Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett and NDP MP Charlie Angus will visit Attawapiskat on Monday, as the northern Ontario reserve grapples with a suicide crisis.
Increasing suicide attempts in the remote First Nation prompted officials to declare a state of emergency on April 9. Community officials said there were 16 suicide attempts in the month of April, and 28 recorded attempts in March.
A few days after the emergency declaration, officials said they stopped a suicide pact involving more than a dozen aboriginal youth.
And over the weekend, Attawapiskat Chief Bruce Shisheesh said five more young people tried to take their lives on Friday.
Angus, whose Timmins – James Bay riding includes Attawapiskat, told CTV's Canada AM that he's hoping his visit Monday will be the start of a way forward for the troubled reserve.
Most important, he said, is to make sure that the youth in Attawapiskat understand that Ottawa is listening to their concerns.
"Number one, it's really important that the young people feel that they're being heard, that their voices count," he said, noting that meetings scheduled on Monday include the community's youth council.
"This needs to be part of the conversation to turn this broken relationship around."
Angus said it's also critical to recognize that band-aid solutions don't help, and that more significant long and medium-term goals need to be established.
"What are we going to do 30 days from now when the emergency teams leave? When the media attention leaves?" he said. "These are long-term systemic issues. The trauma that these young people are facing will require major mental health dollar investments."
The crisis in Attawapiskat prompted an emergency debate in the House of Commons last week. And Health Minister Jane Philpott said 18 mental health workers have been sent to Attawapiskat to help address the crisis.
Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins visited Attawapiskat last week, where he announced that the province would provide $2 million in funding to help.
But Angus said more permanent solutions will require more commitment.
He notes, for example, that for the entire country there are only about 10 mental health and wellness teams trained to work with indigenous communities.
He estimates that, at best, they reach approximately 10 per cent of the communities requiring their services. However, to really make an impact, these health teams need to reach upwards of 80 per cent of these communities, he added, noting that ramping up to this level will require significant resources on the ground.
"It really has to come down to us, as politicians, recognizing our obligations to talk and listen to them," he said. "People are very emotional in Attawapiskat and they have a right to be. They want action."
Cindy Blackstock, executive director of First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, said part of what's driving this sense of hopelessness in communities like Attawapiskat is the "chronic inequality" in the services provided.
She noted the disparity in government funding for education, healthcare, and child welfare services between indigenous children living on reserves and non-indigenous children.
In January, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found that the government spends less on social services for on-reserve children.
She noted that there's also a lack of basic services on many reserves across the country. For example, there's only one source of potable water in Attawapiskat, a community of about 2,000 people, she said.
Add up all these hardships, and over the years, children start to lose hope, she said.
Blackstock said the government needs to start taking steps to remedy these inequalities.
"There needs to be a long-term plan to eradicate these inequalities for kids, so that they are getting the kind of supports that every other child in Canada gets and deserves," she said.
With files from The Canadian Press
