Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my left is Mr. Gregory Cummings, deputy minister of Health and Social Services, and to my right is Ms. Kelly McLaughlin. She is the legislative counsel with the Department of Justice. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I would like to.

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to be here to present Bill 10, An Act to Amend the Pharmacy Act. This amendment will give pharmacists limited prescribing authority to enable them to issue a continued care prescription for a limited supply of certain drugs under specific circumstances. By doing so, the pharmacist is able to provide a one-time extended refill of the medication patients need to continue to treat their chronic condition until a new prescription can be obtained from the medical practitioner.

Mr. Chairman, the previous government passed a new...

The department and the chief medical health officer have contacted all the communities where we know these cases are occurring. They are using social networks on the ground. Some of our health care professionals are going door to door with community people who we know are able to provide assistance in a culturally sensitive way. We are doing aggressive screening for those who are in a high risk group.

I would like the Member to know that the chief medical health officer has vast authority and power under the new Public Health Act. He knows he has all the options available to him, and he will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to make sure everyone knows that the Department of Health and Social Services and myself as Minister take any infectious disease situation very seriously, as we do the latest outbreak of syphilis. It appears that there were a number of individuals with syphilis that were highly contagious at the time of contact.

The public health medical officer, chief medical health officer Dr. Corriveau, is using all of his authority and powers to assess the situation, identify who has this infectious disease and track all those that may have come into contact with it. We are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today at noon we officially launched Family Violence Week with the event planned by the Coalition Against Family Violence at the Great Hall. This year’s theme is Honouring Resistance.

Family Violence Week was first sponsored in 1999 to bring the issues of family violence into the public arena, provide information on social service organizations that could provide help, and call attention to the toll that family violence takes on its victims and our society. We have come a long way since then, and I’d like to highlight phase 2 of the NWT Action on Family Violence, which...

Yes, I will be. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, the department works all year round to promote and encourage safe sex. The use of condoms would prevent most contagious, sexually infectious diseases, including syphilis. We are aware that these conditions are occurring more commonly in certain areas than others. Health officials are aware of that. But we want to make sure that everybody in the Territories is vigilant and taking necessary steps, and if we announce what areas they might be in, they may think that they’re safe. So we would like all residents to know that this is a highly contagious infection and that everybody...

The chief medical officer and the department have been very aggressive. It has been on the media and in public announcements. They are working on the ground, in the communities. They’re in close touch with all of the community health workers. They’re screening potential people who might come into contact with it. They’re keeping track of who are the originators and who they’re having contact with. They have very good information about their whereabouts and their travel schedules. They have sent out communications through doctors and nurses and anybody else who would have any contact with the...

The Joe Greenland Centre is over 30 years old. There have been renovations worked on. The board suggests that it is not possible to revive it to the level that it needs to be to function the way it was meant. I have to tell you that we are not going to be able to have a long term care facility in every place, but we need to make sure that whereas the regional centres like Inuvik or Yellowknife could have more acute care programs, communities like Aklavik need to have a facility that meets the need of the community to look after their elders. It will be more of a level 1 and level 2 care, and...

Mr. Speaker, I’m willing to explain as long as I need to, to get the point across. What I’m saying is that any dentist in the Territories could provide this service for those residents who are eligible under NIHB, which gets funding from the federal government. A vast majority of the population in the Territories gets employee benefits, or it’s a private practice situation. We are covered by third party insurance.

Because we have facilities in Inuvik and Hay River that are not being used that the government is paying for, we are looking at opening a facility there. Yellowknife is over capacity...