Thank you, Government Representative.

On the last National Indigenous Peoples Day, the former government representative reiterated the government’s commitment to addressing the overrepresentation of Indigenous Peoples in prisons. Through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 30, the government committed to eliminating overrepresentation by this year — yesterday, actually.

Mass incarceration remains one of the starkest legacies of residential schools and other colonial policies of forced separation and institutionalization. What urgent steps will the government be taking to end the current incarceration rates of Indigenous Peoples, and how will these efforts differ from the approaches of the past 10 years, including those in the Indigenous Justice Strategy, which have only perpetuated and exacerbated overrepresentation of Indigenous Peoples in prison such that one in two women and one in three men in federal prisons are Indigenous?

Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

At a time when the government is focused on efficient public spending, how is it evaluating the financial costs and public safety outcomes of mass incarceration of Indigenous Peoples versus what could be achieved by refocusing resources toward Indigenous communities on health care, housing, education, social and income supports and other measures that address marginalization, thereby preventing victimization and criminalization?