Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to speak about dialysis treatment in the Northwest Territories. For those who don't know, dialysis is a treatment that removes waste and fluids from blood for people whose kidneys have stopped working. People with kidney failure depend on regular dialysis treatment at least three times per week, and the process usually takes about four or five hours each time. While the process is a necessity for kidney disease patients, it is unfortunately not a treatment that is offered in remote communities. For the majority of dialysis patients in the Northwest Territories, people must travel to either Yellowknife, Hay River, or Alberta to receive regular treatments.

Mr. Speaker, there is a recent report done by the Canadian Institute for Health Information that provided some disconcerting statistics about Indigenous patients who rely on dialysis in Canada. The report determined that one in five Indigenous patients must travel more than 250 kilometres to receive treatment. The report also determined that Indigenous patients experience higher hospitalization rates because they must travel longer distances to receive dialysis. Indigenous patients also have lower survival rates than non-Indigenous patients. These facts are particularly alarming because, here in the Northwest Territories, half of our population is Indigenous and half of our population lives in remote communities.

Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories is not the only jurisdiction facing this issue. In fact, it's a nation-wide issue, which means that there are some ideas that we could utilize and implement here in the Northwest Territories. For example, in Alberta, people now have access to dialysis treatment on wheels, as their provincial government had the idea to retrofit buses and into a mobile dialysis units, where each unit costs about $2.1 million to convert and they travel to all remote communities and deliver treatment. Another idea is to provide people with the tools and capacity to deliver dialysis treatment within their own homes, although this might be difficult in remote communities, as it requires a constant supply of clean, running water and a reliable energy source.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted