Thank you, MaryAnn.

Thanks to all of you for providing me the honour of presenting and, perhaps by proxy, sharing the messages we've heard in our engagement with indigenous veterans and their family members.

What was brought to our attention quite early on in our mandate was the need for knowledge products that are specific to the unique experiences of first nation, Inuit and Métis veterans, as well as their families. In response, the Atlas Institute has initiated a project with the aim to co-develop these products in collaboration with a first nation, Inuit and Métis advisory council, co-led with two senior strategists. These senior strategists are Tim O’Loan, a Sahtu Dene first nation veteran, and Shauna Mulligan, a Métis Ph.D. student in indigenous studies and CAF reserve corporal, retired.

I'd like to mention that this work is a marathon. It is not a sprint. It has a critical aim of implementing meaningful engagement strategies, and this will be ongoing over the next several years.

As MaryAnn has noted, throughout our priority-setting exercise, two of the eight critical areas of focus were under-represented populations and equitable access to care and treatment.

In light of this, the Atlas Institute hosted a round table in October, where we asked veterans and family members, policy-makers, service providers and other system-level players to give us a sense of their experience of barriers—as well as success factors and possible solutions for change—in relation to their experiences and understanding of the access to mental health care in rural and remote locations in Canada. What we learned from indigenous veterans and their families from this round table falls into the following distinct themes.

The first theme we heard was the importance of culturally relevant care and models of healing. Many first nation, Inuit and Métis veterans find that accessing traditional ways of healing can support their mental health journeys. Community leaders have shared that they'd like to see the adoption of policies that allow for traditional healing approaches within communities, with the costs being covered.

The second theme we saw is that trust is essential. As with many veterans, trust needs to be built, and it needs to be earned. This is especially true for first nation, Inuit and Métis veterans, where there has been a mistrust in systems, including health care, because of histories of colonialism, systemic racism and discrimination, culturally insensitive care and mistreatment.

Lastly, the third theme we saw was regarding the provision of mental health care services. We've heard that there's a need for clarity on who is responsible for mental health coverage for indigenous veterans and families on reserve.

Although there are many other nuanced themes and recommendations that came from this round table, we felt that these were the most pressing. There will be a full synthesis in the report of this round table early in the new year, and we'd be happy to share that with this committee.

Thank you. We would welcome any questions.

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