Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Health and Social Services tabled a document a few days ago entitled, “Health and Social Services Service System Annual Report, 2012-2013.” The title was “Measuring Success and Focusing on Results.” I believe in that. I encourage that and I promote that. I appreciate the information. There are a lot of good stats and results that were in there; however, if I can refer people that might look at the report to priority two, the prevalence of smoking in 15-year-olds and older.
In 2002 our smoking rates in the NWT were 46 percent, which is about half the population of the Northwest Territories. You can only imagine what the costs were for care and treatment and hospital visits and the health care costs associated with that. The report outlines that in 2012-13 those results are 34 percent. A great success, and I applaud the government and I applaud all the NGOs and workers who took this on as an initiative. However, even with the great success, it is still double the national average, which is 16 percent, and there is still some work to do.
Another thing that I wanted to report that was an even greater success was that the percentage of daily smokers who reported being counselled to quit smoking by their primary care provider, by doctors, 54 percent, and by nurses, 39 percent. I just want to congratulate our health professionals for taking that extra step to help people try to quit smoking. That’s a great success in itself.
What this report doesn’t show is the stats of the prevalence of those that are under the age of 15. However, I have great confidence with programs such as My Voice, My Choice, the Not Us! campaign, the tobacco curriculum that’s in the schools, Smoke Screening. They used to have a Blast conference, but the big one is the Don’t Be A Butthead campaign. I want to recognize all those, and I know those rates, if they haven’t risen, continue to decrease.
With the last little bit of time that I have left in my Member’s statement, I would like to encourage those who are trying to quit to continue, and if you can’t quit, try to cut down. I congratulate all those who have shown such great results in this report that have made that decision to quit. Great job.
Throughout the years there have been a lot of great advocates doing this job, and too many to thank at this time. But if there was one person I’d like to thank, it is Miriam Wideman, who was probably one of the strongest advocates and one of the greatest mentors I had the opportunity to work with.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
