackle.... With 60% of our population being and younger, we also have to weigh the balance between what's good for the older generation and what is also good for the younger generation.

It's a very fine balance, and I agree it's going to take years. It's also been identified by each of the conferences and summits that it's not a one-time fix; it's going to take years, especially when you have to become confident to communicate all the stories of wrongs and injustices or trauma that you have experienced yourself. A lot of times we are in denial and say we didn't experience that. The Chair : Thank you. Mr. Lampe, we're well over time on this question. I hope you'll find a way to add your comments under a subsequent question. The next question is from David Yurdiga, please.

(1040) Mr. David Yurdiga : I thank you very much, Chair, and I'd like to welcome the witnesses here. This is very important to all of us right across Canada. One of the common themes I've been hearing and feeling is family. If you have a healthy family, you have a healthy community. I think we have to go back and create the happy family atmosphere that has been lost. The youth have a passion, and I'm really impressed that these are our future leaders. They want to move forward aggressively. A lot of times they're limited by resources, which is a challenge.

I think that moving forward, resources have to be made available. It's always about the grassroots. A lot of the time, program money is very difficult to get because there are many barriers in place. What I'd like to see eventually is direct funding to the youth, because they are our future. I heard one comment that really touched my heart; it was that the family circle has been broken, and a lot of it is the result of the residential schools. In your opinion, how can we fill that gap? How do we heal the family?

I think its a big challenge for everyone to try to mitigate that aspect, because the residential schools took a large portion of that circle away. In your opinion, how can we heal that? How can we move forward? The Chair : Go ahead, Mr. Lampe, please. Mr. Johannes Lampe : I believe that we have to go back to the truth, back to the first contact. When the Europeans first came, the aboriginal people of this new world at the time were impacted. They are still being impacted over 500 years later.

Most certainly, the Europeans were looking for riches for their crown back in the Old World, and most certainly, the indigenous people were being used to destroy each other by the French and the English. I believe that for something like that to be acknowledged by Canada and the provinces would make some difference. I believe that the hierarchy of any government, whether it's federal, provincial, territorial or local government, means that we are working in a triangular system, and even here today it is a square. We need to make a circle.

A circle will have a continuum to proceed with the tools that are needed for us to work together. This is how we can look at reconciliation. I, for one, as an individual, have had to face the truth, and I have had to reconcile myself with the issues I have experienced. As a child growing up, I thought that was the normal way of life, because of the education system in my years at school. Bullying in schools has a very negative impact on school children today, and that is just one example. Bullying is not just happening in the schools; it's happening at home. When children grow up, they again do lateral violence.

Lateral violence could happen at this table or at any other table in Canada. That is the truth for me. Reconciliation is very important, and I believe, as Shuvinai says, that we have to come back to the teachings. We have to come back to the Inuit traditional knowledge and the way that the culture and the language were passed down from generation to generation. I believe this committee is taking a step forward, and I appreciate that. I want to give Shuvinai a chance to speak.

(1045) The Chair : Ms. Arreak-Kullualik would also like to speak. Ms. Mike, would you like to respond, as well? Okay, Jeannie, please go ahead. There is about a minute remaining. Mrs. Jeannie Arreak-Kullualik : Okay. Thank you very much. I wanted to say that we had the honour of hosting an Inuit summit on socio-cultural issues a couple of weeks ago. The first day was concentrated on a structured debrief healing session using the timeline of Inuit societal changes and transitions. That first day served three purposes.

One was on healing, because a lot of the elders and residential school survivors told us they never had the chance to feel or grieve their own losses. Another purpose was understanding our own history of self-reliance and our own determination and self-regulation. The third purpose was to have the recent history on why we have the land claims agreement, how the Nunavut government was created, and why we have a clause in our land claims agreement,

article 23, on Inuit employment and consultation to ensure that Inuit are consulted when government programs and services are being created through policy or legislation. Thank you. The Chair : Thank you very much. The next question is from Romeo Saganash, please. Mr. Romeo Saganash : Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to all of our witnesses. I want to start with Shuvinai Mike. She wanted to answer some of the previous questions, so I might as well start with her. I listened carefully to your testimony and your story, and I was moved. You talked a lot about culture, language, and your own experience.

