Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 21, An Act to Amend the Dental Profession Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we are prepared to look at the requirements of handling uninspected wild fish and game. This is really the key issue, is how traditional food is brought into these residences for long-term care, hospital or any residential type of facility where there is a requirement to serve food. We have to discuss an effective and consistent way of getting uninspected wild fish and game into those places as part of the menu. Thank you.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Our environmental health unit has, in the past, worked with the various institutions that are run by Health and Social Services or the authorities to try to get traditional foods into these homes. In addition to that, recently the Member has brought to our attention that perhaps we should start looking at institutions that are under our authority that already are providing traditional foods on a regular basis and start working with them to see if they can expand the traditional food by delivering it to other institutions in town where traditional foods are not usually...

Mr. Speaker, this Assembly is committed to a goal of healthy, educated people free from poverty. Improving the health status of the Aboriginal population in the Northwest Territories is one way the Department of Health and Social Services is accomplishing that goal.

Clearly, if we want to make meaningful change, we have to focus our efforts on the areas of greatest need. We must stop designing “one size fits all” solutions and start listening to communities about what will work.

Aboriginal people in the Northwest Territories are suffering from an increased burden of chronic diseases and the...

Mr. Speaker, the Food Establishment Safety Regulations under the Public Health Act lay out what we can do legally when we provide traditional food into the long-term care centres or the hospitals. One way that we are thinking about getting around that specific issue is that because fish and game can be donated by individuals that have a general hunting licence or individuals that have the right to hunt and donate food. A lot of that has been done at the Vital Abel where they are serving traditional food, and the Member talks about how we would be able to work with the Vital Abel to provide...

Like I had indicated, we are now reaching out to the organizations. Immediately after my conversation with the Member, I had asked the department to talk to the two organizations that he is referring to. We have done that. All we need to do is find the various ways within our policies on traditional foods, the various ways we can legally provide traditional foods in that type of institution. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to recognize a couple of constituents of mine, Elizabeth Anne Mackay from Fort Resolution and her daughter Karen Lafferty from Hay River. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Anyone travelling with medical travel, according to the policy, should have an after-hours number so that if an individual is returning from medical travel on Sunday, Saturday or a late night flight, then that individual is supposed to be equipped with an after-hours number if they cannot afford to get back home to their community. So if an individual is landing in Inuvik and they are from another community in the area, they would overnight in Inuvik in a boarding home. If they are from Inuvik, they are supposed to just jump in a cab, go home and be reimbursed. If they...

Certainly, we will have a discussion with the dental contractors to provide more days. It would cost the system more money to provide more days. So if what we’re finding is we know the exact amount of days a dentist goes into each community, so we would check to see the utilization of that time that they’re in. An example would be if they spend 43 days in Fort Liard in 2010-11 and 42 days in 2013-14. So there would be no increase, so my assumption would be they weren’t having full utilized days while they were in there. But I will check that and if they are fully utilizing all their days and...

We did not receive any letter opposing this from any resident or health care profession of the Northwest Territories.