Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The recent tragedy along our highways has once again reaffirmed and reminded us about how important our first responders are. They are critical to the fabric of the Northwest Territories and certainly to the health of the people. It’s only in times when urgency is required we often think about what pillar of society that they play and that important role that they represent.
Not everyone has the experience and training a first responder typically would go through, and depending on where you are in the sense of where you’re located in the Northwest Territories as a first responder, will sometimes in some ways, unfortunately, dictate the type of level and skills you’ll get. What I’m saying is large centres may have the benefit of having more training than other, maybe, small centres, which is a problem in itself.
I draw this type of dichotomy out only to talk about in a way what we could be doing. A number of months ago, I raised the issue of teaching First Aid to our youth who are in grades 9, 10, 11 and 12, and I’ve heard from a number of teachers where they thought this was a great idea. The schools would like to do this, but they’re unable to do it under the current funding model.
The question that really rises is why wouldn’t we be teaching them First Aid? It’s such a critical skill. How many skills out there do we learn over the course of our lifetime that we can say that skill can actually save someone’s life?
It’s been well written, well documented, well said many times over that even bad First Aid is better than no First Aid. There are critical components of First Aid that are so meaningful. I look around the room and even across the territory, and First Aid has seen results by first responders who have taken even the basics, who have gone out and rescued and changed a person’s life by being able to be there to help them and save them.
These are skills that we could be giving back in a way where we’ll say we’re saving our community, we’re protecting our community, we are giving to our future. In short, the importance of such a skill is such a liberty that we should not be hiding it and keeping it confined to a very few. Let’s unshackle the inability for everyone to have it, and say today, this territory will lead by example, we will show the rest of Canada we are forward-thinking as a government and as a people, and we will teach all our students in grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 First Aid, because as I said earlier, the skill is a lifesaving skill and who knows, the life it may save may be one of ours. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
