Mr. Speaker, if we work together for a common good, we stand. And if we're divided, we fall. I believe this is true now more than ever in the context of our NWT healthcare system. I've been concerned at some of the public messaging coming from the health authority and the Minister that could pit our residents and communities against one another.
The messaging seems to imply that we have to choose between community health centres or cabins and regional hospitals, which deserve more of our attention and resources; that we have to choose whether we work on health promotion and prevention, or whether we put more resources into emergency care; that we need to choose who we should listen to more, Indigenous residents in small communities or the frontline doctors and nurses serving the territory.
I understand that resources are always constrained, but health care can never become a competition for which of our residents deserve better care. All of our residents deserve good care and good access, no one should be suffering, either because there's no emergency responder to come help you if you've fallen down in your home, there's no one at the end of the phone line at the health centre, or the primary care phone system in Yellowknife doesn't work at all. All these situations are unacceptable.
Mr. Speaker, as soon as we start having debates about health cabins versus hospitals, health promotion versus emergency care, we are in trouble. It's like having a debate about which is more important, your left hand or your right hand, your heart or your liver. If any of the pieces in our system are missing or broken, the system falls apart, and the whole territory suffers.
Health authority management may struggle to deal with the course of concerns and suggestions coming from frontline nurses and doctors, but the answer is not to brush them aside and say, well, we've been listening to you all complaining for too long, it's time we listened to Indigenous community members instead. Real solutions need all of these voices, frontline providers and community members, talking to each other, not having all their input filtered separately through a dozen layers of management and packaged into a sterile plan that few actually read. We need to stop setting up residents and communities in competition against each other, stop taking staff for granted and instead value everyone's contribution. We need to build a healthcare system that lifts everyone up. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member from Great Slave.
