Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the last year I raised the issue in the House about emergency medical transportation for small communities and services they provide to help save lives for our members in our community. I spoke to the Minister of MACA and health in collaboration to look for a solution. I have a question for the Minister of Community affairs, and my question is will the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs commit to a plan establishing life-saving paramedic and drone ambulance services in the community of Lutselk'e and Fort Resolution? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe it was this spring I had similar lines of questioning, and at that time I pretty much kind of laid out what the plan was going forward. The reality is I think it's important that we really work with the communities on what's needed in the communities. And that's still the continued goal. We are, the department of health and the department of MACA, are working together to come up with plans for the communities, and Fort Res is one of the communities in our mind when we're talking about this, is having something in place to help respond in the communities to emergencies. And that's -- there is no full plan involved right now or full plan in place right now, but we are working on something to go, to move forward with that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If there's no plan to introduce paramedics and drone ambulance services any time soon, when will the Minister commit to establishing a volunteer emergency first responder program to address this critical services gap in our small communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like any small community, you know, volunteerism is very important. And I hope that members of the community would step up -- and I know there has been recently -- to establish their local fire department and maybe take on roles of responding to other emergencies. However, when it comes to talking about paramedics, that's a field, a detailed line of work that is similar to being a nurse or a doctor. You know, that's a different type of qualifications. It falls under department of health. But when it comes down to emergency response in the communities and first responders, you know, we are looking at supporting them here in the near future, you know, of hopefully having some established training in the communities, like even the simplest thing of basic first aid. So hopefully we can have something out here shortly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Minister committed to working with community leaders, as well as his Cabinet colleagues in health and social services and justice, to ensure that volunteers EMR services can be community-driven initiative that is not tied up in the bureaucracy of the system? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe the goal is to support what the community is requiring or what the communities' needs are. We're not going to slow anything down as the government. We're going to work and try to find a path forward in supporting communities when it comes down to emergencies. We have the ability in place to support these communities, and we'll continue to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Oral questions. Member from the Deh Cho.
