Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In regards to the concern raised about disabled persons, I have heard concerns especially from people within the community of Aklavik, who live on their own and they feel that they are being overlooked when it comes to their health care. They do not have access to the health centre where they have to find their own rides. There are no disabled vehicles in the communities. There is also the concern that people have different types of disabilities. It could be physical, mental or emotional, yet they feel that they are not taken seriously. They go to the health centre time and time again. As for providing the health services in a lot of our small communities, we as a government are doing very little to make life better for these people, especially accessibility to our health centres and also the community living for these people.
In regard to the community of Aklavik, we had a meeting with our MP, Ethel Blondin-Andrew. During this meeting, it was brought up that there was no vehicle for the community of Aklavik for the health centre for the nurses or the doctors to even get around to do community visits where these people are disabled and they cannot get out or get to the health centres. They live in our communities. In most isolated communities, you do see vehicles for the health centres and for the nurses to be able get around and carry out services.
You have an elders' facility in Aklavik. It is a level two or three facility, yet they do not have a vehicle to transport elders to the airport or the health centre. Why is it that most communities have transportation available for the disabled and the elderly, yet in this community, which is not on the road system, it is an isolated community? They used to have a vehicle, but for some reason it was taken away. For seniors to get to a doctor, a lot of them have a hard time getting into a vehicle because it is not equipped to deal with the elderly or the disabled people in wheelchairs. Yet, we have a level three health centre in Aklavik which is run by this government. That is an example of us not doing all we can to assist the elderly, the disabled and the service providers in our communities.
That is the frustration of trying to be a doctor and you are having to wait on patients. I was pretty surprised to hear that. What can the department do about that? If anything, why do we have these facilities without transportation available for them to serve the residents or people in these facilities? Thank you.