Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are always talking about getting at the root causes of our problems in the Northwest Territories and how hard it is for us to do that mainly because we are often dealing with the immediate crises, the symptom, instead of the cause.
In health care there is an emerging group of professionals who focus on treating underlying causes. Naturopathic doctors stress preventative care, they practice natural medicine that combines scientific knowledge and traditional healing wisdom. They seek to tap into the healing power of nature. Of course, naturopathic medicine is not new, but there has been resistance in the larger medical community to official recognition and regulation of practitioners of natural medicine.
That situation is changing, Mr. Speaker. Five Canadian provinces now regulate naturopathic medicine. They have set standards for practicing it, including the scope of naturopathic practice. It is a growing sector in health care. There are now more than 1,200 naturopathic doctors across the country. In Canada we have two of the six accredited naturopathic colleges in North America and that shows that Canada is taking leadership in this area.
There are four-year college programs which first require a Bachelor of Arts degree to get in. So graduates emerge with eight years of study behind them and are very well educated in their field.
In the Northwest Territories only a handful of professionals practice natural medicine. One of these professionals is Dr. Nicole Redvers, a naturopathic doctor practicing in Yellowknife. She was born and raised in the North, and I want to say mostly in Hay River, Chipewyan Metis, and is proud to be part of a growing profession that blends modern scientific knowledge with natural and traditional forms of medicine. Mr. Speaker, we are not regulating a field here or setting standards for their certification. That should change.
Mr. Speaker, residents of the Northwest Territories would benefit from regulation of naturopathic medicine. First, it sets standards for care and it might also help draw practitioners into this exciting field of practice in the Northwest Territories and encourage our own people to pursue it as a career. For once we have an opportunity to get out ahead of five of the provinces who don’t have legislation, but benefit from the other five who have done work in this area. I understand that Health and Social Services is working on an umbrella Health and Social Services Profession Act to cover professions with small numbers of practitioners in the Territories and, Mr. Speaker, we should include practitioners of natural medicine in this legislation. It is surely for our greater good. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
