Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Our next resolution has to deal with affirmative action. If there is one department more than any other that should be a representative of the people it serves it is the Department of Social Services. The history of non-aboriginal intervention in aboriginal social and cultural issues is one of utter failure.
The committee finds it difficult to believe that a person from the south, however well intentioned, can effectively counsel a native person in a small, remote community, on issues such as child or spousal abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, suicide, and low self-esteem.
However, there is still a majority of the people in the Department of Social Services and Corrections that are not aboriginal, and none of the senior bureaucracy that met with this committee are aboriginal.