Status of Women committee  I just want to expand a little bit on what Angela was saying. Even just delivery of care and education in care need to be expanded. It needs to be an expanded model of midwifery care outside the confines of the limitations that provincial regulatory bodies put on it. The delivery of care in our northern communities needs to be reflective of the demographic of women who are there and of how midwives can provide that care.

Status of Women committee  I'm trying to follow exactly what it is that you're asking. Is it how we deliver services in a way that's reflective of our traditional practices?

Status of Women committee  I think number one is knowing the history and the context of where people come from in their particular story or situation, and how their home or their community or family has moved through that trauma that they've been through. Also, it's recognizing the diversity of our communities in terms of how we share and learn and bring babies into the world in a way that is traditional to us, and what that looks like.

Status of Women committee  I did. I wanted to be very clear that you mentioned that Laurentian had cut its indigenous midwifery program. It was not an indigenous midwifery program, and that definitely would be one of my recommendations moving forward. That is at the core of how, for a huge.... I realize that we also need to support our francophone students as well, but Laurentian did a very poor job at that, and this is an opportunity, now that this has happened, to do a much better job at this being indigenous midwifery by indigenous midwives and community, and that is at the core of how that education is going to be delivered to indigenous communities.

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  I just want to echo a little bit what Buffy was saying: that communities should be able to access education and care in their languages. You also asked about some accountability structures. I can think of an example where a community midwife from Quebec had strict limitations placed on her ability to open and set up practice because she was not francophone-speaking.

Status of Women committee  I wanted to echo why the need for midwifery expansion in the north is so important, because Buffy talked about these teams of midwives and not having the ability to provide 365-day-a-year care. In our communities, that is happening with midwives who don't have the support or the bodies or the extra midwives to support them in that.

Status of Women committee  One more time.... Here we go. I already gave a bit of introduction and context on how I came to midwifery and my personal story, and why I feel midwifery in the north needs to remain in the north. My biggest recommendation obviously is that we need to maintain midwifery education in the north.

Status of Women committee  Angela and I are in the same room and I was on the line trying to connect to get logged on with one of your IT support people. My name is Naomi Wolfe, and I am a registered midwife at Shkagamik-Kwe Health Centre. I have been practising midwifery for over [Technical difficulty—Editor] years and—

Status of Women committee  I am Anishinabe. I come from Brunswick House First Nation, which is in northern Ontario. I have lived in the north my whole life. I actually trained as a midwife in southern Ontario, which is the opposite of what we were saying. The reason is that I wanted a foundation of midwifery from our perspective as first peoples of this land, so I trained as a traditional midwife at Six Nations of the Grand River Territory [Technical difficulty—Editor].