Health committee  I don't always like to jump in first.

Health committee  There were three questions. I'll be quick. People are incredibly resourceful with whatever they get. They're going to put that $1,200 toward whatever is going to make their family the most healthy. It's not likely to be child care, frankly, because they wouldn't be able to do that.

Health committee  Certainly no one is going to turn away a $1,200 option to buy better food. I'll try not to get caught up in the politics, but I'm going to tightrope this as best I can. I wonder if that might have been the best use of the money for our community, given the kinds of day care challenges that exist across the country and given what was being thought of—I'm trying to be polite—in response to...it could have been otherwise.

Health committee  Respectfully, I might have to defer, because my groups aren't really eligible to access the funding in any way, because it's on-reserve. We deal solely in an off-reserve context, and there has been no investment in education and an off-reserve framework. It might be a better question for Mr.

Health committee  I'm certainly not flippant enough to say I know how long and how much in particular, but I will say a lot of work has been done in some of that regard over the past year and a bit. We've been looking at some of the structural changes that might need to be made to our education system, to our housing systems, and to other systems, to make the investments where they need to be made, certainly in a first nations, Métis, and Inuit context, with the Kelowna process and aboriginal round table process that occurred.

Health committee  I'm one of the younger ones up here, and sometimes I get impatient with the speed of change within our own organization and with the things we want to do. I'm reminded by the elders we work with that it has been a really short time that aboriginal people in this country have had relative freedom.

Health committee  Thank you very much. I'd like to thank the committee for an opportunity to be before you today to present some of our thoughts and perspectives on the important issue of childhood obesity. I've prepared a small presentation, which I've given to the clerk. Hopefully it has made its way around; if not, I'm sure it will during the presentation.

Finance committee  They are and they're not. In urban areas across the country sometimes the artificial boundaries we put up between ourselves are just that, artificial, and very political in some respects. The people who come to our doors require services first and have affiliations with those notions second.

Finance committee  I certainly don't want to minimize what's going on within first nations communities, because some tremendous challenges need to be met. My depositions here are open. I'm not minimizing those impacts. People are coming to urban areas. There are second- and third-generation aboriginal people living in urban areas who are still healing from residential school issues and the cycles of abuse and dependencies many of our communities find themselves in.

Finance committee  Well, I think what has been hindering us is the relationship, frankly, we've had with the federal government and federal departments. Any time any aboriginal program or service delivery issue is contemplated, too often the response is, “Let's talk to the political people, to the exclusion of all others, about how we address the service needs of people in communities”.

Finance committee  Sure, the aboriginal head start program is obviously geared to aboriginal children aged zero to six in communities, basically to have access to pre-education programs, cultural programs, and to give them a better head start in the education system by addressing some of the challenges they're facing.

Finance committee  Sure. Do you mean with respect to the other national aboriginal organizations, sir?

Finance committee  We are not one of the five big national aboriginal organizations, which are kind of recognized.... Certainly under the previous government you saw that recognition through their inclusion in the first ministers process, in which we were not included. There are five, and they purport to be representative bodies, representing certain segments of the aboriginal population.

Finance committee  Thank you very much. I'd like to thank the committee for the opportunity to present this evidence before you today. We have previously submitted our brief, which highlighted a variety of measures that we believe the committee could consider to address areas of early learning, justice, and housing.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Let me put it into the context of my family and background. I am the first person from my family to graduate high school. It wasn't seen as a success that I was going away to university. Leaving my community and my family to go away and do studies was a horrific event—and to what end?