Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been approached by many parents and leadership that we need our own speech and language pathologists and occupational therapists in the Deh Cho. It is my understanding that there are over 70 speech and language pathologist cases and over 50 occupational therapy cases that need to be seen from the Nahendeh alone. The frustrating thing is that this has to be done in 13 service days. If there is one day of bad weather, the assessments get cancelled for months. This tells me that the services are lacking for the Nahendeh and Deh Cho and our youth. It explains why some of our EDI scores are so bad.

A majority of the clinics are held in major centres in Fort Providence, Fort Simpson, and Hay River. This means the smaller communities, such as Jean Marie and Nahanni Butte, Sambaa K'e, Wrigley, and Kakisa, would have to travel to these centres to get their children assessed. This means that the children would be assessed in a foreign environment instead of the location they are familiar with.

It is my understanding that families who have children with complex needs find it difficult to travel outside of their home communities due to the challenges that exist for their children. As well, it is my understanding that speech and language pathologists and occupational therapist services do not travel to smaller communities, with the exception of once in Jean Marie.

With the five small communities in Deh Cho proper, we are seeing youth not identified until they start going to school. In my research, I found that early intervention is the key to many speech and language pathology and occupational therapy issues. If speech and language pathologists and occupational therapists could travel to communities and provide workshops for the communities in collaboration with early child staff, many issues would be identified and possibly improved on prior to entering school. Decrease in vulnerability is noted on the EDI scores for the Deh Cho. How is this done? I believe by having speech and language pathology and occupational therapist staff in place.

If we have a speech and language pathologist and occupational therapist hired in Fort Simpson as part of the Dehcho Health and Social Services team, the patients currently being seen by Stanton and Hay River staff could be enveloped into the Deh Cho case load, further reducing the case load and helping these communities.

I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.