Justice committee  I wouldn't have any problem with it being two nurse practitioners as long as, again, the training was appropriate.

Justice committee  Well, I definitely want the bill to be amended so that they're at ease with it, because I know it's going to go forward. I wish I would have pulled the recommendation that went forward in the last parliamentary committee, because an amendment was made and there was a recommendation for cultural safety training.

Justice committee  Thank you for your comments. It is quite confusing. The reason I mentioned the suicides is exactly that. When we have incredible rates of suicide right now, it is the last thing people are thinking about when I talk to them about medically assisted dying, physician-assisted suicide.

Justice committee  I should have laid them out more clearly, I suppose. As I just mentioned, number one on my top priority list would be to ensure that physicians and nurse practitioners who are going to be engaged in medically assisted dying receive appropriate training and—if I am so bold—mandatory training.

Justice committee  I think particularly if you're thinking about a rural northern community, from my perspective when there's already a shortage of physicians, if they're a licensed physician and they're practising, then I think it would be important to allow them to, because we already have such a shortage.

Justice committee  Yes, I absolutely think that, and I think the training needs to be broad and comprehensive. My argument is that the physicians and nurse practitioners who are going to be involved actually need training in cultural safety, for example. I argued for that in the other parliamentary committee, and maybe I shouldn't be arguing it here, but I do think it's a key point.

Justice committee  Thank you. I hope I've prepared this properly. I apologize if I haven't. At the last parliamentary committee where I was asked to present, I read something in a similar format, but not the same content. Forgive me if I haven't done it correctly. I want to start by saying that in terms of the bill that's being proposed, many first nations communities are not fully prepared for the implementation of Bill C-14.