Summary of NACHA meeting

December 11 & 12, 2006
Ottawa, Ontario

Kevin Barlow opened the meeting with a prayer. Mary Jamieson, the meeting facilitator, welcomed participants to the meeting. A roundtable of introductions was made allowing members to update NACHA on their activities since the last meeting in May.

Meredith Willis of the HIV/AIDS Division of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reviewed the status of action items from NACHA’s May meeting. NACHA made a number of decisions to expedite the completion of outstanding items.

Grafton Spooner presented the Public Health Agency of Canada’s report to NACHA. He highlighted a number of initiatives underway, including plans to develop an HIV/AIDS prevention strategy and an HIV testing policy framework, the Minister of Health’s review of the Federal Initiative and the establishment of a championing committee for Leading Together: Canada Takes Action on HIV/AIDS . He noted that publication of Canada’s 2006 World AIDS Day Report would be delayed until the end of March 2007.

Kelly Peterson provided NACHA with an update on the activities of the Communicable Disease Control Division (CDCD) of the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (FNIHB) of Health Canada. She advised NACHA that the pamphlet on the Non-Insured Health Benefits program would be ready for presentation to NACHA at its next face-to-face meeting.

Kevin Barlow and Sheila Genaille debriefed NACHA on the November 2^nd meeting to launch the Minister of Health’s review of the Federal Initiative, which they attended on behalf of NACHA. They also prepared written notes from the meeting, which they circulated. NACHA agreed to prepare a Template for Advice recommending that funds be made available to survey Aboriginal stakeholders regarding their expectations of the Federal Initiative to provide input into the review process.

NACHA considered the background paper entitled HIV/AIDS Issues Affecting Métis in Canada and agreed to consider next steps in using the report at its next face-to-face meeting. NACHA also approved a revised preface to the report prepared by the Métis Caucus.

Genevieve Tremblay and Constant Mudekereza of the Populations Section of the HIV/AIDS Division provided NACHA with an update on plans to develop a Status Report on Aboriginal People and HIV/AIDS. The Aboriginal Status Report is part of a larger exercise to develop population-specific approaches to address the epidemic. NACHA identified representatives to the March 2007 meeting of stakeholders being organized to launch work on the Status Report.

Fernand Comeau of the External and Government Relations Section of the HIV/AIDS Division joined the meeting to give an update on Leading Together and drew NACHA’s attention to a draft report comparing Leading Together and the Aboriginal Strategy on HIV/AIDS. The need for this report was identified at NACHA’s last meeting in May 2006. NACHA provided feedback on the report and asked that a revised draft be prepared by the end of January.

Mary Jamieson presented NACHA with a draft of its strategic plan for the five-year period ending 2011. She noted that indicators for measuring progress towards the objectives of the plan still needed to be developed. NACHA provided Mary with its feedback and agreed to hold a more in-depth discussion of the plan at its next teleconference, early in the New Year. It was noted that the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN) would be holding a conference on community-based research in February, which provided an opportunity for presenting a draft list of indicators for feedback from the experts attending the conference.

NACHA considered a draft of its annual report. Because few members had had an opportunity to consider the draft carefully, it was agreed that a fuller discussion would be held at NACHA’s next face-to-face meeting.

NACHA drafted and approved a short statement endorsing the Statement on Meaningful Engagement of Aboriginal People, which is published in the CAAN report Making It Our Way: A Community Mobilization Kit. NACHA asked the Secretariat to arrange to have the statement posted on its website and to ensure it is included in future meeting binders.

NACHA considered its seat on the board of the Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange (CATIE). After some discussion, NACHA determined that its role was not to appoint representatives to the board. NACHA agreed to send a letter informing CATIE of its decision not to nominate representatives to its board and to contact CAAN regarding Aboriginal representatives on its board.

Chris Archibald, David Boulos and Jennifer Geduld of the Surveillance and Risk Assessment Division (SRAD) of the Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control (CIDPC) of PHAC joined the meeting to present the most recent HIV/AIDS surveillance data and estimates in Canada and give an overview of A-Track, a proposed second generation HIV surveillance study among Aboriginal Canadians. NACHA advised the presenters that its strong preference was for four individuals, one from each of its Caucuses, to represent NACHA on the A-Track steering committee and at the March 2007 national surveillance meeting. NACHA indicated that it would need time to discuss the matter further before providing the government with its advice and decision with respect to participation in A-Track.

Marc-André Gaudreau, Manager, Program Development and Evidence-Based Interventions, PHAC, joined the meeting to update NACHA on the Program Evaluation and Reporting Tool (PERT) and the Program Data Collection and Analysis System (PDCAS) pilot projects.

NACHA agreed to hold its next face-to-face meeting on February 16 and 17, 2007, in Vancouver, and identified a number of agenda items for the meeting. It asked the Secretariat to set up a teleconference for full Council on January 11 in order to plan the agenda of the February meeting and formulate its advice with respect to the proposed A-Track program.

Peetanacoot Nenakewakapo closed the meeting with a prayer.