Legacy
Health
19. We call upon the federal government, in consultation with Aboriginal peoples, to establish measurable goals to identify and close the gaps in health outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities, and to publish annual progress reports and assess long-term trends. Such efforts would focus on indicators such as: infant mortality, maternal health, suicide, mental health, addictions, life expectancy, birth rates, infant and child health issues, chronic diseases, illness and injury incidence, and the availability of appropriate health services.
Check out this Government of Canada page to see what they say about implementing this Call.
According to this BC Report on Indigenous health (2016-17), Indigenous folks in BC are five times more likely to experience a drug overdose and three times more likely to die from overdose than non-Indigenous folks (same goes in Alberta). I couldn't find a federal report on health outcomes for Indigenous Canadians, but another Government of Canada page offers such statistics as: general life expectancy for Aboriginal people is 15 years shorter than non-Aboriginal people, infant mortality rates are three times higher, and rates of diabetes are almost four times higher for First Nations folks living on reserves.
Add to these few stats the astonishing fact that Indigenous women, to this day, are being sterilized against their will, (Google "sterilization of Indigenous women" and you'll find a ton of recent credible articles about this) and it becomes even clearer that we're nowhere near where we need to be in terms of caring for Canada's Indigenous population.
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