I think a couple of you talked about our youth living in two worlds, which is definitely a reality. I lived in three worlds. I was born and raised in the bush; then I was sent to residential schools, and then I went on to university. My first question is to all of you. I think it's an important one for the youth, and we've heard them a lot over the last two days. How do we achieve that balance? How do we do that? You talked about programs in Clyde River, but how do we achieve that balance?

One of the ways that we found in the Cree world, where I'm from in James Bay, is that the school is closed for two weeks in the spring when the geese arrive. The entire village is empty for two weeks, because all the children and youth get to go with their parents. They spend two weeks in the bush and they wait for the geese to arrive. They get to be Cree for two weeks, and only Cree for two weeks, in Cree territory for two weeks, and speak only Cree for two weeks. That helps, I think, and I've seen it. I first want your thoughts on how to achieve that balance in the north.

Then I have a couple of other questions.

(1050) Ms. Shuvinai Mike : I think that's part of what I wrote, especially about decolonizing the education system. We already know that the Nunavut Sivuniksavut program in Ontario is successful, and it's a model, so why aren't the high schools providing that same kind of program, especially in Nunavut? If only I had more time. When I was doing my master's degree, I wrote a paper on why Inuit students struggle in grade 10. I was also an Inuktitut teacher at the high school here. I'm only going to speak about the high school here, because that's my experience. I need more people to understand.

I know it might be different now, but there were three systems: academic level, majority non-Inuit, and general program. You didn't even have physics. In the sciences, there was some general programming. You weren't provided the same programming as in the academic level. In the general program, you could graduate, but you wouldn't be able to go to college level. I'm only stressing these because my goal is to decolonize. We need to have schools that promote healthy life and honour different cultures, not just one that's dynamic and majority so that we're a minority in our own land.

Our school system is also, for the most part, not majority Inuit-relevant. This is still going on. It's been 40 years now. It was over 20 years ago, and I was a teacher for 23 years. We need consultative workshops. We need history to be taught in a way that is relevant to the students. We need students be able to have more pride, and not just those students who are academics or those who are more privileged than others. A lot of students are falling through the cracks because of that. I'm saying decolonizing the existing system would be the way to go. The Chair : There's about a minute remaining. Mr.

James Arreak : I just wanted to highlight that while the erosion of our language is a big concern, we do have programs that are working. One is a day care facility in Iqaluit that is an Inuktitut day care. When children are allowed to be respected and cared for in their language, it does something good for them in terms of being confident in who they are. When they go to kindergarten, they're totally different people. In terms of a positive influence, that's been a good program that we know is working.

That's something I wanted to highlight to the committee. [ Witness speaks in Inuktitut ] The Chair : I guess we're done there. You have seconds if you can make use of that. Mr. Romeo Saganash : I have a very quick question. A lot of these things are already provided for in our different agreements. Are there implementation issues that you have right now with the federal government? Mr. James Arreak : Generally, there are.

We always have implementation concerns, due to the lack of implementation policy that pushes both levels of government to commit to any kind of implementation of their federal obligations as far as the land claims are concerned.

(1055) The Chair : The next question is from Gary Anandasangaree. Mr. Gary Anandasangaree : James, I would like to ask you to just finish that, and maybe elaborate on what you started. Mr. James Arreak : Yes. In terms of implementation, there has been very little implementation, as far as we're concerned. There are genuine efforts, but really what we're seeing....

I think the land claims coalition is pushing for some new ideas that are being proposed to the federal government that would help the government focus in terms of being led by a policy that helps the government focus its resources towards their obligations. I think there are 26-plus land claims in Canada, and we fit into the modern treaty section. The modern treaties are separate, but we get to co-manage the resources. Also, there are different themes that differentiate us.

However, in terms of trying to work with both levels of government, it's a daily effort, and sometimes it's like trying to pull teeth when we try to convince people that a systemic issue exists, that a barrier exists for Inuit. With the issues that we present before you, it's sometimes very difficult. We appreciate the opportunity, yet it's a real challenge at this time. Mr. Gary Anandasangaree : Thank you. I just want to probe a bit further on education. I know you had mentioned in your presentation that there was an inherent right to education in Inuit culture and language.

