Mr. Speaker, while healthcare administration is a territorial responsibility, the federal government still plays an important role in ensuring all provinces and territories comply with the Canada Health Act, an Act which guarantees universal, comprehensive health care to all Canadians based solely on their needs and not their financial abilities. While not an outright guarantee to a right to health care, it is compliance which determines the eligibility of provinces and territories to receive health care funding through the Canada health transfer and a cherished part of Canadian identity. Clearly, funding available through the Canada health transfer is not enough for our needs here in the North, and the Minister of Health and Social Services is always ready to press her federal counterparts in efforts to secure more resources to address the systemic challenges Northerners face. However, given that these systemic challenges have escalated into what can now only be described as an urgent crisis with no clear end in sight, it can be safely assumed that the Minister is gearing up for another round of lobbying when the point of failure is reached.
Before this Minister turns, however, to admonish her counterparts in Ottawa for their perceived inaction, we should first examine our own record as a government in upholding the very laws we are responsible for enforcing. Is the North's health care truly comprehensive without primary care? Is it universal when communities and small communities are serviced by hospitals, health centres, and health cabins that have no doctors, nurses, or other trained medical professionals on staff? Even on an operational standard, is it still a trauma bay if it is eventually run by the same staff who run a flu clinic?
Maybe we should stop calling this a health care crisis, and we should start calling this a leadership crisis. We have the same geography, logistics, and unique northern challenges we've always had. How can we turn to the federal government to ask for more when, to many, it feels like we aren't meeting the minimum standards required to be compliant with the Canada Health Act?
Mr. Speaker, nurses are asking. Doctors are asking. Northerners are asking. It's time that the Minister answer those questions with a real plan, not a work plan to a public administer -- administrator, but a real plan to fix health care in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Members' statements. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
