Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I too am in support of this motion. As everybody here knows, my past experience as a registered nurse. I am still a registered nurse. You know, I have many past colleagues who've worked in these health centres. I've sat on hiring committees that hired nurses, you know, in these small communities. And these nurses are trained to be -- most of the nurses that are trained in the communities are hired, they're trauma nurses. They're emergency nurses. Some have community health experience but because of the lack of nursing experience, they mostly are trauma, ICU, you know, nurses because they need to be able to deal with the emergencies in the health centres as they come as they are the only ones there to deal with them. You know, and I've raised this in the past that, you know, in our small communities, we don't have specific designated home care nurses, health promotion nurses, public health nurses, mental health nurses. We don't have them. That one nurse is everything. And when you're dealing with a community that is short staffed, you know, the nurses are -- I know that they're probably -- they're working. They wouldn't become a nurse if they didn't care. But there is a difference between being in a health centre and working overtime, constantly tired, patients coming in, you know you don't have the equipment that is needed. You know, I don't know if there's more that we can do but, you know, the thing is is I think there's a barrier when it comes to medical travel. Because when we talk about some of these appointments or some of these clients that are going to the health centres, you know, they can't just ask for a second opinion when there's only one nurse there and the other one can't come in because they're on downtime and they're on mandatory downtime, you know. They can't get a doctor's opinion right now. So we're not allowing them to fly in to see doctors. Especially, you know, when I think of the studies that have been done in Aklavik and in the Sahtu on all the cancer because of the high rates of cancer coming out of those communities and now we're seeing, you know, like my colleague said, you know, the gentleman that went to the news that said it was too late. You know, he arrived too late. The reason a lot of our people arrive too late is they don't have trust in the health care system. They don't go to the health care. I lost an aunt because she refused to go to the doctor. And when she finally went to the doctor, she had end stage cancer, you know. I have family members that are dealing with cancer. You know, I've got ongoing family members who have been able to access cancer treatment early because they live in a regional centre. But, you know, Mr. Speaker, in these small communities, they don't have that. They don't have an advocate sometimes too that they can go to. You know, we've stepped ahead and we've got these senior Indigenous patient advocates in our hospitals. We need to do more. We need to make sure there's advocates in our communities or that there's a reasonable place for them to access these advocates to support them. Because, you know, when I'm asking for an elder to -- this is the complaint, I'm bringing it forward, and I'm told well, they can do a complaint through this. Well, they don't use email. And the majority of our elders are Indigenous elders. When we say we got to do this, we got to do this, you know, I hear never mind, it's okay. You know, that's what they do, and then they get sicker.
You know, I mean, Mr. Speaker, your own community has a nurse once a week and during breakup and freeze-up. You know, we know that this is a problem in our small communities that our patients, our clients, our residents, are not able to just access any care. And, you know, I fully support my colleague on putting this motion forward because, you know, I know we can't put a doctor in every community but what can we do to support these nurses and these community residents so that they are being able to access the care in a culturally safe way and try to make sure that they're being heard, and they're not being turned away, or is it they feel? Because I can't -- you know, because that's the thing. Is myself, even if I was working in a health centre, you know, and I did something, a lot of times people don't sit down and explain everything that they're doing. It's such a rush. We need to take that time with our clients. They don't understand. They're afraid of the system. And they won't ask questions. It's not polite. We don't ask questions. We just let you do what you got to do and we'll get out of your hair. You know, that is -- especially with elders.
So we need to understand that culture. We need to sit down and explain and ask them if they understand and give them their options. If they don't agree with what care that they're getting, what their options are. You know, these are the things that we need to make sure. And this motion will hopefully start to turn the department's way of looking at how we can support small communities better. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.