Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't make this motion lightly. Right now, Mr. Speaker, we have communities where basically only emergency services are being offered. In this day and age of technology and also having the ability to find large amounts of money that we put into delivery of health care by way of buying equipment and operational budgets that come forth from the cost of administering health boards, we are still finding emergencies in our small communities. Core programs aren't even being provided.
In a lot of our small communities, we have high rates of cancer. A lot of our patients want to come back home and be with their loved ones for the remaining days that they have. Because of lack of programs which are offered in large communities, such as palliative care programs and having assistants to help people cope with these illnesses, it is an essential program that should be delivered in all communities.
I've raised many issues over the last week in this House dealing with alcohol and drug workers, closures of our health centres and also looking in particular at the standards that this government sets. In this House, we just went through a supplementary appropriation. We approved an expenditure of over $2 million to 13 specialists. For me, nothing's been done to deal with the problem we know has been there year after year after year; closures of our health centres, especially during the summer season when a lot of nurses go on holidays. For some reason, we still have this crisis. I called Aklavik yesterday and I called Fort McPherson today and apparently they're still on emergency service watch where you phone the health centre and get a recording.
I think we as a government, as the Minister responsible for dealing with health care in the Northwest Territories, he's ultimately responsible to ensure that those dollars that are expended or given to health boards are spent in the areas that they were addressed to be spent on. I raised the issue of alcohol and drug programs in communities which have been vacant going on two years. Yet when the community asks where that money is, they're told sorry, the money's been spent and you don't have those resources at your disposal because someone else spent it on your behalf.
I feel it's critical that our communities have the health centres operated like any other central service in our communities, like our schools, like our municipal offices. We have a lot of people that I know of that have approached me and also during the Minister's visits, who have broken down in tears because of finding out after the fact that they now have cancer and they know their days are numbered and they knew months, if not a year ago, that there was something wrong. They continued to go into our health centre and were told that they either have a case of arthritis or they give you some other argument without any second opinions being offered by specialists.
I feel that this government has to deal with this problem as every other emergency. We had an emergency here in Yellowknife because 13 specialists threatened us to quit if we didn't pay them the 38 percent increase that they asked for, to the tune of $2.8 million. Yet we swallowed that.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to know what happens if we post this poster in Yellowknife and mention to the residents in the larger centres that, sorry, for the next two months you're only going to receive emergency services and if you want services you have to call a 1-800 number, but we're only going to deal with emergencies. We're not offering any clinical services or basic care services for our elders. I think it's important as a government that we take the time to realize we have a problem here.
For us to basically continue to fund millions of dollars to health authorities that have not lived up to their obligations under the Canadian Health Act, lead our universality problems right across Canada. Anywhere you go in Canada you can have access to these programs. Yet these dollars are not making their way into our communities.
I think that, probably being the last act of this government by way of this motion, that we don't ignore the problem whether it be defeated or not. This problem will not go away. This problem is out there and it has to be dealt with, either by this Minister or the next Minister, this government or the next government. But this problem has to be dealt with by this House.
My colleagues in this House, I'd like to ask you to seriously consider how you vote on this matter because I think this also affects the care in other communities. We've heard from my colleague from Hay River with the problem of trying to get medical services there. Medical services are being eliminated and moved elsewhere without very much thought of what that affect does to your communities besides the small communities.
I feel that we as a legislature have to take note that the amount of money that we spend on health care in the Northwest Territories, with the notion that it's improving, yet we have health centres that are basically closed to emergency services only. I feel that we as a government have to do something on this matter and deal with it forthright. It's not only affecting my riding, it's affecting every other community in the Northwest Territories. Core programs are essential to community health and well-being.
I'd just like to, in closing, ask my colleagues to seriously think of the consequences of not doing anything on this matter and continuing to ignore a very serious problem that we have in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.