Last month in northwestern Ontario, Nishnawbe Aski Nation declared a health state of emergency.

There continues to be unnecessary suffering and needless deaths across Kiiwetinoong.

Speaker, what page in the 2024 budget addresses this crisis?

Speaker, hospitals across northwestern Ontario are struggling to retain surgeons.

Patients in Sioux Lookout will be sent further away from home for surgeries that they need.

Again, what page in the 2024 budget addresses the crisis?

Speaker, what page in the 2024 budget addresses highway standards in the north?

It’s always an honour to be able to rise and advocate for the people of Kiiwetinoong. I know that Kiiwetinoong is a very unique riding. We have 31 First Nations. We have 24 fly-in First Nations that do not have access to provincial highways, provincial roads. But also, one of the things that we have—we are so rich in northwestern Ontario. We are rich in the resources that we have. We are rich in the rivers, the creeks, the lakes, the animals, the fish that live in those places, all the trees that we have. We are so rich. Not only that; we are so rich in our ways of life, in the teachings, the stories that we have as First Nations people.

I’ve been here about 5.5 years, close to six years. I sit here, and I’ll listen to the budget, I’ll listen to the fall economic statement, and if you’re in Kiiwetinoong, if you’re on-reserve in Fort Severn, if you’re in Big Trout Lake, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, this budget isn’t for you. If you’re a child that’s 12 years old and you’re thinking of dying by suicide, this budget is not for you. If you’re in Neskantaga and you have a boil-water advisory that’s going on 30 years, this budget is not for you. If you’re in a home with three families that have to rotate their sleeping schedule, this budget is not for you.

Those are the realities of Kiiwetinoong. I think sometimes the disappointment that the budgets give me becomes normal. Status quo is construed as normal and acceptable, with conditions that we see and the life-on reserve that would not be construed as normal or acceptable anywhere else in Ontario, anywhere else in Canada. That’s the reality.

What I mean by that is, when we talk about the realities of Kiiwetinoong, they’re not addressed in the 2024 Ontario budget. In Sioux Lookout, which is a town of 5,000 to 6,000 people but services 30 surrounding First Nations, we have 21 long-term-care beds for the 30,000 people that live in the area. In order to get a bed—there’s a waiting period of four and a half years to be able to get to a long-term-care bed.

So those are the realities that we see, and on Tuesday, I was able to see the budget, full of re-announcements, half measures, gaps. I could not help but just to sit here and shake my head in disappointment. But also I wish I could say that I was surprised. Again, this is not the first budget that has failed First Nations, failed communities in the riding of Kiiwetinoong.

I believe that there are not enough announcements that would address the issues people in northern Ontario and First Nations communities are facing. I know that this budget is not for the people looking for a family doctor or the people struggling with the cost of living. It’s not for the people of Kiiwetinoong.

Every now and then, the food prices—sometimes people will send me food prices in the riding of Kiiwetinoong. I think it was earlier, maybe Monday morning, somebody sent me a picture of a small fruit salad. It was, like, 30-something dollars. It was just horrendous, but that’s the way the system is. Some people’s answer is, “Okay, that’s why we need to build roads,” but that’s not the answer. That’s years down the road. That’s decades down the road. We need to be able have quality of life dealt with right away.

The things I’ve talked about for the last five and a half years—it is our status quo, a status quo where First Nations in the north have these boil-water advisories, where too many people, too many youth—11, 12 years old, losing hope—are attempting suicide due to intergenerational trauma.

I was in one of the First Nations not too long ago, a few months ago, and this one community had 24 11- and 12-year-old boys and girls who had a suicide pact. About a month and a half ago, one of those boys and girls fell through the cracks. That’s what we’re dealing with up north. When we see mental health being mentioned in big numbers but that it’s not filtered down to the actual people that need it, it’s wrong. I think, for a while there, when we talk about intergenerational trauma—you cannot just deal with them downstream.

Again, climate change is a real factor, as well, for the winter roads. The corridors that we have in my riding—there’s four corridors—and the First Nations rely on those corridors for winter roads.

I guess what I’m saying, again, Speaker, is these realities would not be acceptable for one day here in Toronto or anywhere else in the province.

When I look at the investments in this budget, the numbers just don’t add up. There are investments to connect 600,000 people to primary care, but today there are 2.3 million people without primary care. If I did my calculations, and if they were correct, that leaves 1.7 million people out—1.7 million people who will continue not to have primary care.

In northern Ontario, specifically in Kiiwetinoong and northwestern Ontario, the crisis in primary care is more extreme. I always talk about unnecessary suffering. I always talk about needless debts. When you have these small communities that are not able to get locum doctors for their hospitals, for their emergency rooms, for their surgeons, a few primary physicians fill in to keep these services running. Can you imagine the pressure and the burnout the physicians in the north experience? When I talk about health, when I talk about the struggles, it means that it’s difficult to retain physicians and the surgeons in the north. When we talk about the lack of surgeons, the hospital in Sioux Lookout can no longer offer seamless surgical coverage. This budget is not including to address this crisis.

There is a ripple effect to these shortages and service interruptions. More of the patients in Kiiwetinoong will have to be sent further away from their homes. Not only that, they have to be away longer from their families.

While we saw an increase in Ontario’s Northern Health Travel Grant, the budget for accommodations goes down every day after the first night. My colleague the MPP from Nickel Belt pointed out that when people come to Toronto for serious illnesses, the grant doesn’t come close to covering the cost, and some people give up. But even though the grant for accommodations increased a bit, the reimbursements for kilometres travelled did not increase.

