Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For families, friends, and supporters of autism parents and families, the struggle is real and it's daytoday. It's certainly not for the faint of heart. Mr. Speaker, when you're on the vanguard of this problem every single day, this challenge, my heart goes out to those folks who are dealing with this. They are truly angels that that keep their families together.
Mr. Speaker, we all know the spectrum of autism ranges from some challenges to a lot of challenges, and each one is unique but each one is important. You know, I wish that one day, Mr. Speaker to be clear, I wish one day there is a cure. But until those days, we must not abandon these parents to make sure that they know that their lives matter and we're with them through these challenges. But like many challenges before us, there has been so many facts and proofs out there that socialization is so critical during the formative years. So lest we forget that the important thing that happens is focus is right now on the young child, but children become teens, and teens become adults. So formative, constructive supports are critical because that's who they will become with or without them.
The GNWT offers some supports, it's true, but when you're in a small community you have very little supports so what do you do? You move to a regional centre. And then you quickly realize that regional centres don't have any supports, or more supports, so they move to Yellowknife. And lo and behold, when they get to Yellowknife, they quickly learn there's nothing or very little here. So what do they do? They leave the territory, Mr. Speaker.
The pittance offered for people struggling with autism is so small between the years of zero to six, parents are constantly searching for opportunities. As a matter of fact, it's created a competitive process where they're constantly fighting behind the scenes keeping ideas and opportunities secret rather than becoming a supportive network as they rightly should. So in other words, they're hiding opportunities when they hear, I hear there's one opening in this place, but I can't tell anyone, rather than saying I hear an opening in these places, let's make sure everyone gets a shot.
Mr. Speaker, the science proves very clearly engagement, therapy, physical, and verbal supports, are absolutely necessary in the early years and the people that only end up doing this are the parents who have to either stay at home or make the sacrifices that their work will kindly support them.
Mr. Speaker, I have much more for my Member's statement. I won't seek unanimous consent, but I'll raise the further issues in my oral questions about how we can help these people with better policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Members' statements. Member from Thebacha.
