Kate Reid on Member's Statement 727-20(1): Northwest Territories Healthcare Excellence Canada's Cultural Safety Design Collaborative Team Report: “Honouring the Voices of Indigenous Peoples - Actions for Change in the Northwest Territories Health Care System”

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On May 30th of this year, NTHSSA released a report that has yet to be discussed in this House. Today I want to talk about this report entitled Honouring the Voices of Indigenous Peoples. It is the product of two years of collaborative work of the Cultural Safety Design Collective with representation from NTHSSA, Indigenous patient advocates, Hay River HSSA, Tlicho Community Services Agency, and HSS.

The scope started with a review of Stanton's Indigenous wellness program but while listening to the lived experience of Indigenous folks, this scope grew to receive insights across the entire NWT health system. This report sets out 13 crucial actions for change to improve health care outcomes for Indigenous residents. It shares the voices and experiences of Indigenous patients and advocates and lays bare the system supports for Indigenous patients are under-resourced at best and, at worst, that the system is blatantly racist.

I want to commend everyone who worked on this report, and I urge all residents to read it. It is the first government report I have ever read that not only calls the lack of adequate educational and training supports for Indigenous patient liaison staff preposterous, it is also brave and unflinching in how it describes racism and white supremacy baked into the health system and insists that government must expedite work on the actions for change, citing the responsibility of leadership to address long-standing systemic harms.

An excerpt from the NTHSSA news release from May reads, quote, by embracing the 13 actions for change, health and social service authorities and the Department of Health and Social Services can honour the voices of Indigenous residents across the Northwest Territories and can address systemic barriers to provide equitable care, end quote.

So far, there is no public information as to whether HSS and various health authorities are actually implementing these actions or studying them to start to think about what implementation will look like. It is imperative that this government fully implement the 13 actions for change. I will have questions for the Minister of health at the appropriate time.