Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you can probably tell, this is a bit of a health theme day today and it has a special focus on the issue of respite care, which I want to say I am also very supportive of and recognize the vast importance it is for families who are caring for family members with disabilities or those who are aged. But, Mr. Speaker, I’m going to speak to the health care in the Northwest Territories in a more general sense.
Mr. Speaker, I’m thankful that we live in a jurisdiction that although our systems may be under pressure like all other jurisdictions, we have a government that recognizes health and social services as a priority that consumes over 25 percent of our entire territorial budget for a total amount of over $300 million. Although we attempted to address the needs of diverse communities in far-flung regions of our vast Territory, Mr. Speaker, we rise to those challenges.
Mr. Speaker, the North is a place where it is literally quite possible, when you have a need or an issue, to contact your elected representative or a health care provider at any time of the day or night, and that in many cases those people are not only known to you but you may also very well be known to them. This is an unusual and rare thing, Mr. Speaker, that no matter where you live, when you are in need of immediate or sustained care, no amount of cost will stand between you and the help that you need; that we have professional, responsive health care providers who are part of a network of services to address the health and social needs of Northerners; that we are not called upon to pay from our pockets when we are in need, nor is our need connected to our ability to pay or to our social condition.
Mr. Speaker, when we watch the news of the natural disasters, the wars, the poverty around our world, we see people with no access to health services or even the basic necessities of life. Some may say, well, big deal. This is Canada and we are not affected by such conditions. But, Mr. Speaker, the world is getting smaller all the time and as we see this, Mr. Speaker, although our jobs require us to raise issues in this House, of deficiency, I hope we never lose sight of how truly fortunate we are.
Mr. Speaker, closer to home in Hay River, I’m thankful that this government has seen fit to allocate funding for the start of a major project that will go to improve the quality of life for people in Hay River for many years to come in the form of a new health care facility.
Mr. Speaker, there’s always room for improvement and how we allocate our resources and how we collectively look for the best way to deliver programs and services to our people. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
