Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Some time ago my colleague, Mrs. Groenewegen, and myself referenced the need for speech therapists within the remote communities of our territories. Recently in Rae Lakes they opened a daycare centre to help single working mothers with a facility to take their children to during working hours. Now that this facility is opened and people are using it, the community has discovered that many of these young children need speech therapy.
This, of course, is easier to say than actually trying to solve these children's problems. In order for a child to get therapy they must travel to Yellowknife. Once in Yellowknife they must attend therapy for a week at a time. Of course, this is an ongoing thing so every couple of months a parent must drop whatever work they are doing to bring their children into Yellowknife to spend a week in therapy; then go back to the community. To most people this is a very expensive solution to their children's problem and most cannot support this option.
This government must find a better solution. We need therapists out in the smaller communities to address this now, not later in life. It is very important for a child's development that they grow with the ability to talk properly.
I feel Rae Lakes is taking a step to assist in this problem by providing a daycare centre which will help these children to, hopefully, develop better communications skills by being in a group setting that will allow for them to learn form one another. However, we must go further. This is a huge problem across the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
--Applause
