Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In our region, the makeup of the board consists of four chiefs and councillors from the hamlet and band who are appointed by the councils. We have some elected members. The minority are elected.
In our region, we have a concern it is run by the politicians. Because of this, there are a lot of health issues. Even budget funding is believed to be diverted to areas other than where it should be. What we are thinking of doing is having fully elected members. The reason I am saying this is some people will run for election for two or three positions and lose the election. Then they are appointed by the band or the hamlet council, which gives them a back door to come in, whether the public wanted them or not. That is one of the issues that should be looked at and maybe brought back to the communities for suggestions.
Another issue is we should look at training more Northerners, including training them in a second language. I think that is the hope we are looking at in my region. If we could get a facility there, we can train our people using their language. We can treat the elders who do not speak the English language.
I was in Edmonton and I saw an elder in the hospital. He would not get any surgery because he did not know what they were going to do to him. He had his daughter with him, but his daughter did not understand the medical terms. So I interpreted for him. Only then would he get the surgery done. We have issues like that where we have escorts that are with the patients, but the escorts do not understand because there are no interpreters in those areas. Those are the two issues I think we should look at. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.