I know you mentioned earlier the need for decolonizing the education system. Putting all this together, what specific measures need to be taken within the current education system that will allow for higher attainment, a higher success rate within the system as a whole, and allow young people to go on to post-secondary education? One of the things you also mentioned was this 95%:80% ratio, but in order to have an increased level of numbers within the population, they will need to have the training to fill those numbers, so it's almost like a never-ending cycle that we need to break.

The Chair : James, I'll just mention that Jeannie has her hand up as well, so could you share the four minutes remaining? Mr. James Arreak : I'll just quickly say that we see education as a tool to help us keep and enhance who we are as a people. We want to use education as a tool to keep our language, to keep our culture, and so forth. I just wanted to add that. Maybe I'll let my partner respond further. Mrs. Jeannie Arreak-Kullualik : Thank you. One of the things NTI has proposed to the Department of Education is to create an Inuktitut language stream. We had three streams.

The Qulliq stream is predominantly Inuktitut. We had three different models, and we are proposing now to create an Inuktitut language immersion stream. For Inuit whose first language is not Inuktitut, we would introduce them to it and immerse them in learning. We would also immerse their parents in it, encouraging them to speak more Inuktitut and learn more words. We would also have a cultural component in there on why it's so important to learn.

One of the things the elders told us when we had the Inuit summit was that we need to have trauma-informed administrators and principals and teachers at schools instead of sending or reporting a student to family services for foster care or something like that. We would understand why they misbehave, why they get emotional, why a few things trigger their emotions—trauma. I think we have already communicated and built the case as to why these would be very important, except we're also being told a different message, which is that the low graduation rate is because Inuktitut is our first language.

That's the reverse of what we are trying to do. If you have the language foundation, research studies have found that you can learn more and achieve more academically. I'll just end it there. Thank you.

(1100) The Chair : Thanks. There are about seconds left. Mr. Gary Anandasangaree : In terms of post-secondary education, what would be your vision for that at the local setting? Mr. James Arreak : I'll start. As I said earlier, I think it would be helpful if you as the federal government and we as the NTI would commit to work together to develop a curriculum that would help us shape the kind of curriculum that would help our students not only develop their academic skills but also understand, using language and culture, how they can become successful people who can contribute to a healthy society.

The Chair : Thank you. We'll now move into a round of five-minute questions. The first five-minute question comes from Arnold Viersen. Mr. Arnold Viersen : Thank you all for being here today. My question is also probably for James. It's specifically on education, something we talk about a lot around here. I guess I'll start with choice and competition within education. Is that something that is explored? I know that just within my own community there's often great division or diversity of thought on who should run it, where it should go, and these kinds of things.

In the past in Alberta, 10 or 15 years ago, we had a very broad spectrum of education: home-schooling that was completely parent-driven, independent schools, charter schools, public schools, public Catholic schools, public Christian schools. It was all over the place. There was some concern that we were sending several different messages, but we noticed that over the long term, the level of education went up overall. We had different streams, but they all seemed to compete with each another and everything went up.

Are there in Nunavut—and I'm sure even within Inuit communities—different thoughts on the goal of education and these kinds of things? Is there any avenue for a parent to say no, they don't want their child to go to that school or that they'd rather home-school them or send them to a rural and remote school, or send them to some boarding school somewhere in the U.K. or something like that? Are there those kinds of opportunities? Mr. James Arreak : Let me just respond this way. As you were flying in, you probably saw the visible lack of infrastructure.

In terms of that concern, that quickly tells you about choices. Do I have restaurants to go to here? You can probably count your options on one hand. When it comes to education, I can point to only one option that we have. In that regard, I will just make the point that the lack of information that we parents— Mr. Arnold Viersen : Is there an appetite on the part of parents to even consider different options? Mr. James Arreak : Going back to Clyde River, there is a cultural school there that is doing remarkable things for young men who are in need.

They go there absolutely broken and needing help, and then after a couple of years of going through there, they are transformed. They realize they'd been convicted of what they'd done wrong, and I think that's been helpful to those individuals. In terms of whether there is an appetite, yes, I would say there is absolutely an appetite. People are keen. One of the panellists has been a teacher for a long time; she has a wealth of knowledge. There are others I know who have created their own in-class curricula that they have researched themselves with local elders, some of whom have passed on.

They've developed a way to teach, for example, how to make a traditional kayak. I think that implies that there is interest.

