Thank you. Mr. Cooper.

Thank you. Member.

Thank you. Just in regards to that, thank you for that. Are all dialects covered in regards to Inuinnaqtun, Siglit? Are those covered in this CanTalk? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll turn again to Mr. Cooper.

Mr. Cooper.

Thank you. Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for that. I've got a little bit of issues that I have, to get to a point like with prevention with the nursing station into the hospitals, that interaction with the health centre in the hospital, say, of Inuvik. How does it work in regards to making sure -- I'm having a lot of people with cancer that are too late, stage 4. I have a couple of individuals that I heard of in my riding. How does that work in regards to follow-up to making sure that they're being seen. I know that when they're in the system with Alberta, when they go down, come here, they get assessed, or in Inuvik, and then they get sent out. Some of them are, the wait time is too long. Is there any way to start shortening that up in regards to services for them because the cancer, when they're coming back, it's stage 4. You can't come back from that. I just need, could we try to work on time in regards to service for the communities? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. I recognize that that's a terrible diagnosis. It's frightening. In terms of the service that is provided in Alberta, I don't know what ability we have to influence that. It was my understanding that, once the patient was connected with an oncologist at a place like the Cross Cancer Institute, that they took on the case, then, and the timing and the follow-up. I don't know if we have, as a health system, a way to speed that up. I'll look to the deputy minister. He may be more familiar with this. Thank you.

Thank you. Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just regarding that, has any thought been given, Madam Minister, in regards to the healthcare advocates in regards to helping patients who can't really speak out for themselves, the healthcare advocate that we brought up two weeks ago in the House here? Is there any thought given to that, trying to promote that? One or two in the Delta, five here in Yellowknife, but is there any way to do that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. It's my understanding that the cancer-care navigators have an advocacy function, but I think what you're talking about is more about the general patient navigator, not only those with a cancer diagnosis. Yes, that's an interesting question, and I understand that some work is going on to look at the possibility of instituting that kind of a service. It would be part of our providing culturally safe and confidence-building service to Indigenous people, and it may also help with the request that we get for escorts, non-medical escorts, that if people got off the plane and saw someone they recognize from their community, that would be very reassuring to help them get connected with the services they need. I don't think there's a specific date on which this is going to come into place. For more about this process, I'd ask once again the deputy minister to expand. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Cooper.

Thank you. Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just in regard to that, teams, again, that's what we need in regard to community health and wellness. That's what we need to be doing, especially small communities, remote communities. My last question is about the escorts. Is there a way to let our community health centres know how an escort is approved? If the doctor approves it, it's approved. Correct? If not, they need clarity on that, and it should be brought into our health centres across the territory in regard to that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Yes. I understand the Member's question. As the Member may know, we are currently doing a mini-review of medical travel that will be done by the end of March, and it is looking at the question of escorts. It's looking at why escorts are sometimes approved and sometimes they are not approved until the appeal. It's also looking at things such as the knowledge base that medical staff have for recommending escorts. That is an issue that we are aware that we need to provide more clarity on, and we hope to be able to do that by the end of March. That's the intention. Thank you.