I know that the Department of Health and Social Services also has responsibility for people with disabilities. I strongly feel that we as a government are not doing enough to accommodate people in our communities who have some disadvantages, especially being disabled, and also providing for the services in our communities. It very much appalls me when we see a person with disabilities stuck in a facility or a small housing unit that has never been designed for people with disabilities. Also, on the service side, a lot of these people cannot leave their homes in some cases for 10 months of the year. They are stuck indoors because of just basic mobility challenges. In our communities, it is not there and yet we have human rights and everything else.

I think this government and as the Department of Health and Social Services that we have to do everything that we can to accommodate those people in our communities who are not receiving the care that they should be simply because of where they live. I would like to request from the Department of Health and Social Services and this government, whatever we do, we cannot lose sight of the fiscal challenges that certain people have in our communities, especially aged, people that are disabled or wheelchair bound, and making sure that, as a government and as a program provider, we do have services in those communities where we know these people are living and ensuring that we try to accommodate them whenever we can from transportation to logistical services to health care services, and also ensuring that those people are working with other department agencies and the Housing Corporation to the Department of Health and Social Services and ensuring all services are provided and are not losing sight of these individuals who basically have some challenges. More importantly, I feel quite strongly that sometimes we sort of lose sight of those people. Out of sight, out of mind. We are not really providing the services that they really need.

With that, I would like to leave it at that and hopefully get the Minister and the department to consider that type of capital investment that we are going to make that we ensure we design these infrastructure to provide by way of accessibility to any health centres or hospitals that we design, or care facilities for people that are in wheelchairs and people that have mobility challenges, that we are able to assist them or improve their quality of life in communities. Mahsi.