Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The reason I am making this motion is, like I stated, this issue has come up year after year. It has come up at assemblies, it has come up in this House and I basically feel that this government has an obligation to provide secure services for communities. Among the essential services we depend on is health care and I think that we, as government, have to find ways of ensuring that those services are being provided fully, not part time or basically provided at random because of breakup and freeze-up.

I, for one, feel that this issue is almost touching on the grounds of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and under the Health Act of Canada. The Health Act of Canada makes it clear, you have to provide health care services as a health care provider and that means in communities that basically require that service.

So I would just like to ask my colleagues for support on this motion. I know I’ve raised this several times, but this government has to do more to find ways of ensuring that those services are there for small communities, like I stated. From the information that I have, I provided to other Members, we are getting expenditures by way of service expenditures in the smaller communities than what we were prior to division. We were better off then than we are today and with less people and more money, you’d think we would be able to do more and ensure those programs and services are being provided.

I believe that we have to ensure that the people, regardless of where they are, have at least some basic functioning service being provided in those communities. Health care is key to the health and well-being of the residents of those communities. I think this government has to do everything it can and we keep using the argument, well, sorry, you don’t have the numbers, you don’t have the facilities, you don’t have this, you don’t have that. Well, if we don’t start doing it, we’ll never have any of that stuff.

So I think it’s important to provide these communities full health care services and so if there is a will, there’s a way. I know the Minister made a comment that if we are committed to doing what we say to improve the quality of life in communities, let’s do it. Don’t just say it for the sake of saying it. Let’s improve the quality of life in communities by providing services that are adequate to the function of those communities, especially health care being a core program for community health and the residents of Tsiigehtchic. Thank you, Mr. Chair.