From the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami perspective, this dovetails into official language rights and official language status. Inuktut has no federal status as an official language and doesn't have status even as an official language in Inuit Nunangat by the federal government. It has official language status within three of the four Inuit jurisdictions. Therefore, services that are provided by provincial or territorial governments sometimes can be delivered as a right in Inuktut.
Largely, medical escorts are also providing interpretation services. We need greater recognition of Inuktut within the way the federal government provides service delivery to Canadians to ensure that these services are not given by family members or people who have no training within the medical field, but that they are providing services on behalf of a health system and patients.
I think that some of the roles that escorts play are medical system roles. When those roles are provided, there should be a real clear understanding and focus by health systems about the compensation necessary in the provision of health services.