A new report from UNICEF Canada paints a grim picture of the health issues faced by children in Canada's aboriginal communities.
The 61-page report released on Wednesday finds that in areas such as infant mortality, immunizations and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, aboriginal children are worse off than others.
Nigel Fisher, president and CEO of Unicef Canada, said aboriginal children are the most disadvantaged in Canada.
"There is a differential standard applied to aboriginal health care and especially kids," he told CTV's Canada AM.
"On every measure aboriginal kids fall below national standards."
Following are some key findings from the report:
- The fertility rate among First Nations teens is seven times greater than that of other Canadians.
- The infant mortality rate on reservations is three to seven times higher than the national average.
- Compared to the Canadian average, about half the number of Inuit children visit a doctor each year.
- One in four aboriginal children live in poverty, compared with one in nine for non-aboriginals.
- First Nations child immunizations are 20 per cent lower than among the general population.
Most of the hurdles facing aboriginal children are the result of overcrowding, poor housing, poor access to water and lack of sanitization, Fisher said.
The solution, he said, is the provision of "better, more available community health services that are more appropriate to First Nations needs."
Another factor, Fisher said, is that health spending simply falls short in native communities.
"I don't think people really know that in terms of revenues there's 20 per cent less resources on average that go to aboriginal kids for their health care than most other kids, so even on straight numbers we need to pull that up."
Unicef is calling for the same standard of health care to be provided to all children across the country, regardless of where they live.
The group is also calling for the full implementation of Jordan's Principle, pending legislation that would ensure aboriginal children's health is never put at risk due to jurisdictional disputes.
The legislation is named after an aboriginal boy who died in 2005 after spending several years in a hospital far from his family, because federal and provincial officials couldn't decide who should pay to send him to a specialized care centre close to his family in northern Manitoba.
He eventually died at the age of five, without ever having spent a day in his family's home.
