Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in the departmental overview, item 4 implies that social well-being and independence of the aged, disabled, and mentally handicapped are supported and promoted. Mr. Chairman, to me that means that we have to look after our elders. Even when the elders are not able to look after themselves, there may be some requirement to send the elders from one community to another where there is an elders' facility.
Mr. Chairman, when we talk about the elders in our communities, we are, in fact, talking about those people who have looked after us from the time we were too young to care for ourselves. When you move an elder from his or her community to another community where there is an elders' centre, you are taking away the pride of that person, whether they be a man or a woman, especially when that person is native to his or her community. That person is taken to a strange environment, the language is different and the food is different.
I've talked to people in my area, in the Kitikmeot region, not only in Pelly Bay, Gjoa Haven and Taloyoak, but as well, other communities like Coppermine and Cambridge Bay.
Mr. Chairman, I remember many years ago, about 20 to 30 years ago, there was an elder who was too old to look after himself and he was sent to Aklavik. The communication was not very good at that time. We rarely heard anything from that person, only by word of mouth through another person who would have travelled to Aklavik and come back to the community and talked to his family. But in the end, we heard that the old man was very ill and he wanted to go back to his community. He never complained when he was in Pelly Bay. He knew he was leaving the town but he never complained. But in the end, when the man was critically ill, he finally told his family that he wanted to stay at home with his family.
Subsequently, because the man was introduced to a different community, different lifestyle, different language, different culture, that was the cause of his illness in the end.
Mr. Chairman, I have talked with the people of Gjoa Haven, especially the mayor of Gjoa Haven. The community profoundly wants their own facility for elders. Even Taloyoak wants their own facility, Pelly Bay wants their own facility, Coppermine and Cambridge Bay. We are not able to accomplish that, we know, because we don't have all the resources needed to facilitate every community. But I hope that -- and I need your support, my colleagues -- that we will be able to have a facility in the Kitikmeot; one for the west and one for the east. I also hope that every region will be able to enjoy facilities in their own region.
Mr. Chairman, I know it's very difficult and very hard to try and get a facility for every community and every region, and I know that the department is trying very hard to promote the well-being of the elders, the handicapped, the disabled and so on. Mr. Chairman, that is my comment. Thank you.