(1105) Mr. Arnold Viersen : Just correct me if I'm wrong here, but one of the issues we have is attainment. In my own community as well, that was something we had to work on, the idea that attainment doesn't mean entrance into college; attainment means being able to provide for and protect your family. Is there some way we can work on changing that view of what it means to attain an education? Is that something you're working on at all? Mr. James Arreak : I don't know if the other panellists have anything to say about it, but I think we go— Mr.

Arnold Viersen : If I want to pull it back to the big picture, when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When you're a teacher, college is the end goal, and sometimes it's not where we need to be headed. Is that a correct analysis? Mrs. Jeannie Arreak-Kullualik : It depends on your level of skill. I believe that as a parent you already have choices when your child goes to senior high—which stream they are interested in, what requirements they have to achieve in order to graduate from high school. Another thing we had explored was trying to create an Inuktitut school that would have 90% Inuktitut spoken.

In the beginning, that's what one of the elementary schools in Iqaluit, the Joamie school, was created to be, but because of all the other requirements and the number of students who had no Inuktitut language skills or who were not able to speak Inuktitut but were expected to go into the Inuktitut stream, that quickly changed. When NTI proposed revisiting the idea of creating an Inuktitut school, the response we got was that it would have to be a private school, which didn't make sense to us, because 95% of the public school students in Nunavut are Inuit, enrolled under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. Mr.

Arnold Viersen : Thank you. That's all my time. The Chair : Thank you. The next question is from Michael McLeod, please. Mr. Michael McLeod : Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to talk a little bit about the youth, but also about the adults in this situation. For the most part, our focus has been on youth and the issue of suicide and youth. We've heard many testimonies on youth. We visited a community where at one point there were youth under suicide watch. The school reported that to us.

It was shocking to hear, yet at the same school, when the students were given a questionnaire about what they would like to see changed or fixed, the response overwhelmingly was to fix their parents, so it's not just the youth we have to be concerned about: it's the adults as well. We've talked about many scenarios of potential investment for solving some of these situations. We talked about family crisis centres. We talked about education programs and early childhood programs, and yet we haven't talked a lot about the adults.

I know you mentioned in a couple of your speaking points that there needs to be healing and that there needs to be investment to help adults deal with their situations. We have a lot of situations of the adults, the parents, not really passing on information, not teaching them about language, not teaching them about their history or their culture, not teaching them their traditional practices, so how do we do that? In his report, Jack Hicks considered the differences between the young people and the older people. He found that the risk factors were different.

I wanted to know if the presenters might have ways to help the adults deal with the situation and to become better parents, and also better examples in our society.

(1110) The Chair : Go ahead, Mr. Lampe. Mr. Johannes Lampe : That is one of the most important questions that has to be asked. Certainly residential schooling issues have impacted Labrador Inuit and aboriginal groups across Canada. Those who went through residential schooling have not been given the parenting skills required to look after their children. When they become grandparents, the problem is passed on to the next generation. We as parents and grandparents do not have the values as aboriginal people that our ancestors were given the opportunity to pass on to us.

When our children were taken away from their homes across Canada, much of our tradition was taken away. The parents of today, even grandparents, suffer from various types of abuse. They do not have the values that Inuit were blessed with when they were born. We have to go back to the teachings the elders have. Because departments work in silos, we have to work around those issues. It's not just INAC that is responsible, and it is not just INAC that has a file on issues relating to aboriginal groups across Canada.

Only when the different departments start to work together will they realize that this issue is bigger than what we see. It is bigger than what the aboriginal groups already know. Qujannamiik. The Chair : Thank you. I can see there's more to say on this. There's time for three more questions from members, so perhaps one of the members would invite a continuation of this particular conversation. The next question goes back to Arnold Viersen. Mr. Arnold Viersen : Thank you. Do you want to carry on for a bit here, Mr. Lampe? The Chair : I think Jeannie and James had something to add as well. Mr.

Arnold Viersen: Okay. Go ahead. Mr. Johannes Lampe : Certainly, where education is involved, in order for our children and our grandchildren to have good mental health, they need healthy home care. They need food on the table. They need to be able to sleep at night to get the rest and the energy that they need to be in school. Most do not make it to school. They will not go to school because they are hungry or didn't get the sleep they needed.

