Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Stanton Territorial Hospital serves about 65 percent of aboriginal patients. I want to ask the Minister in terms of healthy, good aboriginal foods for the Stanton Hospital for the patients. Has the Minister moved anywhere in regards to having available traditional aboriginal foods for people who come in from the outside and surrounding communities to see if they will have a choice to have traditional foods served to them while they are in recovery?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, the Stanton Territorial Health Authority has an elders council that has been reviewing issues as the Member mentioned and in particular they have been reviewing that option. I have not received a report back from the council, so I will let the Member know as soon as I get it. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I also know that the Minister and I were at one time very involved in this type of discussion here. Now, I want to ask the Minister, fair enough in terms of the review from the elders council, if she could seek as soon as possible this review with the elders council specifically to this issue regarding serving aboriginal food at Stanton Territorial Hospital. We have patients coming in from the Sahtu and other surrounding communities. When they’re there today if they have the option of implementing this aboriginal food meals to our people in the hospital.
As the Member knows, the meal services are provided by a third-party contractor at Stanton and I’m not aware of cultural and country food being made available to patients at Stanton, which is why the elders council wanted to review this option. It is under consideration by the council and I will be looking for their recommendations.
The foods are part of a third-party contract, as the Minister stated. How can we get the third-party contractor involved in this type of recommendation, sure to come from the elders council through their recommendations, to serve aboriginal foods? I think this is long overdue. Can the Minister provide some insight on how to go about putting the aboriginal foods on the menu at Stanton Hospital for my people?
Obviously the what, the how, the why, and how to implement such a policy is one that the committee is reviewing, among other things, to give advice to the management of the hospital. That is part of the work that the council is doing. I am aware they have been working on that. I will get back to the Member as soon as they are able to provide that.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could I maybe ask the Minister to show her leadership by meeting with the elders council as soon as possible to see if we can get a recommendation as soon as possible, hopefully by the end of this fiscal year so we can start the new year by implementing a process where the aboriginal people can be assured that their foods will be served at the hospital and they don’t have to come to us every day and say what kind of food are they serving us? They want their aboriginal food. I’d ask the Minister if she could look to her department to make a concerted effort to get this recommendation on the floor from the council to implement it as soon as possible. I ask the Minister, can she feed my people?
The elders council was set up to provide direction and guidance in this area but, as the Member knows, the council is looking at a number of programs and services or approaches that would be sensitive to our aboriginal peoples and their cultures. They’re looking at not only the food component but also the spiritual healing and health and language use, traditional medicines, traditional foods, cross-cultural awareness. They’re looking at a number of things that they would like to work on. Once again, I will undertake to catch up with them to see where they are on making the recommendations.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
