Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question to the honourable Minister of Social Services, Mr. Ng, is with regard to a question I raised in my Member's statement about aboriginal people who originate from one of the bands in the Northwest Territories, who are registered Indians under a band in the Northwest Territories, but live in southern Canada for reasons of health. They may have cancer, or have gone south because they had TB, but they are still registered on the band list in those communities.
I'll use an example. For instance, in Arctic Red River, the daughter of Nap Norbert passed away from cancer, outside of Edmonton. Because of the new policy this government has put in place -transferring people north for burial was eliminated -- the band had to incur the cost of $6,000 to bring that individual's body home for burial. Yet that individual is a band member of Tsiigehtchic.
With regard to the non-insured health benefits and those sorts of programs, this is aboriginal people's homeland. It doesn't matter if they live in Alberta, New Mexico or Brazil, this is still where they come from. I would like to know if the Minister is willing to consider taking a look at that policy, and also consult the bands to review that policy to see how this can be resolved.