The Minister has listed out some programs that could seem very beneficial to the people of the Northwest Territories. I wanted to speak specifically for the people in the Sahtu region in terms of where in the Sahtu and other communities that do not have a regional elders’ facility. In the Sahtu there is no regional elders facility. I’m afraid that somewhere with this type of planning, this type of going-forward initiatives, that

the region that’s most in need of support for elderly care in their communities would be the Sahtu. I’m hoping that through the discussions with the Dene Nation, other partners and agencies that the Minister has indicated that this emphasis is put on the Sahtu. If you look at other regions, they have regional elders facilities in their regions that would attract certainly members from that community to go there, because that’s the place that is needed for them there.

That’s one issue I have with this budget going forward, is making sure that the small communities such as I have in the Sahtu are given more emphasis on some of the services that are being taken for granted in other regions; that special care be taken by this Minister and this department.

In terms of program delivery, I look forward to the Minister, through her department, bringing forward some type of new initiatives on how to attract health profession workers in delivering alternative health methods in our communities. Right now we’re following one style of health care as the western model of health care. We seem to be locked in it and saying that this is the only way we can administrate, through prevention, treatment of the medical model in the Northwest Territories. I think Mr. Krutko has spoken about this earlier this week about looking at alternative health preventive medicine that should be looked at by this department here. So far I have not heard any type of indication as to the Minister saying we could look at different ways to prevent and treat our clients in the Northwest Territories. So far we’re stuck on the western model. They do have a reason. I do appreciate this model, but it’s not the only one we need to subscribe to. There must be other ways to look at our health care in terms of prevention, treatment, cures.

I want to ask this Minister if she’s willing to take a stand on how to take care of other issues that may seem more beneficial. Right now it seems to be that when we go to our health centres or our health station in Colville Lake, they seem to only administer drugs and pills. I think there are other ways that could be used but are not being supported by the health care in the Northwest Territories. There is a time and place for these medications, but I think sometimes they’re the easy way out to let people know that this is the only cure.

I’m thinking that through this process here, I hope that the Minister does bring some new initiatives in terms of how to bring other alternative health medicines into the Northwest Territories health care. That’s a big request to ask, but I think that’s a start. I think the chiropractors, for example, in the Northwest Territories should be under our health care system. They have lots of great benefits in terms of helping people, but we don’t seem to be

supporting that type of method of treatment or prevention.

As Mr. Krutko alluded to earlier in terms of traditional practices in social services or health care, we still don’t have enough emphasis put on practicing the communities’ traditional healing methods. It’s sort of what we preferred or do it on their own.

I know the Minister has made some great progress in the Aboriginal Wellness Program at Stanton Hospital with members of the elders across the Northwest Territories, and I applaud the department for doing that and starting it and setting it up and going forward. But I think it needs to be encouraged with our health boards in terms of having some dedicated dollars to look at methods of prevention or treatment in our health care system. These types of things I look forward to the Minister bringing forward in her budget. I’m not sure if that’s something that could be done through this process right now, but I’m looking forward to a discussion with her, through the various committees of this House and through discussions with the health boards, to see if this type of discussion can happen to clear the way for alternative healing and methods for our people in the small communities.