Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Health care in small communities. On May 16th, 2022, Northern News Services published a leaked email exchange between myself and the Honourable Minister of Health and Social Services. It is regrettable -- sorry, regretful that this private communication was revealed without the benefit of context. And for that, I am sorry.
It is important that consensus politicians, we uphold ourselves to the highest standard and conduct that ensure the greatest amount of respect for our colleagues, especially so when we do disagree on issues.
Mr. Speaker, all that being said, I must now turn to the dismissive and patronizing tone struck by the Minister of Health and Social Services during our written exchange and many more times in this House and over the course of our duties serving in this institution.
It is not appropriate for any Minister to scold a Member for doing their job representing their constituents. It is not appropriate to attempt to silence, validate criticism of a Minister portfolio by threatening the integrity of the health care services in the community that I represent.
And finally, it is not appropriate too for an non-Indigenous Yellowknife resident to talk down to a small community representative when she has zero experience in the day-to-day experience living in rural remote Indigenous communities.
During May 9th, 2022, interview with CBC, the Minister spent a great deal of effort to downplay negative patients' experience and even trying to gaslight patients who received unacceptable care into believing that it was their own fault for failing to advocate for their own medical conditions.
She has demonstrated fierce determination to silence her critics promising to ignore complaints from the public [indiscernible] outside the government channels stating and telling media going to result in a resolution to complaints of the individual families.
Mr. Speaker, people have lost confidence in the health care system. It is understandable that they don't trust their complaints will be taken seriously, but at the same time assist them.
The Minister of Health and Social Services owes my constituents and the people of the Northwest Territories an apology. This is not about my ego. I have thick skin. I have been in politics for a long long time despite what the Minister thinks. This is about residents who are crying out for better health care and have been dismissed by our leaders. We all know the challenges in health care are great but even so, our citizen deserves compassion and honesty from the Minister and her department.
I want to be crystal clear so my words are not misconstrued.
I support the work of our health professionals and therefore offer my warmest thanks for the hard work they do supporting the wellness of our residents. My issues lie with the management of our health centres, hospitals, ministry under the Minister of Health and Social Services. She is the only one accountable for the disastrous treatment of the Indigenous small community members and she must take responsibility for her portfolio.
I will have questions for the Minister later today on health care policy and will continue to call on the Minister to apologize to the House and the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
