Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories, unfortunately, is having a banner year for rabies and, unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, last year was also a banner year for rabies. And there's a couple of reasons for this. One is it's cyclical in the Arctic fox population so it tends to spike. The other reason is that with changes in climate and warmer weather, rabies outbreaks are becoming more and more common. And, Mr. Speaker, it's worth noting that rabies is one of those public health campaigns of the 20th century that we largely solved. There are still 60,000 human deaths a year from rabies, but they are largely in the developing world. In Canada, rabies deaths are very rare and that is thanks to the vaccination of canines. Yet, Mr. Speaker, we are well behind the rest of Canada in making sure that our dogs are vaccinated and that it's not passed to humans.
Rabies in humans is virtually 100 percent lethal if not treated, Mr. Speaker. It is an extremely deadly disease. And I think many of us kind of view this as a thing of the past, and that is because it was a thing of the past that we solved, and I don't want to see the Northwest Territories in a banner rabies year becoming one of the places where we are going to have the first human death in Canada in a long time.
Mr. Speaker, there's a couple things that need to be done here because although rabies doesn't care which host it kills, the government certainly does care. The fox population, many professionals have suggested a vaccination bait program. That would be ENR. Once it stops being wildlife, though, Mr. Speaker, the government ENR doesn't care but MACA has to care and that's through our Dog Act, Mr. Speaker. We actually have a Dog Act, and many jurisdictions have mandated that all dogs be vaccinated for rabies. We do not do that in the Northwest Territories. And lastly, MACA stops caring once it gets into humans and that becomes the department of health who have to make sure they have that antidote on hand and available in all our communities because absent treatment rapidly, it is very fatal in humans.
Mr. Speaker, I'm going to have some questions for the Minister of ENR, Minister of MACA, and Minister of health to make sure that someone is actually paying attention to this rabies outbreak and make sure that we're not just sitting or waiting around for someone to die. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member for Monfwi.
