Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Mr. Law Clerk. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. The motion is on the floor and has been distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. To the motion.

Thank you. Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. There are 24 clauses in the bill. We will consider the clauses individually. Please turn to page 5 of the bill. Clause 1.

---Clauses 1 through 17 inclusive approved

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, will be supporting the bill. For the constituency I represent, in order to go anywhere, a good example is Aklavik or Tsiigehtchic, the majority of the time, you need to travel to Inuvik just to get groceries. That is probably, easy, $150, almost $200, return trip. That is for gasoline. That is usually once a week or once every two weeks you need to do that. Any time you want to go hunting, you are looking at $500 just for gasoline, maybe more. That is a rough estimate.

In my riding, compared to living in Yellowknife, you just go downtown, and you are at the grocery...

Will the country food program be expanded to other health facilities in the Northwest Territories and long-term care facilities?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member's statement, as I mentioned, it's been a long time coming that our country foods are served in the hospitals, long-term care facilities. You hear it all the time. People are tired of hospital food, that same old stuff all the time. Especially when you are recovering from illness or any operations or anything, you want comfort food, caribou meat, moose meat, geese, these sort of wild game. Right now, luckily, we have a handful of ladies in Inuvik who actually take time out of their day to volunteer to cook caribou meat and caribou soup and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Are there plans for similar program as the Yukon to ensure that Indigenous patients can access country foods? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Premier answered a part of my next questions, but who is able to provide country food to Stanton or any other hospital or long-term care facilities?