Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand the fiscal situation of this government. I also understand the dilemma the honourable Minister is faced with. I know there are needs in other communities. To come up with new money would mean one area of this jurisdiction would suffer. I also know there will be setbacks in coming up with new funding and that there would be no work for the community of Gjoa Haven this coming summer. I will move to the next area of concern.
Mr. Chairman, 25 per cent of the patients on medical travel to Yellowknife end up at the Kitikmeot Boarding Home. These people are usually unilingual elders and, in some cases, a unilingual elder travels without an interpreter/translator or escort. A patient travelling to Edmonton, via Yellowknife, informed me she was travelling alone. She is unilingual. I went to the airport to meet with her. She was travelling through Yellowknife on her way to Edmonton. Mr. Chairman, she didn't have an interpreter travelling with her. The RCMP officer from Pelly Bay was also travelling to southern Canada and I asked him if he would take care of her, to make sure she was picked up by medical personnel in Edmonton.
The following week the same RCMP officer informed me that if she hadn't been travelling with the patient, the patient would have been stuck at the Edmonton airport without an interpreter, unable to communicate with anyone. She would not have been able to phone anyone in Edmonton to make arrangements to get picked up and taken to a medical facility. What is the policy of this government? Is there a requirement written in the policy to allow an interpreter/translator to accompany a patient travelling to a larger centre from their community? Thank you.