Jackson Lafferty

[Translation] Thank you, Madam Chair. About the treatment, when we speak of treatment, sending people out to Edmonton, it has been seven years now in the Northwest Territories. There is no addiction treatment centre with us right now, but we know we have an agreement with Edmonton or Alberta for the treatment of our people. When can we have our own program, an agreement, on-the-land program within our region? We all need the treatment. We want it very strong so that we get very strong elders. We know; we lived here; we grew up with elders and how we respect our elders when they speak to us...

Masi, Mr. Speaker. Over the last few months, there have been so many deaths in the Monfwi riding. Most of them involved alcohol or other drugs. My constituents are very concerned about the well-known fact that our people are passing away one by one, all because of addictions.

Mr. Speaker, the last treatment facility in the Northwest Territories shut down in 2013. Almost immediately, the people of the Northwest Territories began requesting, again and again and again, a treatment facility to be reopened up in the territory. That has obviously fallen on deaf ears for all these years.

Mr. Speaker...

[Translation] Masi, Madam Chair. Just a short form. I would like to just say to the Minister what is written in front of her, she is reading, but most of the time there's no follow-up. I'll have to say what happened to my home or my region. If we had actions about what we have, it would be good. Right now, I'm asking the Minister if she would be able to say: let's have a strong after-care program proposal. It's not only for communities, because I know, I hear, in other regions, they have all these issues, this problem like the Tlicho community, see if she would also work with them. In the...

Masi, Madam Chair. [Translation] Thank you, Madam Chair. Page 180, that's what I'm referring to, about the English term, when we say addiction treatment centres, meaning that, for the treatment, they would be able to be sent to Edmonton, but last year, according to the record, there were 191 sent for treatment, and that spent well over $200,000 on residential, school, and medical services, all together included, but because I don't know if it would be in the same department, I would like to ask about that one. Sending people for treatment out of the territory, is it under Health and Social...

Masi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] When I made my earlier Member's statement regarding interpreters for the unilingual elders, I would like to ask the Health and Social Services Minister a question. [Translation ends]

…to help the medical staff community with Dene elders after the medical interpreters have gone home for the day after 5:00, especially after visiting hours at 8:00, when family members can no longer be there? Masi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] When we look at the hospital, there's a lot of people in the hospital. We wonder sometime how they are being taken care of. When you're hospitalized with an illness, there's the discomfort of the treatment and worry about the recovery, and the heightened fear of the COVID-19. When you're a unilingual Dene elder in an English-speaking medical world, it's more stressful for the patient. During the daytime, the Stanton Hospital provides interpreters, but once their shift is over, the interpreters are not available. What happens after 5:00 p.m., when there are no...

Masi, Madam Chair. If the department doesn't have that information, I would really appreciate, at any given time, do we have one interpreter or two interpreters for one language at the Stanton Hospital? It will be information if they can provide that, if they don't have it now, at a later time.

Madam Chair, on page 173, if I can ask one more question, that's On-the-Land Healing Fund, $1.825 million. My question to the Minister and to the department: is that funding adequate? Because we're servicing 33 communities, and $1.8 million can only spread so much throughout the Northwest Territories. As...

Masi, Madam Chair. The interpretation services that I spoke about earlier with the statement and questions, I'm just curious: how many staff do we have on board with the new Stanton Hospital, and which category does it fall under? Is it Indigenous health and community wellness or hospital services, is my first question? Masi.

Masi, Madam Chair. If that's the case, I think we, as a territorial government responsible for Stanton, territorial government needs to push more to identify similar to French language. I know that the French population is aggressive. We need to be aggressive, as well, Aboriginal-language-speaking people in the Northwest Territories, because a majority of our communities speak the language, but it's not identified here on its own. I would like to see that even more. I guess a direction to either the Minister or the department to push that with the federal government. I know the federal...

Masi, Mr. Speaker. I think we can do more than just on-call. Again, I have to put myself in the position of an 86-year-old who was hospitalized a week ago, and that individual had a heart issue. The family left after 8:00 p.m., and there was no way of communicating with the nurse, and he was getting needles, and he was getting tablets, uncertain of what it was for.

Mr. Speaker, I'm just wondering of the Minister is open to the idea of creating more of an interpretation system, even improving that in Stanton Hospital. Masi.