Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about ambulance services in Tuktoyaktuk. My questions are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Mr. Speaker, my first question is: what role can the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs play in helping Tuktoyaktuk build up local ambulance services? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs does take a very active role in assisting community governments to decide what services they are going to need within their communities through their capital plans that we do with them, that we support them with. In this case, it was a little bit different because the Tuktoyaktuk Highway, of course, had brought a different situation.
We went into Tuktoyaktuk last March and we talked to them about some of the issues that they are facing where, of course, emergency medical responses was brought up as one of the issues. The difficulty with that, though, is that we need to make sure that we have the proper training and that the services that we provide are safe and secure, so there is more work to do with the community, and we are committed to working with the community as best we can to be able to ensure that their residents are provided safe services.
I appreciate the response. My second question for the Minister is: as we enter business planning and begin to prepare for the next fiscal year, how can the community of Tuktoyaktuk access funding the department provides to support community governments with the provision of ground ambulance services?
When we talk about accessing funding within the next fiscal year, it makes it a little difficult, as, like I said, there are some needs, there is training, there is capacity, there is equipment that needs to be built, so it will not be a short-term strategy. It will be a longer-term strategy that we need to look at. We have not forgotten the community of Tuktoyaktuk and the issues that they face now, with having the new highway that will be opening, but, like I say, we need to make sure that any provision of support that we provide is done in a comprehensive, accountable way to ensure that the residents are provided the best services that we can, in a safe manner.
My final question for the Minister is: what role will the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs take in respecting potential highway rescue on the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway?
The highway rescue, actually, on the road to Tuktoyaktuk is a concern, as is highway rescue on many of the highways that are in the Northwest Territories, so across departments we have committed to actually taking a look at doing a review of all of the services that we currently have in place and the gaps that we are experiencing. That review is actually currently happening. Tuktoyaktuk is part of that review, as well as every other community, so until we finish that and decide what services are needed, then we will define what action we will move forward with in, like I say, a comprehensive method so that we ensure that, as best as possible, all residents of the Northwest Territories are provided safe services.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
