Ontario’s health minister says he has faith the provincial government will “hand back” health-care decision-making power to First Nations within a matter of years.

“Our ultimate goal is a health-care system where these decisions are no longer made by the provincial government,” said Eric Hoskins, as part of an announcement Wednesday for funding in First Nations-run, health-care programs.

Dr. Suzanne Stewart, director of the Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health at the University of Toronto, said she was hopeful the minister would follow through on his promise that Indigenous people are going to be able to self-determine with respect to health.

“The Western health care and biomedical supports and interventions have not worked to help Native people,” Stewart said. “It’s time to stop using the approaches that we know don’t work.”

Indigenous people in Ontario have a lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality rates, and more chronic and infectious diseases. Hoskins called the disparities in health outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Ontario “deplorable,” and attributed the failing to a “cruel” system.

The announcement Wednesday stems from the province’s $222 million First Nations Health Action Plan, initially announced in May 2016.

Highlights of the latest spending include: 16 new or expanded primary-care team clinics, 34 new mental health and wellness programs, palliative care training for 1,000 health-care providers and an annual commitment of $55,300 to spend on a discretionary basis for culturally safe home care.

Stewart said the budget numbers matter less than the “paradigm shift” needed in terms of leadership and decision making for Indigenous health.

“It’s who is deciding that, who is determining that,” she said, “That’s where the paradigm shift needs to be for anything to be helpful.”

The programs announced Wednesday moved in that direction, encouraging Stewart who said she’s “always hopeful things are going to change.”

“The next steps are accountability to ensure that those funds are used by Indigenous people, and not another middle of the road government agency.”

Isadore Day, Ontario regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations, called the investments “critical.”

“But as we move forward and the paradigm moves toward giving that authority back to our territories,” Day said, focus on maintaining and improving First Nations’ partnerships with the province will become all the more crucial.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

The announcement comes on the same day as a federal promise to establish a “legal framework” for recognizing the rights of Indigenous people. It was received by many Indigenous activists as a unilateral, colonial mechanism.

“Just what we DON’T need — more solutions coming from the federal government that will be unilaterally imposed,” tweeted lawyer Pam Palmater, a member of Eel River Bar First Nation.