Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I said that yesterday, and today I say it again, that we are reviewing the possibility of including that.

I believe I did a very good job in explaining that yesterday, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference to the Member. I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again, there’s nothing absolutely that stops a naturopath or other therapist and professions from practicing in the Northwest Territories. They are absolutely welcome and able to practice. Thank you.

Absolutely nothing, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

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...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to just reiterate that the department is reviewing the possibility of including this group of practitioners into omnibus allied health professional legislation. Each of them have very, very few numbers and this has been in the works and it will take some time to develop, but it is under review.

Secondly, it’s the Medical Profession Act in the Northwest Territories that defines who are doctors and who can call themselves doctors, so there is conflicting legislation that we need to work through.

The third thing is what is important is that for those people who are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right; we are considering an omnibus legislation on various health or allied health professions and it is possible that this could be inputted in that. Thank you.

Thank you. I need to remind the Member also not to compare this profession as medical doctors, just because we have existing legislation that protects that word “doctor” just for those who are practicing medicine. So let me just say this profession is allowed to be practiced here. The practitioners are allowed to do their work and there’s nothing that we’re doing or not doing right now that prohibits them from doing their work. Like my colleague Minister Miltenberger just said to me, it’s like a float plane and we want the float plane to take off and if you load way too many things on there...