Statements in Debates
Similar to my last response, when it comes to educating mothers or expectant mothers, even mothers from small communities, we do rely on our health practitioners, community health nurses, or doctors to help share that information with them and make them aware.
Mr. Speaker, as one of the western and northern provinces and territories, we sit on a national FASD network. We work with the Canadian FASD Network, which does a significant amount of research, and they've put together a lot of really solid materials on the harms of drinking while pregnant.
This information is available to our staff and...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't mean to be a doom-and-gloom kind of guy, but as we get more of our people trained and fully up to speed on the Health Information Act, a couple of different things could happen. One of the things that could happen is our staff might be more aware of some of the things or breaches that have been occurring in the past. If they are identified, I hope they are reported to the Privacy Commissioner. There is a chance that as people become more educated, they might be aware that breaches have been occurring. They are reported. We fix them. It is conceivable...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there are a couple of things happening. The first thing that we are doing is we are looking forward to putting regulations in. We are almost done getting those regulations ready to go for the sale and distribution of low-risk foods, so that is things like vegetables and other things that can be grown, potatoes, this, that, and the other. If those items are going to be sold by local producers, we need to make sure that the food is inspected, the food is safe, and that it is meeting certain criteria. Those would be outlining the regulations.
To operationalize that...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our responsibility is to provide healthcare to the residents of the Northwest Territories. Yes, many residents do have to travel to Yellowknife or other locations to receive their care. Through medical travel, we book our flights on scheduled flights. We work with our residents to make sure that they know the information. The Member is right. From time to time, there are cancellations of flights. We do live in the Northwest Territories, where we do have adverse weather and other things that affect us.
We don't track the cancelled flights, Mr. Speaker, but we...
No, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the RFP for that work has just been released. The intention is for a review to be done of the scope and needs across this territory, in comparison to what we currently have, so that we can have some informed discussions about where future, if any, resources need to be employed to meet homecare needs in the Northwest Territories. So the RFP has just been released. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am going to have to review Hansard. I don't recall actually discussing these types of positions providing audio or vision. Did the Member say vision testing? I'm not sure where that came from. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's not something that our home support workers or our resident care aides or our CHRs do at this point. CHRs do provide education. They do go out and meet residents and provide health education, health promotion, but they are not qualified to do hearing tests or visual tests. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm glad the Member had an opportunity to attend one of the healthy living fairs; and I hope the Member had an opportunity to stroll through the giant colon and see the impacts of colon health and cancer.
For the rest of the Northwest Territories, it's certainly an interesting adventure. The health living fairs are an incredibly important tool. I think it's great that they're getting out to residents of the Northwest Territories, and I'm thrilled, absolutely thrilled, to hear that the event was packed. I think as MLAs, as Ministers, we all need to encourage our residents to go to these fairs...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, recognizing that we do take the concerns raised by the Privacy Commissioner very seriously, we continue to move forward on those recommendations. The report was based on a previous fiscal year. Some things have changed since then and before she made her report. We do take her concerns very seriously.
In the past four months, we have hired a new chief health privacy officer, and they have been engaged in discussions across the government and in clinical settings. Coming out of these meetings and discussions, suggestion on how to improve some of the processes and...
Yes. Thank you. Yes, the Member is correct. This is the right area; it is under population health. Just going back to the other question, yes, I have met the Member from Deh Cho. He is a pretty reasonable person. I am sure he won't mind me sharing a little bit of information with you, but I will also share some information with him. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, this is the area where population health is located.