Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as you can see from the presentations we heard around the table, it's pretty clear that the have and have not communities don't realize what it's like to have a community where you can't have access to your health centre, you don't have access to service providers like alcohol and drug counsellors or mental health workers. You guys can all sit on that side of the House and just say quit smoking, quit drinking, snap your fingers, it will go away. It will not happen.
The problem we have in our small communities is economically and socially stimulated because we don't have an economic base, not like the luxury of large centres where this government basically runs those communities. I think it's important without these programs and services, you will not have healthy communities, you will not have healthy people to cope with the stresses of the day-to-day things in small communities and being in some cases homeless and in most cases unemployed, living on income support, living in social housing. That's the stem of the problem of this Government of the Northwest Territories. Yet the bureaucracy of this government continues to grow.
Since we got here four years ago, the only thing that has grown in this government's budget is the bureaucracy. I think as responsible Members on both sides of this House, we have to take some responsibilities as ordinary Members, too. We have brought up supplementary appropriations where we rant and rave and question it going through the House, but at the end of the day we vote them out.
Mr. Speaker, my motion is clear. My motion is directed in regard to programs and services delivered in small communities which at this time are nil in some communities. We have emergency services only being provided in some communities right now. We have people who basically are being diagnosed at the regional hospital because they took it on their own to get to the regional hospital, later to be diagnosed and medevaced to Edmonton at a cost which could have been a lot less if that person was diagnosed in the community before they had to make it on their own to a regional hospital. Those are the costs that you keep talking about. Health care costs will continue to go up. Yes, they'll continue to go up because in small communities a large portion of that cost is medevacs out of our communities because we don't have the basic programs to diagnose and assess these problems before they become so-called medical emergencies. That's where the costs of this government are going.
For the Minister to put the onus on the so-called frontline workers, it's not the frontline workers that are ultimately responsible to ensure that those programs and services are being delivered in the communities. He has the ultimate responsibility to ensure that the standards and the mission of this government is being carried out, to promote, protect and provide health and well-being programs to people in the Northwest Territories. That's your responsibility as a Minister. When you have closures in our communities every summer going on for four or five years and it continues to go on, you are responsible.
Mr. Speaker, as we can see from the motion around the table and the comments that were made, this is definitely a situation that we in small communities find ourselves frustrated because we know nothing is going to change in this government. So maybe it is good we're going to the polls for an election, so we can maybe get some new Ministers in there and new people in this House that really understand the problems in our small communities. Because in large communities you don't have to cope with the frustration of having your children taken away by social services and not having an appeal process to go to, or not having the ability to take your family and your children to counselling because you don't have counsellors in our communities. You have people in our communities who have diabetes and other health problems that aren't able to access the programs that are being offered in other communities. You have nutritional programs for people in the regional centre, nutritional services are being provided in regional centres where you can talk to a nutritionist, you have programs in regard to family counselling. In Yellowknife you can walk down the street and walk into somebody's office and have that service provided. If you want a dentist you basically go down the street and make an appointment. If you want to go see a doctor, you phone one of the clinics here in Yellowknife or in the other centres and you can go see a doctor. In our communities that luxury does not apply. You're lucky to see a doctor once a month, if that, if you're able to get on the list. With the dentist, you're lucky to see him twice a year and you're limited on what they can do once they get there.
So I think that what the comments were from the Members on the opposite side saying that everything is hunky-dory and don't worry, everything is taken care of, I can't agree with. I feel that this government has a responsibility to ensure that programs and services that are being provided are universally provided across the board.
If we have programs that aren't filled, every effort should be made to get those positions out there and advertise and ensure that those people are in place.
I would just like to refer to a comment that was made with regard to not being responsible by making this motion. For me, not making this motion basically tells me I'm just going to bow to the normal process and not say anything and just let it continue. I can't do that. I personally cannot stand here and say that everything is rosy out there, because it isn't. The Minister knows it from the comments I made in the last week and from the correspondence that I've been sending back and forth to the Minister's office, that this problem is there, it is affecting people's health and well- being, and in most cases has caused grief to a lot of families. I think as a government we are responsible.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to make it clear that knowing this motion will not be passed with the numbers that are out there, but this will not go away. I hope for those people who are running in this next election and running in those small communities, that this be one of their top priorities coming into this House in the 15th Legislative Assembly. The comments we hear around this table and for people who don't have to deal with closures, it's not a problem. But for people that do, it's definitely a problem. That's the frustrating part of the have and have not society we live in.
At least when we were part of the 13th Assembly where we had the whole Northwest Territories, we could relate to all the other communities because we had a majority in this House. Now basically because of the division of the Northwest Territories, we are definitely feeling the effects of that division on our small communities being fairly treated by the Government of the Northwest Territories and other larger centres in the Northwest Territories.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask for a recorded vote and thank those Members for supporting the motion.