Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with respect to the incident in Nahanni Butte, the med response clinical lead and emergency physician performed secondary assessments and spoke with all of the patients over the phone and was able to get a sense of their injuries, their mobility, the details of the crash, as well as their medical histories. Med response was aware that there were pilots and other aircraft on the ground in Nahanni Butte, and that they were ready and willing to fly patients to Fort Simpson, but advised against the load-and-go scenario, if you wish, suggesting that a medevac would be more appropriate.

Physicians and nurses, firefighters, even, are not typically trained in pre-hospital care. In particular, they're not properly equipped and trained for providing services in an airplane that will be transporting patients from one location to the other. Often, they don't have the aero-medical trauma training, and as a result, even though they might be trained in first aid, it would be unsafe for both the patients as well as the professionals to do so.

It is critical to have properly trained medical professionals to care for patients in the air, particularly with trauma being a mechanism of the injury. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.