As a health system and as a government, we have introduced many ways to ensure that our clients and patients are able to receive care in the most appropriate way, which obviously includes in their own language. Our preferred approach would be to have staff interpreters who speak the language of the population that we serve, so different languages in different regions. However, unfortunately, this isn't always possible.
The NWT Health and Social Services Authority has an Indigenous wellness unit that focuses on or ability to deliver care in many languages throughout the Northwest Territories, and we have Indigenous patient liaisons who are integral in our efforts to actually meet the needs that the Member is describing. In regional centres, we have access to patient liaisons, and also have clerk interpreter positions that are available to ensure that the patient has access to quality patient care. We struggle in some regions. We are effective in other regions. We're always looking for ways to improve the services we're providing here, and finding ways to work with communities to make sure that there are people available who can provide those services when our residents come in and want their services provided in their traditional languages.