We had so many questions in this budget that were just not answered, such as the role of private companies in health care, and paid sick days. Instead, if you compare the budget to 2023 interim actuals, and when you look at inflation, we are seeing less investment in health care.

I know that when I was at this meeting last month, on February 8, the Nishnawbe Aski Nation Chiefs Winter Assembly, the leaders declared a state of emergency. It was not only because of what I just discussed with the state of our health care and emergency health services but also because of the tragic and preventable deaths in our communities with the sudden death of our children, the child suicide pacts, the overall mental health crisis, the overall addictions crisis.

I hope that everyone in this House is aware of the responsibilities the government has to address the mental health effects of intergenerational trauma stemming from Indian residential schools and the Sixties Scoop and, furthermore, the intergenerational trauma of Ralph Rowe, who used to be an OPP officer, who was a Boy Scout leader and an Anglican minister. He had his own plane. Ralph Rowe was one of the most prolific pedophiles who lived in our region for 20 years. We know that he abused 500-plus boys in the 1970s and the 1980s in the riding of Kiiwetinoong.

I’ve seen my friends and family members die because of that, whether it’s through addictions, whether it’s through suicide. I heard it when I was at that meeting, that one day at the chiefs assembly. I heard the survivors talk about it and share their stories. I think to be able to acknowledge those, to be able to fund those is part of the reconciliation that we need to work toward.

A few weeks before this state of emergency was declared, the Legislature’s Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs was up north listening to presentations about the budget. I know that everyone who came to speak truly wanted to be heard and to have their suggestions included in the budget.

Among many issues discussed, we heard about the need for harm reduction, overdose prevention and supervised consumption sites. In the north and northwestern Ontario, where is the funding for operating grants for supervised consumption sites?

Where is the long-term-care budget for Sioux Lookout?

When we talk about reconciliation, the town of Red Lake has been advocating for funding for a new arena and event centre for years.

When we talk about safety, I know that the government announced sums of resources, money, to law enforcement—$46 million for the purchase of four police helicopters in the greater Toronto area. What about the safety and security of the people living in First Nation communities and reserves?

Just last week over here, we met with the leadership of Chiefs of Ontario. They told us about some of the criminal behaviour that’s happening on-reserve, and it has gotten worse. What the government has been doing is Ontario has been delaying the changes needed to enforce laws on reserve. Under the long-delayed Community Safety and Policing Act that will come into force April 1, First Nation laws are exempt from being enforced.

Chief Laurie Carr from Hiawatha First Nation told the Toronto Star, “It’s unthinkable that Ontario doesn’t see enforcing our laws and bylaws, which we use to keep drugs and criminals out, as part of adequate and effective policing.”

Speaker, the budget announced millions of dollars for critical minerals infrastructure funding and re-announced thousands to mining companies, but at the same time, the budget is missing funding for consultation—proper consultation: free, prior, informed consent.

In conclusion, we would like to take the necessary measures to make sure that housing affordability, health care and mental health are addressed in northern Ontario and the communities of Kiiwetinoong.

Meegwetch to the member for the question.

I spoke about the crime, how gangs are coming into the neighbouring towns, cities, coming onto reserves. We are not able to enforce laws or bylaws to make sure that—the safety and the security of the people that live in those First Nations and the surrounding communities are not addressed. We need to be able to do that. Sure, you want to buy helicopters to protect the vehicles that are being stolen, but it’s important to address the crisis, to make sure that people are safe in our communities.

I can say I was here in May 2019, and I remember some of the First Nations from the riding of Kiiwetinoong—and not only that, the Ring of Fire—I remember sitting and listening to the Premier: “We will not move forward without your consent.” But he later understood that “free, prior and informed consent” is a term that addresses the issues, how we’re going to move forward.

I think the approach where they continue to—this government actually ripped up the regional framework agreement, where the nine First Nations in the Ring of Fire were working together. Now there are only two. I think with that, again, that will not happen, because you have to work with people. It’s a divide-and-conquer approach, and without the proper consultation, I believe the Ring of Fire will not move forward.

I talked about some of the impacts of intergenerational trauma, some of the issues that we faced a long time ago, the long-term impacts. But I think one of the things, when we talk about programming, like healing programs, healing centres—that would go a long way to start the process of healing for people. People are going through that on a daily basis and they need to be able to find a way to come to terms with whatever that they are dealing with, whether it’s a suicide attempt, whether it’s intergenerational trauma. Because it’s not the kids that suffer, it’s the families that we need to deal with—we need to be able to have that holistic healing approach.

I think it’s important to be able to address the issues that are in the north. The issues are very deep-rooted, and incremental funding, incremental change makes it look as if you’re doing something without really doing anything. What incremental change, what incremental funding does is it perpetuates the crisis in our communities. I think we need to have significant resources to be able to go there. We need to be able to provide that healing, housing, the high schools. We need proper runways and there is the cost of living as well.

Minister of Mines, I was listening to your presentation, listening to your comments. When we talk about free, prior and informed consent, how much resources have you put to Nibinamik First Nation?

Meegwetch, Madam Speaker. Listening to the mining minister on the approach to the Ring of Fire—you know that your current approach will not work. What are you going to do when the project becomes dead, the Ring of Fire becomes dead? What will you do then? Because your approaches will not work.