Aboriginal health research to get $25 million from Ottawa, Aglukkaq announces

Aboriginal health research will get $25 million from Ottawa, said federal health minister Leona Aglukkaq, speaking on June 21, National Aboriginal Day, in Iqaluit. (PHOTO BY SAMANTHA DAWSON)

Ottawa will spend $25 million dollars over the next 10 years on research aimed at improving the state of health of aboriginal Canadians, Leona Aglukkaq, the MP for Nunavut and national health minister announced June 21 in Iqaluit.

The new research program, called “Pathways to Health Equity for Aboriginal Peoples,” will target suicide, tuberculosis, obesity and oral health among Inuit, Métis and First Nations.

The program will try to adapt existing health research to meet the needs of aboriginal communities, said Aglukkaq, who spoke in the Arctic Winter Games’ youth centre to an audience that included Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Terry Audla and Iqaluit Mayor Madeleine Redfern.

“We know that there is a health gap between aboriginal Canadians and non-aboriginal Canadians, and we must leap forward in gathering knowledge that will help restore the health equity to aboriginal peoples,” Aglukkaq said.

The new research projects will combine modern science and traditional knowledge to identify economic, social and educational programs that work well in aboriginal communities — “an ambitious task,” she said.

Six other aboriginal community wellness projects will also receive $5.3 million from the Aboriginal Health Intervention Grants program, Aglukkaq said.

“Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is supportive of this announcement,” said ITK’s Audla in a June 21 news release.

“We applaud the focus on intervention-centred research to improve health outcomes around suicide, TB, oral health, and obesity. We look forward to ongoing engagement in this process in order to align the Pathways initiative with the ongoing work of ITK and our Inuit Qaujisarvingat: Inuit Knowledge Centre. We must build bridges between health research and Inuit health priorities as defined by Inuit.”

This past April, ITK learned that its own health budget from Ottawa would be slashed 40 per cent.

Health Canada cuts of $74.2 million from its department budget included $1.5 million from ITK’s health budget over the next two years.

Health Canada cuts also eliminated the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO), which received $5 million a year from the department to do research and outreach programs, along with another $800,000 annual contribution that Health Canada’s Inuit branch provided to Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada to offer wellness programs.