Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One hundred years ago women were chattels with no privileges or rights as those enjoyed by men, yet women felt the full brunt of the punishment of law. One hundred years ago women did not have the right to vote, as women were not considered responsible enough to have a say in how Canada was governed. One hundred years ago women were not considered persons under the law.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, Mr. Speaker. March 8th is a global day of celebrations connecting all women around the world to honour women’s advancement, while reminding...

Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the Member I get what he is saying. I get what the Members are saying, Mr. Speaker. This is about a capacity issue. It is about a priority issue. It is about the traffic jam we have with the legislative office.

Mr. Speaker, we have, as I stated, outstanding that we have been working on to regulate licensed nurse practitioners who we need to regulate. We need to regulate psychologists who are numerous in numbers who do a lot of work in the Northwest Territories. We need to regulate emergency responders and we need to regulate chiropractors. I said, and I will say it...

We contract medevac services to our providers. We have people qualified to handle that. Medic North does that on the ground. We have staff and people equipped to handle medical situations on the plane. We spend millions and millions to do this medical travel. Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the Member and the public that we take care of our residents.

I want to offer to the Member again, before he makes generalized statements that sort of impunes the staff and the contracts that work for us, maybe he should just present to me the details and I will get back to him. Thank you.

I thank the Member for asking for an update because he is working with very outdated information. As the mayor from Edmonton, when he was visiting here, had told us in the briefing meeting we had with all the Members, the Premier of Alberta, which I have advised the Member many times, has set up a Health Quality Council of Alberta with a mandate to come up with a plan on how we deal with emergency medevac programs at the airport. The city of Edmonton, citizens of Edmonton have voted resoundingly to approve the plan to close that municipal airport. Members should know, and I tell them again...

As I stated, we are looking at it, we’re reviewing it and looking at the possibility of including it.

The writing of legislation to regulate a profession is a lot more complex than we think. Regulating a profession for engineers and architects took 10 years. Regulating a profession for nurse practitioners and midwives took many, many, many years. You would have to ask a lawyer and other professionals to see why that is so complex, but it is not just something that you do lightly. It’s not as expeditious and easy as we would like.

As I said to Members yesterday, we are working on an umbrella legislation that would be called Health and Social Services Profession Legislation. The groups that we...

The naturopathic practitioners were met with the staff from the department. The department advised them, they had a meeting together and they explained to them about their power and ability to practice here.

I repeat once again that they’re allowed to practice here. There’s nothing that stops them from practicing naturopathic profession here. They were encouraged to keep their credentials from other jurisdictions because that allows them to practice here. I’m not sure what the issue is. They are allowed to practice here. We encourage them to do their work.

Thank you. There are massage therapists and other professionals who are able and allowed to practice in the Northwest Territories and their credentials that they received from other jurisdictions are recognized here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are quite a few people in the gallery that I would like to recognize, with the House’s indulgence. We have the Wise Women Award recipient Ann Kasook and her husband, who sings beautifully. Her husband’s name is Charlie. I didn’t want to be wrong. Allison Dejong for the Sahtu; she has her mother with her in her honour. Sylvia Nadli from Deh Cho; Alizette Lockhart from South Slave; Lena Pedersen for North Slave/Tlicho. We also have the president of the Status of Women Council, Dolly Simon, and executive director of the Status of Women Council of the NWT, Lorraine...

Mr. Speaker, I repeat, we are reviewing the situation. I want to assure the profession that they are allowed to practice in the meantime with the licence they have, we are looking at that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.