They don't have opportunity to speak to what it is that they want to become, what dreams they may have to become a teacher or a policeman or even someone who is a mentor, a role model. The only way that education will move forward, I believe, will be when we look at the role models, which are the mothers and the fathers; it is only when other parents start to see that, or when territorial and provincial governments start to acknowledge parents who are giving their children the proper care they need.

That is challenging when the funding is not adequate for a single mother or a single father, and most certainly when even the grandparents are taking care of their grandchildren where the parents are not able to provide the health care and take on the responsibility to get their child to the school. There are many different issues that we have to look at, and most certainly we have to look at issues that relate to the children and the grandchildren.

(1115) The Chair : Thank you. There are about two minutes remaining, if you would like to share. Mr. James Arreak : Thank you. I will try to respond quickly to this. In terms of what the question is concerned with, there is a deep need for health services among our people, and a need to help them cope and move on from the issues. We have a mental health strategy, but we need it to include mobile trauma response teams. We also need additional mental health specialists in the area, and we need grief support networks to continue and to be funded. I want to quote something that I think is really appropriate here.

It's from the NSPS document that was the development of the Nunavut suicide prevention strategy. It says: Elders are a very important part of the cycle, for them to educate young people. [They need] to coach the students to give them an understanding of where they are coming from. Some issues need to be addressed on a daily basis, education, healing, etc, but also need to start understanding that you are living a life where you have a sound foundation to stand on. For some young people, especially young adults, notably those who have problems of consumption, suicide becomes part of the picture.

There needs to be much more education among [those at risk] in order for them to become aware of who they are and be proud of [who they are and] where they come from. The Chair : Thank you. There are about seconds left, Arnold. Mr. Arnold Viersen : I will probably make a bit of a statement. Specifically in the territories, it seems that an Inuit person's life is inundated with alphabet soup: KRG, NIT, and all these things. I haven't a clue what.... Whenever we have a witness here, we get all these acronyms thrown at us, along with the words “approval”, “program”, “proposal”, “rate”, and “services”.

There are all these words. I wonder how we could move to a world where that wouldn't be part of the everyday vocabulary in our territories. I guess that's kind of a hope.

(1120) The Chair : Perhaps we'll hear the answer as we progress here. Thank you, and thanks for allowing our conversation to continue. I have another five-minute question from Gary Anandasangaree. Mr. Gary Anandasangaree : Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the last couple of days we've heard a number of references to Clyde River. I know you mentioned it, Mr. Arreak. I'm wondering if you could, in about a minute or so, give us a

summary of what it is and why it's successful, and if it is something that could be replicated in other places. Mr. James Arreak : Clyde River has two things going for it. One is the Ilisaqsivik Society, which is a community wellness program initiative. They have counsellors who are respected elders and have proven abilities to help those who are in grief. Again, those are key situations, so there's that program, and they go out to the community. Second, they are a cultural school that is specific to Inuit and they kind of spearheaded this.

I'm not sure if it's under the Arctic College or the Government of Nunavut, but they have a very specific role in terms of teaching students about what our culture is. It's based on the cyclical pattern of the unique calendar year. This coming year they're focusing on caribou, the skin, and then they're kind of following the pattern of the seasons and educating the students about this. We're hearing very interesting results coming out of it. It's something that I think this committee should be aware of and should probably follow up to dig deeper into the program. Mr. Gary Anandasangaree : Thank you.

Getting back to education again. Ms. Mike, you mentioned decolonization. How do we do that in a deeply western education system? Ms. Shuvinai Mike : That's the whole cleansing idea, having that as an example. The program James is talking about is the way to decolonize schools, to make Inuit valued and embedded into schools by the seasons and by the parents. I'm saying that because here they start at eight o'clock in the morning. I don't think I've ever been asked if a student or a young person would be learning at eight o'clock in the morning.

I saw some other studies saying eight o'clock in the morning for a teenager is like five o'clock in the morning. Making the school system relevant to that environment would be to decolonize. We would be listening to the parents about how they want the school system to be. I wanted to respond to private schools, boarding schools, or whatever they're called. There are all kinds available in the south. It's not so easy up here to do that. You need funding in order to have private schools, in order to have all that stuff.

