Hon. Marc Miller, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: Thank you, senator. It’s unacceptable in a country like Canada that in some cases, particularly in Inuit Nunangat, the rates are 300 times what you would find anywhere else in the country. When it comes to First Nations on-reserve, it is 50 to 60 times. The outbreak we recently saw in Pangnirtung was heartbreaking in a number of ways.

I share your frustration in seeing that some of the funds have not been properly allocated. Tuberculosis, like any respiratory disease, is one that — despite the nature of it — cannot be solved simply by medicine. We need to be addressing the socio‑economic underpinnings, notably housing that is in dire need. It is one that we hope, and we will work hard, to tackle by 2030.

But it’s something that has to be done in partnership not only with the territory, but the land claims holders and their advocacy groups — ITK and others. It’s work that has to be implemented on many levels, from consistent investments in infrastructure over the next years to make sure that people are actually living in houses where they are not overcrowded and where they are not vectors themselves of transmission, but also with a proper public health response.

There is some deference owed to the chief public health officers in the territories as a matter of the relationship and of efficiency. It isn’t something we can wash our hands of as a government, particularly in providing funds and making sure that the territory and land claims holders are properly supported.

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