Federal Minister Calls Prime Minister of Saskatchewan | The Canadian News

Federal Minister for Indian Services Marc Miller says Saskatchewan Prime Minister Scott Moe misinterprets his own health care system.

Miller made the comment on Twitter after Moe blamed Ottawa for Saskatchewan’s low COVID-19 vaccination rate in its far north, which has a predominantly indigenous population.

“Our Indigenous and Far North communities are operating at a vaccination rate of less than 50 percent, an area of ​​exclusive federal jurisdiction,” Moe tweeted Thursday after making similar comments earlier that week during a media brawl.

While he mentioned rates in the north, the prime minister did not include communities in the south, which in some cases have vaccination rates as low as 12 percent.

Miller said Moe’s comments are alarming and unproductive.

“Claiming that all of this work is under ‘exclusive’ federal jurisdiction is not only inaccurate, it undermines the spirit of indigenous self-determination that has guided our cooperative approach and must continue to overcome this current wave,” Miller tweeted. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ottawa and Saskatchewan have worked together during the pandemic to provide vaccines in the far north of the province and in remote indigenous communities, but health care services are outside the reservations, which are within provincial jurisdiction.

“The whole idea that First Nations in the north are outside the jurisdiction of Saskatchewan – and by jurisdiction I mean their responsibility – is this myth that we are often told in Canadian politics that leads to continued inequity. that indigenous peoples have had for generations, ”said Dr. Alika Lafontaine, president-elect of the Canadian Medical Association.

Lafontaine said Moe’s comments make it difficult for healthcare workers to do their jobs.

“If you don’t have your leadership pointing to the tools that we know work and emphasizing the need to provide care and take responsibility for the care of everyone within your province, that creates a very challenging situation to actually create some of this effectively, ” he said.

Indigenous communities face a unique challenge due to mistrust in a health care system due to the forced sterilization of indigenous women and medical experimentation on children in residential schools, Lafontaine added.

Moe’s comments on jurisdiction do not help increase vaccination rates, he said.

“You have to make your leader say things that are actually true and focus on solutions to the problem, rather than take that responsibility elsewhere.”

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