Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With each day as our population ages, this Assembly's priority of enabling our seniors to age in place with dignity gains more importance.

Mr. Speaker, when dealing with our seniors, we must make our most compassionate selves take the lead. We must celebrate our elders for enriching our lives and building our futures. In our communities, unfortunately, we have created a system of healthcare that often asks many of our seniors make the impossible choice between aging in their community or being placed in a long-term care facility away from their homes. This tragedy is compounded by cases where elders are then surrounded by people who don't speak their language, and a family visit can often require a very expensive plane ticket just to say "hello."

During COVID-19, Mr. Speaker, we saw many of us across the North take great steps to protect our elders and most vulnerable, but we also saw our seniors make great sacrifices living, and now continuing to live, isolated. We owe it to them to ensure that such isolation is only caused by a pandemic and not by them being forgotten. Coming out of COVID-19, we all must ensure that our seniors don't live in loneliness. Mr. Speaker, we must do everything we can to ensure that people who want to live in their community can do so.

Mr. Speaker, many of our constituents may not choose to retire in the North, perhaps a fair choice, but there is no doubt that every time they make this choice, it is a loss. A community is held together by its elders. Children raised with access to grandparents have deeper roots in their community, Mr. Speaker. Our elders ground us. They provide cultural continuity and calm guidance, and during such uncertain times we are in now, we are in need of both.

Mr. Speaker, I hope we in this House can look back on our term and feel that we have made all of our seniors feel at home, that we have made sure their lives were a little easier, that we made meaningful progress on the tragedy that is elder abuse, so let us all lead with compassion and give hope for our elders and live a long, happy, retired life surrounded by their grandchildren in their homes. This is our responsibility, and I am honoured that it is a priority for all Members in this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.