Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think we should be aware that we are not just talking about physical health. We are talking about what are traditionally social services types of things also. We have this recommendation because we have heard from so many people across the territories. That is why it is here. People told us they saw healing circles and land-based camps where people can learn traditional knowledge which is very relevant in treating a number of the social problems that face their communities. They told us they needed to be able to bring in the people to facilitate the healing circles in their communities so they could start the healing process. They told us they needed some assistance to get some land-based camps going. They also told us they wanted to be able to use elders to provide counselling to help people deal with problems they had and the elders told us, we think we should be recognized as part of the system and we are not expecting a lot of money. We have people come over and sit around. We have tea. If there are some expenses, we expect that should be compensated. Those are things we heard from the people in the communities. That is why we have made this recommendation dealing with money. The people out there told us that that was what they wanted.
When it comes down to the clinical health side of it, I mentioned to the committee it was with some interest I noticed that the Canadian Medical Association, in its presentation to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People this week, said the Canadian government must recognize traditional healing. They had to recognize that when an aboriginal person is going to a traditional healer, it is as much for the spiritual side as anything else. There is no way they can get that sort of healing from a non-aboriginal healer. But we have to make sure our system is set up to accommodate the people who want to be able to get there.
As Mr. Arngna'naaq has pointed out, there are not that many traditional healers around in the north. We heard that from a lot of people. It is the same problem that has been faced by many aboriginal societies around the world. When I visited the Navajo Nation earlier this year, they were very proud of how they had established a training program for traditional healers. It wasn't run by non-aboriginals. It was a few of the aboriginal healers who were still around. They got together and said, why don't we run a training program for people who have an interest and an ability to learn this program?
They couldn't have done it without some financial help. If you take the financial help out of this motion, you've made it so weak that we don't ask the government to do anything. We give them all sorts of ways to get out of this. We heard this issue raised in every single region we went to. This issue was raised in every single region. It was raised in our first trip to the Keewatin, it was raised in our last trip to the high Arctic, and in every region in between.
People told us they expected their government to be responsible for bearing some of the costs of providing these services. I think if the Canadian Medical Association is willing to recognize that they can't -- with modern technological advances -- solve all the problems and they recognize that aboriginal people have a place in the world, I think we -- especially up here -- have to be willing to agree that we're behind the times. We should have been doing this all along.
But if you don't put any money in here, Mr. Chairman, then I'm sorry but I think we're passing a gutless motion. I think we've got to have the guts to say to the government, you've got to do something and we want you to put your money where your mouth is.