NWT Prime Minister Urges Most of Federal $ 40 Billion Go to Counseling and Education Programs That Support People

OTTAWA: A $ 40 billion proposal to compensate and reform the health and well-being of indigenous children should ensure that most of the money goes to indigenous governments to provide the mental health, addiction and education services that their people you need, says the prime minister of the Northwest Territories.

In an interview with Star Tuesday, Premier Caroline Cochrane said that while millions in damages are expected to go to people, as was the case when survivors from residential schools were compensated, it is critical that broader support programs get money.

“When you give money to a generation, people often expect to get results right now. That is not reality. It takes a couple of generations before healing begins, ”Cochrane said.

Cochrane, who will sit down with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday, said he believes the prime minister has a “basic understanding” of the challenges facing northern communities.

“My job” is to make sure he really sees “the difficulties we face” when it comes to affordable housing, food security and child care needs, he said.

More than half of the 45,500 population of the Northwest Territories is indigenous, and the challenges are immense.

Cochrane is a Métis, a social worker by training, and understands some of them on an intimate and personal level.

He was 13 when he left home, surfed on the couch with friends, moved for years, but didn’t consider himself “homeless.”

“People will think, and I include myself at the time, that homeless people were people you see on the street with nowhere to go. But homelessness is bigger than that. It’s about not having a safe place to live, a safe home. “

It wasn’t until years after the birth of her second child that Cochrane finally found herself in a safe place that she called home, at age 33.

“I went to college. I only had a ninth grade education, so I went back to school, got a degree in social work, and I am a strong advocate for education. Education changed my life. It gave my children a future. It put me where I am today. “

He said he entered politics because “I felt that the needs of low-income families were not being met.”

And that’s why he says he’s in Ottawa to advocate for the need for housing, early childhood development, and “programming.”

“I know that when the funding for residential schools came out, it was given to the people. I know that part of this $ 40 billion will go directly to people. That’s a nice gesture, but I’m not sure if it will solve the problems. “

He said that people need support for mental health, addictions and “self-esteem.”

“Addictions are a symptom of a need. So it’s about making people proud of themselves. “

He said the Trudeau government has already legislated changes to give indigenous governments authority over child protection and said: “I think that is part of the answer.”

Cochrane assumes that a “large amount” of the $ 40 billion that will now go to these indigenous governments to develop their own systems “so that we can give children the culture they need so they can be proud of who they are.”

“So I think it’s a start. And I hope that the governments of the future continue to realize the importance and then (in) a couple of generations we will see a difference between people. “

The liberal federal government said its fiscal and economic statement Tuesday earmarks a massive fund of money, $ 40 billion, to be spent depending on a deal being reached between the parties to resolve three class action lawsuits and address long-term needs. .

It is not clear how many years the money would be spent.

The Canadian Court of Human Rights has found that the federal government discriminated against Indigenous children and families as a result of unequal funding of Indigenous child health and welfare services.

A federal court upheld the court’s compensation order of $ 40,000 for every child, parent, and grandparent affected by the removal of Indigenous children from their homes and cultures due to lack of funding for foster care services in their home communities. .

Cindy Blackstock, director of the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society that initiated one of the cases, said in an interview with The Star that nearly 60,000 children were separated from their families “because their families did not have access to services to recover from the trauma of residential schools. That is a small town for children. “

Under the proposal, he said, people could expect to get “a minimum of $ 40,000” under the court order, “some will get more,” depending on the damage caused.

“But that’s not much for being separated from your family and not having the opportunity to grow up there because the government didn’t think it was worth the money,” Blackstock said. “So knowing how many children are victimized helps people understand why that number is so large.”

Murray Sinclair, a retired senator and former head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, oversees conversations between the federal government and First Nations groups, which include the Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations.