Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Absolutely nothing, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you. Absolutely nothing, yes, that’s the problem. What rules, regulations or anything of that nature are out there and any type of regulation that ensures that these people are qualified to do the job that they are doing? Thank you.
Thank you. There are massage therapists and other professionals who are able and allowed to practice in the Northwest Territories and their credentials that they received from other jurisdictions are recognized here. Thank you.
So I guess the Minister should maybe explain to us what group association in the sense of regulation and legislation that actually recognizes these qualifications, because apparently she said earlier there is nothing out there to define that. Can she maybe clarify that for the House?
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.
Thank you. Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, there certainly should be. Both the public and the industry are demanding fair and reasonable regulations. My last question would be: in unedited Hansard of yesterday the Minister was quoted as saying I want to say that those that are licensed to practice as a therapist or naturopathic practitioner, and even acupuncturists, all of those professionals are allowed to practice in the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, what governing body, registration style of body, or legislation or, certainly, regulation licence these people in the Northwest Territories to practice that ensures that there’s safety and competency out there to ensure the public is protected? Thank you.
The naturopathic practitioners were met with the staff from the department. The department advised them, they had a meeting together and they explained to them about their power and ability to practice here.
I repeat once again that they’re allowed to practice here. There’s nothing that stops them from practicing naturopathic profession here. They were encouraged to keep their credentials from other jurisdictions because that allows them to practice here. I’m not sure what the issue is. They are allowed to practice here. We encourage them to do their work.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the Food First Program in the schools. I would like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment questions on that. Would the Minister thoroughly examine the ECE budget with the staff to find money to continue the Food First Program?
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We just went through the budget process and it’s been approved by this Assembly. Every year we go through the business planning cycle. I’m sure this Food First Program will be before us again once we go through the process.
I must highlight that there are programs available as well, as I indicated, on the Healthy Food for Learning. There is upwards of $380,000 that’s been dispersed to all schools. Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative to focus on absenteeism and attendance, this is an area that’s been discussed as well. We have over $30,000 in that respect. There is money out there through our government and also the federal funding, that we’ve highlighted in the House already that those schools can access as well.
I’d like to thank the Minister for that response, however, it appears as though the Food First Program that’s essentially feeding the kids in school is going to discontinue on March 31st. Could the Minister check right now with the department and see if it’s possible to find money to at least continue the food program in the schools until the end of the school year? That’s three more months, that’s it.
I, again, indicated that the schools are receiving funding. With our budget that’s been approved, it has been allocated to various different programs in the schools. The majority of our funding also goes to the school boards and they decide where the money should be distributed, based on their interest in the students, the teachers, the programming. The school boards can also decide on the various areas that they can allocate funding. If it’s going to be towards the Food First Program, then it’s at their discretion to work with that. There are other program dollars that we have identified and will continue to support those funds as well.
It appears as though the money is...all the other money that the Minister is speaking of is allocated to other programs. This money for the Food First Program was scheduled to be one-year money, that is true, but it’s been such a huge success that I’m wondering if the department would look at actually replacing this program. If this program is going to end regardless on March 31st, then would the department find a program that’s similar that they can achieve the same results that this program has achieved since its inception?
With any pilot project that’s been undertaken in the past we’ve always reviewed the program, how successful it’s been or if there are areas for improvement, and then taken into consideration as we move forward if we need to reintegrate that into our business planning cycle. If it’s been successful, let’s look at it; if not, then there’s room for improvement. This is an area that has been earmarked for discussion. As a pilot project, we’ve done the pilot project for a year and we’re here now. It’s sunsetting but, as the Member is indicating, maybe the program should be reviewed. As I stated, any program that’s been initiated as a pilot project, obviously there’s a review that needs to take place as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister then direct an evaluation of that program to look at all the positive impacts that program has had on all the schools across the North? Would the Minister then direct his staff to do that evaluation immediately?
The program is sunsetting the end of the month. As I stated, with any pilot program initiative that’s been undertaken, there’s a need for re-evaluating the program if it’s been successful. Discussion comes forward after that. As we move forward to the business planning cycle, this I’m sure will be a topic of discussion as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve been reading some of the Hansard from the discussion yesterday in the House about naturopathic medicine and incorporating this practice in a new piece of legislation that’s come forward to licence health care practitioners in the Northwest Territories. In reading the Q and A in Hansard and stuff, I’m not really understanding what the issue is. So let me ask the Minister my own set of questions, because I can’t understand the answers to other people’s but maybe I’ll understand it if it’s just between me and her. Do you plan to include the practice of naturopathic medicine in new legislation coming forward to cover the practice of different disciplines within the Northwest Territories?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I said that yesterday, and today I say it again, that we are reviewing the possibility of including that.
As I said in my Member’s statement, it would appear that this is something that is regulated already in other jurisdictions so we do have legislation that we could review in terms of wording and how it plays out in other jurisdictions. Why are we only reviewing this? This should be, I didn’t want to say a no brainer, but this to me should just be pretty straightforward, and if it isn’t, why isn’t it?
The writing of legislation to regulate a profession is a lot more complex than we think. Regulating a profession for engineers and architects took 10 years. Regulating a profession for nurse practitioners and midwives took many, many, many years. You would have to ask a lawyer and other professionals to see why that is so complex, but it is not just something that you do lightly. It’s not as expeditious and easy as we would like.
