[Member spoke in Inuktitut, interpreted as follows:]
I would like to have in writing what is available and who those resources and counsellors are who are listed as your traditional counsellors. You say that the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation has a list of traditional counsellors. It would be very helpful to have the list. Thank you.
Secondly, I want to ask you about people who go on medical travel. What are the agreements when it comes to medical travel?
I have heard of an elder by the name of Raymond Ningeocheak. Many people know him in Nunavut. He was at the Embassy West in Ottawa, suffering from dementia. The doctors had said that they could not bring him back home because they had no specialized caregivers for his condition. The family petitioned to have him brought home for his last days. They identified caregivers within the family who would look after him, with a schedule. They provided all that, but the doctors kept refusing the family, so the family members fundraised over $20,000 to have a charter bring him back home for his final days. He went home.
Now we know he is happy. He has good caregivers in the family. It shows us and the medical people that an elder who was unhappy and removed from his homeland into a foreign land can survive in his own home environment.
How can we make it understood that we, too, are capable of looking after our own elderly and sick if they are homesick for their homeland in their final days?