Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hate to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services questions today, but I’ll make my questions short and he can make the answers short and we can wrap this up.
I do not have before me the statistics on the incidence of diabetes and pre-diabetes in the Northwest Territories, but I’d like to ask the Minister if this condition is on the rise in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Yes, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, how do our statistics on the incidence of diabetes and pre-diabetes compare to other jurisdictions in Canada? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, diabetes is, from my understanding, on the rise across Canada. We are not unique. Our rates increase by about 200 people a year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Does the treatment and education of people in the Northwest Territories with diabetes and pre-diabetes include an education component? Thank you.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. We have a variety of different programs that are trying to start with prevention, Healthy Families, Healthy Choices framework, a number of initiatives geared to educating people about food. I have directed the department to work a little bit more on trying to get some more information on sugar, as brought up earlier by Mr. Dolynny, into that advertising, that prevention works. But we also have professionals in Yellowknife and in communities throughout the Northwest Territories who actually provide services to the individuals, including education and helping people make positive food choices and help them control their diabetes.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That education that is provided to patients who are diagnosed with diabetes, I’m going to ask the Minister if he is familiar with the concept that came out through previous reports to Health and Social Service on the concept of centres of excellence for different types of activities within the health care system.
With this increase in the incidence of diabetes, has any thought been given to a centre of excellence for the education and treatment of diabetes in the Northwest Territories and perhaps could he consider that the Hay River hospital that’s going to be soon moved into a new hospital as a centre for something like that? Thank you.
Thank you. We are committed to working with residents on this particular issue and we’re committed to doing a number of things, including some prevention and direct supports to our residents. We have run a number of pilots in different communities on diabetes programming, but I hear the Member, it’s an interesting idea. I would love to sit down with the Member and committee and get a little bit more input on specifically what they’re making reference to and I would be happy to have some additional discussion on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Yakeleya.
