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Hansard - Wasylycia-Leis calls for Emergency Debate on TB in First Nations Communities

Wed 10 Mar 2010

40th PARLIAMENT, 3rd SESSION
UNEDITED HANSARD • NUMBER 006
OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD)
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Ms. Judy Wasylycia-Leis (Winnipeg North, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I rise under Standing Order 52 to ask you to agree to holding an emergency debate as soon as possible on an urgent and life-threatening situation pertaining to Inuit and first nations people in this country, and the emergence of tuberculosis in very serious numbers. I make this case today for an emergency debate because of new information, new revelations that have come to our attention as recently as a couple of hours ago.

Today representatives and elders from the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and from the Assembly of First Nations brought this frightening reality to our attention. They pointed out that TB infection rates in Nunavut are 185 times that of most other parts of Canada, and in first nations communities, the rates have risen to 31 times that of non-aboriginal Canadians.

These revelations follow on the heels of an in-depth series of articles by Jen Skerritt in the Winnipeg Free Press, who brought to our attention alarming statistics showing that rates of TB in many of our communities in Canada, particularly in first nations, Inuit and aboriginal communities, are higher than that of third world countries. One such country that I visited a year ago, Bangladesh, where I was shocked to learn about TB, only to return home and find out that in fact rates are actually even higher in this country, a first world nation, a country as wealthy as Canada.

This is new information, new data. We are not acting on this information. The government has no plan of action, never mind talking about this information. It is new and it must be talked about, and I urge you to consider holding this debate so that we can get it out in the open, bring forward to Canadians the serious nature of this issue, and encourage our government to come forward with a plan of action as soon as possible.

If Parliament cannot talk about it, then who can?