As I said to Members yesterday, we are working on an umbrella legislation that would be called Health and Social Services Profession Legislation. The groups that we have been working on to regulate are licensed practical nurses -- which we have a lot more of in the Territories -- psychologists, emergency medical service providers, and chiropractors. Those have been in the works and I said it’s possible to add naturopathic practitioners, but we have these other professions that are practicing in more numerous numbers that we are trying to regulate and they remain our priority.
None of that answer makes any sense to me. We are writing legislation for these different disciplines for people who are already delivering services in the Northwest Territories. How difficult and what would be the resistance to including naturopathic medicine in that? As I said, the precedent legislation is already out there in other jurisdictions. I don’t think it would take 10 years to go and see what they’re doing in Alberta or British Columbia and see what we could do. It just seems like an opportune time. If we’re already doing this legislation, why wouldn’t we add this one?
I did not say we would not do that. I said we are reviewing the possibility of adding that. This issue came up within the last couple of months and we are reviewing to see if we could add that extra profession. Let me say that lack of regulation does not preclude the practitioners from practicing. There’s nothing that precludes them from practicing.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We as a government are going out on the road spending countless hundreds and thousands, probably millions of dollars trying to tell people they should come and leave their mark, come to the Northwest Territories. Yet we get a northern person who goes out, studies their profession, comes back to the Northwest Territories to practice and we’re saying don’t give up your registration down south because we don’t have any way to register you here, don’t give up your credentials from another jurisdiction. We’re just telling them they might as well go back to that jurisdiction to do it. There has to be protection for these practitioners. There has to be a framework. There has to be a scope of practice to protect their practice. I think the Minister should just say yes, this one will be included in this new legislation.
As I stated, we are looking at it, we’re reviewing it and looking at the possibility of including it.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services getting back to my Member’s statement where I talked again about the closure of the Edmonton City Centre Airport.
There’s been one runway closed there, the one that had instrumentation available. Now when bad weather takes place in Edmonton, medevac flights from the Northwest Territories are being diverted to the International Airport. I’m aware of one incident where a medevac patient spent two hours awaiting ground ambulance transport into the emergency room in the city of Edmonton. I’d like to ask the Minister how that’s possible that a medevac patient from the Northwest Territories could wait two hours at the International Airport for transport into the city.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
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.
No, the Minister’s responsible for the safety, transport and care that our patients are receiving when they travel on a medevac flight into the city of Edmonton. The weather was to blame for the flight being diverted to the International Airport, but there’s no excuse for a ground ambulance taking two hours to take that patient from the International Airport into the city of Edmonton to an emergency room.
There was no evidence of any political involvement by our Minister of Health on the closure of that airport, the impending closure of that airport, and that remains to me to be a real shame. I think the Minister has to be front and centre when these discussions are going on with the Province of Alberta on how our patients are going to be handled when they land at the International Airport. I’d like to ask the Minister if she could provide an update to this House on the proposed plans to deal with medevac patients arriving at the International Airport in Edmonton.
I thank the Member for asking for an update because he is working with very outdated information. As the mayor from Edmonton, when he was visiting here, had told us in the briefing meeting we had with all the Members, the Premier of Alberta, which I have advised the Member many times, has set up a Health Quality Council of Alberta with a mandate to come up with a plan on how we deal with emergency medevac programs at the airport. The city of Edmonton, citizens of Edmonton have voted resoundingly to approve the plan to close that municipal airport. Members should know, and I tell them again, that that last runway is not going to close until there is a plan in place to deal with medical travel. This government, this department, my officials are part of that Quality Council review and we will have a plan before it’s closed. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I know that the plan is in progress and it’s being developed. In the meantime, Mr. Speaker, when there is bad weather in Edmonton and flights are diverted to the International Airport, what is the plan of care for patients arriving at the International Airport by medevac? There seems to be no plan if somebody can wait there for two hours for ground transport into the city. Thank you.
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 that. If the Member wants to give me specific information that he has, I’d be happy to look into that.
In general, Mr. Speaker, I think we should be careful about making a general statement that makes it sound like we’re not in charge of taking care of our patients, because we really are. There are hundreds of people involved and we spend millions of dollars moving patients from place to place. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like the Minister to elaborate, then, if she could, on what exactly are the plans for a flight diverted because of bad weather to the International Airport. What is the plan of care for a patient arriving at the International Airport by medevac from the Northwest Territories today? What is that plan, Mr. Speaker? If she wants to go there, what is that plan?
We contract medevac services to our providers. We have people qualified to handle that. Medic North does that on the ground. We have staff and people equipped to handle medical situations on the plane. We spend millions and millions to do this medical travel. Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the Member and the public that we take care of our residents.
I want to offer to the Member again, before he makes generalized statements that sort of impunes the staff and the contracts that work for us, maybe he should just present to me the details and I will get back to him. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources some questions following my Member’s statement on Aboriginal employment and salaries in the Government of the Northwest Territories. The indigenous Aboriginal is 31 percent of our total GNWT workforce. I’d like to ask the Minister what is the current strategy for recruitment to increase those numbers in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government developed a human resource strategy called 20/20: A Brilliant North, NWT Public Service Strategic Plan. That strategic plan has been guiding our actions for the past couple of years. We have an Affirmative Action Advisory Group. We have set up some specific affirmative action competitions so that we can begin to get more Aboriginal people into senior management programs. And of course, we have developed a number of leadership programs which Aboriginal people are starting to take a much more significant participation in than they have in the past. Thank you.
