(Translation) Mr. Chairman, regarding Health and Social Services, regarding capital planning; first, I would like to say the patients who have to go through regional or southern hospitals for treatment are treated very well and that is the least we can do for them.
I would like to say that in the east one of our problems is, for the smaller communities, only small aircraft are able to land there. Some communities are accessible by larger airplanes. A lot of times patients that have to go out for treatment have difficulty returning home because other patients are using the same aircraft. This has been a major concern in the smaller communities for patients who have to go out.
The other concern is -- we are aware of this ourselves -- that these people do not travel on their own; that is a necessity for them to go out for treatment. I know that many of the same people go out because I travel a lot. I have seen many patients who have gone out for treatment who have difficulty returning home. I wonder what the problem is. I am not too sure about the reasons they seem to get bumped off of scheduled flights. It seems that there are no problems when they can get a seat on an airplane. We feel really sorry for the people who are unable to get home because they have no seat on the aircraft. I don't know if this is a problem elsewhere, but there have been a lot of problems in this area up to now. There are patients who are not there of their own making and are not able to get home when they should. Perhaps the Minister is aware of that or she may not be. I think that you should know the problem in this area so that you are aware of how patients who go out for treatment from their home communities are handled and treated. I think that we should be very sympathetic towards these people. Sometimes we feel sorry for them when they become unhappy because they are homesick when they are unable to go home. It is very sad to see these people. I would just like to say something about that further.
Also, in the Baffin, especially Sanikiluaq, Yellowknife is used as a major centre to treat these people. As well, the Kitikmeot Boarding Home is used by those patients who have to come in. I would like to say again that these patients are not here just because they want to come here; they are here out of necessity. I think that there should be Inuktitut services or translation services made available for that dialect at the Stanton Yellowknife Hospital. I think that there should be a telephone available with an interpreter in a language that they can understand. In the Baffin region there is Inuktitut available at the hospital all the time to answer any questions or enquiries, and translation services in that hospital. There are many other centres in the south that are used by northern residents. I think there should perhaps be a toll-free number or a number to call in our own language, Inuktitut, available in all major centres. I think there should be one made available at the Stanton Yellowknife Hospital. I don't know if there's one now or if there are plans to have one, someone who can answer questions in Inuktitut, because I know that Stanton, as it is at the present time, will continue to be used to treat other people from other regions, mainly the Inuit-speaking people, and there has to be someone looking after the patients who do come in.
We are very thankful that the Kitikmeot Boarding Home is available to be used by patients who come in, but even in the Inuktitut language we have many different dialects. A lot of times we can communicate but there are some problems that may occur especially for people who don't often get out of their own regions. There may be an interpreter available as needed in the Kitikmeot Boarding Home or at the hospital but I think there needs to be an improvement in this area because many people from Sanikiluaq have travelled to Yellowknife for treatment. It seems that we had a tuberculosis problem in Cape Dorset and there were many people travelling out for treatment. They were having trouble getting out of airports going into boarding homes or hospitals. I don't know what services you have about where to call or who to call in case there is no one from the hospital to pick them up. That is part of my concern.
The other concern that we have is in the social services area. When there is a death of a relative in another community, or if there is a serious illness of a member of the family, I know that there is one airfare that can be paid for a close relative to go to that community. We feel that there should be more than one airfare for a relative to go to that community for a funeral or to see a person who is terminally ill. This is a very serious concern for people from small communities who have no employment opportunities and want to fly out to see a dying relative or attend the funeral of someone who has died. When you are travelling from Cape Dorset to Lake Harbour, it is very expensive to fly between those two communities. I would like the Minister and his officials to think about this in the future. This is one of the major concerns in my constituency, whether or not Social Services can provide more than one airfare ticket to go see a dead relative or a terminally ill person.
I will stop at this point, Mr. Chairman, so that my points are understood more.