Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am happy to advise the House that Dr. Bob Bromley can call himself Dr. Bromley and if MLA Abernethy were to get a PhD, he could call himself a doctor. However, Mr. Speaker, Section 82 of the Medical Profession Act of the NWT prohibits anyone from using the title doctor, surgeon or physician that may lead people to believe that she or he is a medical practitioner licensed under the act. Individuals are free to practice as a naturopath practitioner but may not refer to themselves as a doctor or a physician. This is based on legal advice we received from Justice. Thank...

For the Member to say there’s no plan, that really speaks poorly to the people who are taking care of our medevac planes and travels everyday all over the Territories. We are involved and we are responsible and our staff does a very good job of moving patients around, bad weather notwithstanding. They have to accommodate that.

Mr. Speaker, I am not at all aware of the specific situation he’s talking about. I do not have the information on the situation where somebody waited for two hours. I don’t know how he can say there was no involvement by anybody, because I’ve not had a chance to look at...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How is it possible? That’s the weather. People who move patients around all over the Territories work with our weather system. The health care professionals work very hard to make quick decisions and necessary decisions and medical decisions on an ongoing basis. It is possible for patients to be weathered out of somewhere. It happens in the Territories once in a while. I mean, that’s the weather. Surely I’m not responsible for weather.

I think it’s important for the Members and the public to know that professions like massage therapist and naturopathic practitioners can continue to practice their fields. They do not need the legislation to practice those. As I stated, unregulated professions pose certain regulating challenges such as small professional numbers and significant licensing differences throughout Canada. It does require tremendous research to determine how best to accommodate these unique circumstances. We believe that, as a department, by finding a framework for the most challenging and complex professions, the...

Mr. Speaker, I think the Member is drawing a clear picture of the complexities involved in this. Our staff has met with the people that practice naturopathic medicine in the Territories. They were advised that they should continue to keep their licence in other jurisdictions, then they can continue to practice naturopath medicine here. They can continue to provide services to their clients. It is just that they cannot call themselves a doctor. In order to do that, we need to do some more work. We will continue to do that, but this will be something that would require more work and it is under...

Mr. Speaker, I need to caution the Member and anybody else who is discussing this naturopathic medicine, that we do not refer to anybody as a doctor. That is actually the issue in question, because under the NWT legislation, no one other than a doctor, physician or surgeon is allowed to call themselves a doctor. Naturopathic doctors are not recognized as doctors in the Territories and of they were to call themselves a doctor, that is illegal. That is an issue here. I need to let the Members know, and the public know, the naturopathic medicine, people can practice that right now without...

There’s nothing that we are doing or not doing that is stopping this profession from practicing. There is nothing that stops them from practicing. They are allowed to practice. They’re like physiotherapists, occupational therapists, massage therapists, acupuncturists, Chinese, Asian doctors or whatever. They can practice. I don’t mean Asian doctors, I mean Chinese medicine. So, Mr. Speaker, they are allowed to practice. We see the role of their profession and we’re just telling them it’s going to take time to bring them all on board, but in the meantime, Mr. Speaker, they’re absolutely welcome...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I absolutely see the role of naturopathic practitioners and they are allowed to practice as they are now under the licensure they have with other jurisdictions. There’s nothing absolutely stopping them from practicing their field. I want to tell the Member that I’ve no problem seeing them practicing here.

The issue here right now -- they don’t need to be regulated to practice -- is that they want to be called a doctor. Because there might be some confusion in that the people might feel that they’re medical doctors, that’s the only thing they’re not allowed to do...

There is no resistance or lack of willingness or any of those negative connotations, Mr. Speaker. The department has a number of legislations in their workload, and as the Member is well aware, we have a little bit of a traffic jam with legislative process. We, as a government, have a whole list of legislation, I would say upwards of at least 50 that have been in the works for many, many years. We are all in the same traffic highway on legislation.

We recognize the importance of regulating some of these professions and the ones that we have most urgent need is the licensed practical nurses...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The legislation that we are working on is going to be Health and Social Services umbrella profession legislation and it will start with including four large professions: licensed practical nurses, psychologists, emergency medical service providers and chiropractors, because they have been identified as the four we need to work on right away. There are several other professions that have asked to be included and they could be included as we go forward.

There is lots of research and background work that we need to do to establish this umbrella legislation and this has been...