Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think, generally speaking, my concerns are more weighted on health issues. For the most part I can recall very distinctly that we made it very clear in terms of trying to promote through the Department of Health and Social Services, a very strong emphasis on preventative steps so that we promote the idea to the public that we need to try and encourage our people to live healthy and wellness lifestyles so that at least down the road we don’t have to bear the consequences of some things that we have undertaken as habits. I think the general understanding was that yes, indeed, we will try to undertake some preventative steps so that we do encourage the people to live healthier lifestyles and lesson the burden on the health care system down the road.
If there’s anything that stands out for me, it’s just over the course of the last summer I think we all came to realize just how volatile sometimes the drug industry is and our reliance on it, especially for people who are really in a circumstance where they’re relying on it for their life. We’ve gone through that experience where there were some place restrictions on certain kinds of medications that affected patients. Sometimes going through the experience, more likely patients are very weird. They want to be assured that measures and systems are in place to ensure that there is a contingency plan out there so that people are encouraged and they are reassured that yes, indeed, those services will not be interrupted.
If there’s anything I should also mention, it’s just, here in the North, we’re very dependent on the natural resource industry. Especially mining. More likely down the road we’ll have more activity related to oil and gas development. That’s almost industrial activities that will more likely determine that we’ll have an increase in the industrial workforce. We all try to promote safety and awareness, but at the same time, there’s always the likelihood of people sustaining injuries that are very serious in nature. Sometimes they have people that, unfortunately, result in serious brain injuries and they have some irreversible damages to their motor abilities. Unfortunately, it could be that we’re not in a position to provide special care, but I feel strongly that at some point in our future, we need to seriously give it some thought and consideration to ensure that we do have a plan of some kind to provide services to people that would need them in those circumstances.
Another area that I think everybody is more likely affected by in one way or another is the cancer rates. It again goes down to preventative steps, but I feel that more likely the system is in place to ensure that we do everything that we can to detect cancer at the earliest stage. It’s so sad and so often that people are in a predicament where cancer is caught at the late or fatal stages, and I think we need to do more so, detection, more practices, so that at least we provide the service that’s really needed in communities. Especially in small communities.
If the department, at some point, would be in the position to consider assisting communities that are closely situated to the highway, especially in my home community of Fort Providence, more likely we will see the eventual completion of the Deh Cho Bridge and we’ll more likely have an elevated increase of traffic. I know we do have first responders in the local community. We have a volunteer firefighter brigade, and we’re almost equivalent to an ambulance, but we’re short of having the qualified people there. My thinking is that maybe the department has to, at some point, maybe work with the community to look at maybe providing first responders, whether it’s ambulance or medic people who can be ready to provide that service. For that matter, I think efforts need to be made again to maybe, as a discussion piece at least, analyze whether it’s doable to look at having a system in place so that we have real-time responses and we can communicate on a real-time basis. That’s cellular service. Whether the department would encourage an establishment of cellular service in Fort Providence, because we have an increased amount of traffic not only of vehicles but of people who boat and hunt. It would be encouraging or reassuring that there’s a system out there like that.
In terms of social services, I think there’s been discussion towards the development of a mental health strategy. I think it’s something that we need to push forward on. We need to ensure that all levels, including community levels, are heavily engaged in terms of trying to bring people together to look at creating some best ideas and best practices. Just building up on the strengths for some communities that have gone down the path before, to the point of almost developing community wellness strategies in terms of how it is they want to undertake to address the alcohol and drug issues. Mainly that’s one of the most prominent problems that we have. To see whether there can be an entry program in terms of how to ready people to go into treatment. After they come out, how do we support them? It’s so critical at that stage that people come out of treatment and they need that support. We need to ensure that we have a system in place that is workable and successful.
The other point too is, on that same nature, we had a very strong effort, an ongoing effort, I would like to think, in terms of acknowledging the residential school experiences that we’ve all, in one way or another, been affected by. We need to see if there could be some cooperative efforts in terms of at least providing the ongoing services for people that still feel the effects of those experiences. We need to ensure that we have a helping hand, that we are there to help them, to acknowledge and put into perspective their experiences that sometimes were good and sometimes were bad.
I think, for the most part, those were my general comments. I think those were some of the key things that I felt the constituents that I serve most feel strongly about, and those are just points that I wanted to raise at this time.