Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we signed treaties to secure enduring promises of continual livelihood and survival. Those treaties define our ongoing relationship with the Crown, and then the Crown's presence in the North has grown from RCMP patrol to Canadian coast deliveries, a sprawling network of department of public institutions. Amongst the most crucial to our people are the services they ensure: access to health care.
Responsibility for administration of health services eventually transferred from Ottawa to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, with the responsibility of care, sacred duty to ensure these services honour the treaties and fulfill the promises made to our people.
Health is a treaty right, Mr. Speaker; however, health and social services continues to fail in providing essential services and medical transportation. In an emergency situation, our people are often forced to pay out of pocket to travel for care that is urgently needed. A recent example is painfully clear. A Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh constituent was flown to Yellowknife by air ambulance and was expected to leave her newborn baby behind. If this had been a scheduled appointment, her young family may have been accommodated with a room but emergencies which makes up a significant portion of medical travel allow no such consideration. Emergency medical travel falls outside the program's scope.
This family was on their own. This is far from an isolated case. The problem is so severe that this Assembly was forced to pass a motion calling on the government to fix this policy gap, yet there's still no commitment to develop a compassionate medical evaluation policy. This is a clear failure to uphold treaty rights. Health and social services appears not to be honouring the Crown's obligation to the health of our people. If the Minister will not act on the consensus of this Assembly, she must act on the consensus of our people in the spirit of reconciliation.
The government must fully implement UNDRIP as a mandate by the last Assembly and implementing UNDRIP is not optional. It is a core feature of our own mandate letter, along with our own duty to work with Indigenous governments on medical travel policies. If the GNWT cannot administer health care in a way that honours the Crown's obligations to our people, constituents are left out asking the question: Should the GNWT be administering the health care policy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Members' statements. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
