Wendy Bisaro

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for correcting me. My brain is too full of information, obviously, so my apologies for thinking that was passed.

I am extremely glad to hear that there’s a desire to move the priority of naturopathic doctors forward. The Minister said what the priorities are and listed a number of things. That may be the priority of the government or departments, but it’s not necessarily the priority of all Members. Since the Minister knows more than I do, I will simply ask him whether or not naturopathic doctors are covered under insured services in the NWT. Thank...

I am very pleased to hear that the Minister is willing to meet with the association. I know there were some meetings held in the previous Assembly with naturopaths and they thought they were advancing somewhere, so I hope we can go back to moving forward.

I’d like to know from the Minister, in order to allow naturopathic doctors to prescribe medicine and tests, what kind of change do we need? Is it changes to regulations or is it change to legislation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to discuss the need to allow naturopathic doctors in the NWT to write prescriptions and order tests for their patients.

Recently Ontario became the second province in Canada to give the green light for increased prescribing rights for naturopathic doctors. Their announcement followed the granting of more powers to other health professionals in Ontario, such as midwives and registered nurses.

The leader in this area is British Columbia, who granted its naturopaths the right to prescribe a greater number of medications as well as high-dose vitamins, amino acid...

Mr. Chair, it’s not really a question, but thanks to Mr. Stewart for I think hopefully indicating that this issue is going to be addressed. I can appreciate that maybe standards aren’t the only way to go, but there is a concern for the safety of the people that are working in some of the homeless shelters.

I did forget to mention that I’ve noticed in the mission, as I looked at the mission for the Housing Corp, there’s no mention of homelessness. Now that we have a homelessness coordinator housed within the Housing department, I wonder if the Housing Corporation would consider changing their...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’d like to continue with Tabled Document 22-17(5). We would like to continue with Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, and then the NWT Housing Corporation and, time permitting, Health and Social Services.

Thanks for the commitment from the Minister. One of the concerns of the naturopathic doctors is that in the recently passed Health and Social Services Professions Act, there is no intention on the part of the department to include naturopathic doctors in the near future. I think they are probably 19 or 20 on a list of 19. So I’d like to know from the Minister, in your discussions with naturopathic doctors and their association, are you willing to move up the regulation of naturopathic doctors from the bottom of the list to very close to the top. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today to address to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’d like to follow up on my statement and ask the Minister some questions with regard to the abilities or lack of abilities of our naturopathic doctors in the NWT. I know that the naturopathic association has been talking to the department. I know that they have made some suggestions to the department to try to advance the naturopathic profession. I know they have met with some resistance to a certain extent, but specifically with the ability for naturopathic doctors to prescribe drugs and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a few comments. I have a couple of questions. More concerns, I guess, than questions particularly. I would like to echo my colleague’s comment earlier about the good work that the Housing Corporation has been doing. Two things, in my mind: One, they’ve been keeping Members updated, as the Minister mentioned a little while ago, and when we are updated and we have information, then that lets us know what’s going on and certainly keeps us much happier. We don’t get cranky that way. I think the changes to the programs that the Housing Corporation has instituted seem to...

Mr. Chair, there are no questions here.

Thanks for the clarification. Maybe the term should be regional client service centre, so one would understand that they’re the same.

I wanted to just emphasize – I don’t know if I’ve made this comment, but I know it has been made to the department – in terms of regional recruitment, I think it is the intent of the department to try to mentor some people in the regions and fill vacant positions, and also for people who are retiring, to make sure the role is filled when they do retire. My understanding is the department is looking at either long-service employees or senior level employees. I...