That would be the way to decolonize it, to have a model like the Clyde River school that has been mentioned. Mr. Gary Anandasangaree : What supports are required for the parents in order to support their children at school? I know that lack of support has been one of the intergenerational challenges. What needs to be done in order to strengthen the support? Ms. Shuvinai Mike : We need to work together, the parents and the school. Not just the school but the whole government needs to understand what cultural competency is, what the cultural differences are.

All of those are very important to start discussing in relation to how we could work together, how we could communicate with the parents. They want parents involved, and yes, we're trying. If the school is just answering through an automated system and they're unilingual, you're not going to communicate. There are many things that we need to discuss, and not enough time.

(1125) Mr. Gary Anandasangaree : Could I just have her— The Chair : We are out of time, and also Jeannie had her hand up. I'm sorry. The final question, and it's a three-minute question, is from Romeo Saganash. I would add we were meant to hear from the Ilisaqsivik group today, from Clyde River—the other James Arreak, I guess—but their plane was cancelled. However, we do have submitted testimony from them, and we're going to make a time to meet with them again and delve into this, so thanks for underlining that. Go ahead, Romeo, please. Mr.

Romeo Saganash : I'm prepared to let Jeannie take a bit of my time if she wants to answer the previous question, and if there's time, I have a very personal one for Shuvinai. Mrs. Jeannie Arreak-Kullualik : Thank you very much. When you go to the capital cities in each of the provinces, you see billboards offering free English as a second language or free evening classes for French as a second language. We don't have that luxury here. We would like to provide free Inuktitut as a second language, but we don't have the resources. We don't have the capacity or the infrastructure to provide that.

Those support systems are available only through the churches, through religion. Another thing we wanted to create was with Piqqusilirivvik. That was initiated through the Inuit organizations in partnership with Nunavut Arctic College and the Department of Education. It uses the Greenland model of the folk school, where you relearn what your parents lost or didn't have time to teach you: to skin, hunt, follow the ice conditions, and read the weather. Mr. Romeo Saganash : I listened very carefully to your personal testimony and your personal experience with suicide.

One of the questions you asked yourself was, “What did I do wrong?” As you asked that question, I wondered what kinds of services were provided to you to help you in that trying moment, in that difficult time, or was there a lack of services to assist you in that trying moment? Ms. Shuvinai Mike : I think we have those questions. Every now and then there were different services, but through a referral, which I had also mentioned in the last inquest.

It was by calling the mental health office, but through a referral and the 1-800 number that's provided by GN, the Government of Nunavut, but also at the same time it was limited. I was mainly supported through the elders and through self-help. I know I only ended that like that because I'm sure I was not the only one who felt that way at that moment. This morning I did have anxiety. That's why I always talk about the terminology about suicide. It gives a bit of anxiety if you have been impacted. The Chair : Thank you. Mr. Lampe, you wanted to add something. Mr. Johannes Lampe : Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's a really important question. After having lost a brother, a nephew, and a son, I had to learn to say I love you” after the fact. Today I'm able to say that to my grandchildren and to my wife and daughter and to others who I know are going through a hard time. When I see someone is going through a hard time, I have to say, “I care about you, and if you need to talk, we can talk.” For parents and grandparents, the most important thing is to learn to say “I love you”. I believe that is what our children and our grandchildren are looking for from each other.

I believe that is the most important thing that can help prevent suicide.

(1130) The Chair : Thank you. It is hard to imagine a more powerful and fitting note to end on. Thank you for that, Mr. Lampe. Thank you to all the panel members for your testimony, and for sharing so freely your experience and what is in your heart. This is going to help us a great deal. Thank you very much. We are going to suspend for an hour, and we will be back with the third panel of the day at 12:30 p.m. Thank you. (1130)

(1240) The Chair : Okay, we're going to start this afternoon's session. Welcome to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs. It's nice to see our witnesses again. We had a nice discussion last night as well. For those in the gallery, we have simultaneous translation in English, French, and Inuktitut, so please feel free to use the headsets at the door if you would like to use that service. We also have a public health nurse in the room with us today who is available—she's waving; thank you very much for the wave—if anyone would like to have a chat with her at any time.

She'd be more than happy to have that chat. I'm just going to go over the process we use in these meetings so that everyone is aware. We have three organizations speaking in this panel. Regardless of the number of representatives, each organization gets 10 minutes to present in total. I have these little cards, and when we get to nine minutes, I'm going to hold up a yellow card. That means you'd better start to come to the end, and then a red card means to really finish up. The same cards will be used when the members of the committee are asking questions.

