Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement is on the ongoing requests of the people, especially the family members of the elders. They have been asking for a palliative care service in Deline.
There are 54 elders 60 years and over in Deline. People have asked since last year when the letter was written to the previous Minister, Tom Beaulieu, when he visited the community. Upon his visit there, people wrote a letter and asked if there could be a possibility of putting two palliative care beds in the existing community wellness building.
People have noticed that since 1994, when the facility was shut down for reasons only the government has known, there were people trained there, and people want to see their elders be brought back to their community, especially in their last dying days. The community has seen a lot of their elders pass away outside in the other facilities, which makes it very hard for family members to come to Yellowknife or Inuvik to get the last words from the elders. When elders are called, some family members can’t make it because of the high cost of an airline ticket, when they don’t see their elders before they pass away. Elders in our culture always want to provide words of wisdom. It’s a special time to give messages to the young people, especially to their family members.
So, they have been asking for a long, long time for palliative care beds in Deline, and I want to ask the
Minister, what plans, what stage and where are we at with the budget that we have in front of us – we have another capital planning budget ahead of us – if there’s a possibility of granting the wish of the elders in Deline. For the leadership and for the people, I think they’re excited and they want to see this continue and not just fall off the books in regards to their request. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.