Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand what the committee members are saying. I believe I also understand what Mr. Gargan is trying to say. I have seen too many instances where the system -- as we as aboriginal people had -- was used by the people in the immediate area. Traditionally, there was a legal system, a way of correcting people when they had legal problems.
Once the southern Canadians came up north, that was completely destroyed. There is no evidence of it here today in the north. That is what happened when our system of government, a western-style of government, tried to incorporate a traditional method. It overpowers it to the point where it is completely destroyed. Another example is the cultural inclusion program which I spoke of today. Traditionally, this type of program would be taught by parents, uncles or aunts. It is as though the aboriginal people handed this type of teaching to the government on a silver platter saying here, you take it, run with it.
What we have now is a program that is defined by a government who has no understanding, whatsoever, of what my culture is all about. Here we have a cultural program which is recognized by the government, funded by the government and incorporated into the system and has left our young people with an inability to follow traditional lives. All they can really do, in most cases, is finish high school and go on social assistance. They are really not able to hunt or trap and they have nothing to fall back on, traditionally.
What I'm trying to say here is that I believe this government should recognize traditional healing methods -- what little there is left -- and that it should be funded perhaps in emergency cases where a person with medical staff in that community is not able to assist. But, to incorporate the traditional healing methods into our health system, I believe, will slowly deteriorate the traditional methods.
I'll go back to the cultural inclusion program because I've been thinking a lot about that. If the government had recognized this and funded it and gone at the speed at which the people in those communities decided that program should go, then I believe we would have had programs that are effective, run by the people, funded by the government and recognized by the government. They would be effective programs which young people would be able to use.
I stand by what I said earlier about traditional healing methods, that they must be recognized by the government and funded to some extent by the government. But, I believe they should be incorporated by the government at the speed at which the people who have the traditional methods want. If they would like to see it incorporated into the government, then it should be up to them to decide how and when it should be incorporated. Thank you.