Background Information

What is happening with Health Legislation?

Together with Indigenous partners, the Canadian government alongside the provinces and territories are working to co-develop distinctions-based Indigenous health legislation to improve access to high-quality, culturally relevant health services. The Government of Canada indicates on its website that Canada has committed to working to ensure that any potential federal legislation is informed by provincial and territorial perspectives, is complementary to existing provincial and territorial health systems, self-government or tripartite models, and does not infringe on provincial jurisdiction or the territorial role in health.

The Canadian government has also recognized that it is imperative that engagement be led by Indigenous peoples, for Indigenous peoples, and that this engagement will inform a co-development process for this initiative.

To read more about the process, please visit the government of Canada website.

Why is this Important?

The Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) considers holistic Indigenous health to encompass the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and cultural aspects of one’s life. The MNO works to facilitate and coordinate health and wellness programs, services, and activities to address health and wellness needs of Métis people in Ontario at the provincial, regional, and local levels.

The co-development of a distinctions-based indigenous health legislation with Canada must be led and heavily guided by the Métis Nation of Ontario and its citizens in order to affirm our path towards self-government and address the unique needs and circumstances of our communities. For instance, the risk of cancer, smoking and alcohol consumption, and food insecurity are all significantly higher within the Métis population than in the general population of Ontario. These factors highlight the need for a distinctions-based approach to healthcare to create an equitable path forward in the reconciliation process.

The longer Métis people go without the meaningful and full integration of a Métis social determinants of health approach in the health care system, the greater the risk of perpetuating inter-generational trauma being passed on to future generations.

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