I'll be a little more clear about that when the time comes and we get to that

part in the afternoon. Without wasting any more time, I'm really happy to welcome from the president of the National Inuit Youth Council, Maatalii Okalik. Thank you very much for joining us. You are the sole representative of your organization today, so you have the full 10 minutes. You have the floor. Thank you. Ms. Maatalii Okalik (President, National Inuit Youth Council) : Qujannamiik . Good afternoon, honourable chair, members of the standing committee, Inuit elders and youth, and all attendees.

My name is Maatalii Okalik, and I testify today as the president of the National Inuit Youth Council within Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, representing Inuit youth from across Canada.

Before I began, I tabled the following documents, as I reference them throughout the testimony for the record: the National Inuit Suicide Prevention Strategy by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami of this year; the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report in 2015; the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action in 2015; the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples' final report from 1996; and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

As you are aware, there are approximately 60,000 Inuit Canadians who contribute greatly to this country and have done so well before Canada was created. Inuit youth make up the majority of that population, and in my term thus far, they continue to inspire me with their strength and resilience and their vested interest in preserving and promoting our language, culture, and practices and in seeing that suicide is eradicated. Suicide in our communities that span half of Canada's land mass and coastline is an epidemic. It has been declared a crisis in some regions.

All our regions have called for action for decades to address the rates of suicide among Inuit. The rates of suicide among Inuit in regions are five to times the rates of suicide for Canada as a whole and internationally. It is recognized that suicide is 100% preventable. There must be a national discussion with a national response. Now that we are finally discussing it nationally, the “why” of suicide must be recognized and understood.

To me, this is a dialogue that does not require concerted efforts involving fact-finding on the part of government to then lead to an evidence-based discussion that would only then yield validation to address the issue to eradicate suicide. This has been done, both by you and by us. When I say us, I say indigenous people of Canada. The “why” of suicide can be explained in Canada's history, in the truth that is not known by all Canadians. I recognize the history before the creation of Canada whereby Inuit were at the epitome of self-determination, exercising the way of life that is at the core of our being.

Suicide prevention is returning to this level of self-determination. How?

It is through a concerted effort on the part of all Canadians: the federal government fulfilling its fiduciary responsibility to its citizens and implementing treaty agreements, which we are all party to, and changing policy and budget allocations according to our needs; Canadian society as a whole, recognizing and respecting the history of colonization and our right to live as a people in our homeland within Canada, and playing an active role in reconciliation; as Inuit continuing to champion our language, culture, and practices as healthy individuals, parents, and also playing an active role in reconciliation in our communities.

The why has been entrenched in the final report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report from witnesses who have testified before your standing committee in the past, through the very need to have modern treaties: our land claims agreements in existence, and within the National Inuit Suicide Prevention Strategy. None of this is new. Inuit Canadians do not have the same quality of life as the majority of our fellow citizens.

In Inuit Nunangat 39% live in crowded homes, versus 4% of other Canadians; 29% of Inuit aged to in Inuit Nunangat have earned a high school diploma, versus 85% of all Canadians. In Inuit households in Nunavut, 70% do not have enough food to eat, versus 8.3% of all households in Canada. The number of physicians per 100,000 people in Nunavut is 30, versus in urban health authorities across Canada.

(1245) The average life expectancy for Inuit is 70.8, versus 80.6 for all Canadians. Not only are we dying younger due to the aforementioned social inequities, but the leading cause of death in regions can be attributed to suicide. Suicide prevention is closing the gap of social inequities for Inuit Canadians. It also includes creating cultural continuity. I can positively report that today Inuit youth are in a state of identity crisis. To your predecessors who were once seated in the House of Commons, this would be very good news. Why do I say this?

It is because strategic assimilation policies and acts by government to create relationship dependencies with government have proven to be—as reflected in our statistics today—very successful, to an extent. You and your honourable colleagues, however, have the ability to reverse such a reality and take a leadership role in contributing to the elimination of social inequities. A key area of this important work ahead of you and us is Inuit cultural continuity. Mobilizing Inuit knowledge for resilience and suicide prevention is a mitigating factor for suicide. Our language and our culture are key.

