Kusugak still waiting for invitation to ministers’ health conference

MIRIAM HILL

Jose Kusugak has been lobbying the federal government for an invitation to next month’s first ministers’ conference on health, but as the event draws near he is still unsure whether he will have a seat.

The upcoming conference, scheduled for Feb. 4 in Ottawa, will bring together elected provincial and territorial ministers of health to discuss the future of the health-care system in Canada.

On Nov. 25, Kusugak, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Matthew Coon Come, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and Gerald Morin of the Métis National Council wrote a letter to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien requesting to participate at the conference.

On Jan. 9, the three leaders (Morin was represented by Tony Belcourt), met with Health Minister Anne McLellan, as well as conference co-chair and Nova Scotia Health Minister Jane Purves to reiterate their request.

Kusugak said Aboriginal leaders need to be present at meetings where the lives of their people could be affected.

“If there’s any issue that really touches the lives of Aboriginal people,” he said, “from mental health to communicable diseases due to crowded housing and no roads to hospitals except by air, it’s health.”

Kusugak said it’s necessary for Inuit to have a voice at the meeting because the federal government often forgets that Inuit and First nations are different.

“Very often when they’re dealing with Aboriginal people, they tend to deal with the First Nations on reserves for example, because those are the Aboriginal people they know and are close to,” he said. “They tend to forget about the Arctic. They can’t feel it or smell it so we need to draw that picture for them.”

Kusugak said since the ministers will be discussing Roy Romanow’s report on the future of health care in the country, they will need to know which sections are relevant to Inuit.

“They’ll go to the chapter on Aboriginal health and that’s where they’ll be focusing for [all aboriginal peoples],” he said. “When I went through the Romanow report what I saw that most affected Inuit was on the chapter of rural and remote health care.”

While territorial health ministers, including Nunavut’s Ed Picco will be at the table, Kusugak said they will be representing not just Inuit but all Nunavummiut. ITK represents all the Arctic regions, he said, from Nunavik, to Labrador, to Nunavut, to the western Arctic, as well as the urban Inuit who live in cities like Ottawa, Winnipeg and Montreal.

“We exist to improve the lives of Inuit in the Arctic, wherever the Arctic is,” he said, “and our big focus other than environment is health. That’s where our biggest number of staff is.”

Kusugak said he was pleased with Romanow’s report and that ITK’s presentation was recognized and taken into account.

But going to the first minister’s conference would give him a chance to explain that health issues for Inuit often have to do with the mandates of other government departments, for example housing issues need to be addressed to deal with overcrowding and the resulting health problems.

While McLellan was very positive during the meeting, set up following the receipt of the leaders’ initial letter, Kusugak said, there has been no official response regarding the Aboriginal leaders’ invitation to the conference.