It is in the interest of Inuit youth—the majority of our population, and the fastest-growing population, with more and more young families—to reverse the negative cycles of intergenerational trauma by federal policies and raise healthy Inuit children. There is also a responsibility on government to contribute to the nurturing of healthy Inuit children as well. This is also a suicide prevention requirement. Ensuring access to a continuum of mental wellness services for Inuit reflective of our culture is another identified solution. We must heal the unresolved trauma and grief.

Inuit youth must have a successful completion rate in education, both in the western ways of knowing and in our ways of knowing. Allocations by government for education of Inuit residing in and outside of our modern treaty jurisdictions is integral to this solution. Again, these solutions are not new.

I look to the Truth and Reconciliation calls to action, and as I speak for Inuit youth, I point specifically to call to action number 66, which indicates: We call upon the federal government to establish multiyear funding for community-based youth organizations to deliver programs on reconciliation, and establish a national network to share information and best practices. This is achievable, and I see it as a solution that requires action from the federal government and ensures a holistic approach on a community-by-community basis for suicide prevention. It is everyone's responsibility.

Communities know what they need, but they require the appropriate investment to do it. Short-term funding that yields short-term results can no longer be the norm. Let us do this together. The term “renewing our relationship” is also not new. It is the take-away from the RCAP report dating back to the last century. This continues to be a repeated statement by government into today. Let us ensure that there is action attached to it. Let us truly see the Inuit-to-crown relationship defined and honoured.

As I think about suicide, I recognize the complexities involved in the “why” as well as in the “how” when it comes to eradicating it. It must be a holistic approach whereby Inuit have the ability to fulfill the level of self-determination we seek within Canada, where we choose how we address suicide with Canada as our equal partner. Our youth today and tomorrow depend on it. I commend the standing committee and its members for prioritizing suicide, as we have made it our priority as well.

I look forward to the report that will be tabled next year as a result of these hearings and research, as Canada celebrates its 150th anniversary on the world stage. Suicide must be eradicated. Social inequities that Inuit face, compared to our fellow Canadians, are intolerable. Double standards can no longer exist.

(1250) To quote the Right Hon. Prime Minister of Canada , it's 2016. Qujannamiik . Nakurmiik . Thank you. Merci . The Chair : Thank you very much, Maatalii, for that and for speaking on behalf of your organization. We're going to continue through and hear from all of the panellists before we go to questions. I'm very pleased to welcome, from the Qarjuit Youth Council, Alicia Aragutak, president, and Louisa Yeates, vice-president. You have 10 minutes to share between you. Thank you. Ms. Alicia Aragutak (President, Qarjuit Youth Council) : Thank you very much for having us.

Today we will be delivering our testimony on behalf of the youth of Nunavik. I will be splitting this 10 minutes with my colleague, who will introduce herself. Who are we? The Qarjuit Youth Council is a regional youth organization that advocates on behalf of the youth of Nunavik, which makes up more than 65.9% of the Nunavik population. Our partnerships are with other regional organizations that are key to our success in servicing the needs of the youth. We consult with our population to solidify current situations and issues and propose solutions that come directly from the youth.

We would like to mention the recent consultations that the Qarjuit Youth Council initiated to confirm with our population our priorities targeted for the coming year—mental health and suicide awareness—which expand beyond mental health. This involves discussions of our past, our present, and, most crucially, our future. The current situation is that the youth are feeling the impact of the drastic modernization within the last three generations. Most of the population agree that currently the youth are going through a cultural identity crisis.

We strongly feel that the youth today have not, to their full potential, been passed down their true identity as Inuit, which we feel as a region has a major impact on the self-esteem and self-confidence levels in our youth population. The loss of self-identity means youth do not have a solid foundation in their path of life. We believe this has a greater impact on the unfortunate statistics of suicide within our region. Of course there are other factors, such as the high cost of living, lack of housing, and minimal regional resources in all aspects of our region.

Nunavik also has programs and initiatives to keep youth on their feet. There are great programs, such as the on-the-land program, but the programs are inconsistent, with a lot of budgetary constraints. Stigma is a very big topic within our region, and is a major topic that we are starting to discuss within the Nunavik region. It is a difficult topic to talk about and requires delicate and immediate attention. With available services and resources in all levels of government, we wish to take proper, culturally appr