I've got some more rabies questions, Mr. Speaker. So once we move on to wildlife, we get to pets. And dogs is actually the number one way that humans can contract rabies. In many jurisdictions, it's actually required that all dog owners have uptodate vaccinations for their dogs for the rabies. That is not currently the case in the Northwest Territories. So my question for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs is whether he will consider mandating that every pet owner, every dog owner make sure that their dog has the rabies vaccine. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I thank the Member for the question. Getting your dogs vaccinated for rabies is an important way to reduce the risk for you and your community. Responsibility to immunize your dog with a rabies shot or provide any other vaccination is the responsibility of a dog owner. To date, MACA has not heard from community government leadership that is an issue. If this is a concern for community governments, Municipal and Community Affairs would work with NWTAC and LGANT to understand the community's desire to make rabies immunizations mandatory. Depending what we heard, MACA will work to support the request through the appropriate piece of legislation, which may not be administered by Municipal and Community Affairs. For an example, Ontario is the only jurisdiction that makes it mandatory for dogs and cats, among other animals, to be immunized against rabies, and this is done through a regulation of their Health Protection and Promotion Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the problems with this is that it you know, it's a relatively simple and cheap problem to solve. The vaccine itself is only a couple dollars, or, you know, the logistics of getting it into dogs is a bit more complicated. But what I found is that the people who care about this can't seem to get anyone in the GNWT to care about it. And I know perhaps we have to whether it's a human health act or a dog act, I don't really care. I just don't want anyone to die from rabies. I'm wondering if the Minister of MACA would coordinate a rollout of the rabies vaccines to dogs. This is traditionally something that Vets Without Borders and the NWT SPCA has done. I know in the past some of their funding has flown through MACA, but it's also one of those issues no one seems to want to take responsibility for. So can the Minister at least try and get the right people in the room to have a discussion about how we make sure that dogs are up to date on their rabies vaccine. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is kind of a MACA and ENR question. So I'll give him kind of an answer from both as the Minister for MACA and the Minister for ENR. Some communities have access to fulltime or visiting veterinary service for their pets. But access to veterinary service remains a challenge in many small communities, as the Member talked about. In areas where rabies is common, including parts of the Beaufort Delta region, ENR has worked with the Department of Health and Social Services to help support access to rabies vaccination to communities that don't have local or visiting vets. So we do work on it; we do provide that opportunity if it's a bigger concern. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake. No. Sorry. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had a chance to talk with the Minister of health for a bit, and she said she'd be willing to take some questions. So these are pretty straightforward. Can the Minister of health tell me why Hay River is consistently without a full complement of physicians or always a limited number of physicians. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, doctors are hired centrally through the NTH SSA. The NTH SSA has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority to facilitate that. So the long story short is that it is an extremely competitive field at this point, and we are having trouble attracting doctors to come to the northern communities despite various incentives that we put in place, competitive pages, very handsome signing bonuses, and efforts that are made by human resources to attend I don't want to call them trade shows, but career fairs and that kind of thing where they can meet with people who are about to graduate and pitch them on the idea of coming to the NWT. So we are aware that there should be a doctor in Hay River. As I said to the Member yesterday or the day before, we consider seven doctors the full complement for Hay River. So it's very unfortunate that we're not able to attract people there. But that doesn't mean we've given up trying. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister when physicians are hired through NTH SSA, what is the priority for determining where they will be located, and how is location determined. Are they given a choice, I guess, to go to Hay River or Yellowknife or Inuvik or Fort Smith, or is it just kind of they just say that, you want to stay in Yellowknife, or do we encourage them to stay in Yellowknife. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't think it's an either/or. I think it's an and so the doctor may have a preference to go to a particular community. There are locums who go to the same community time and time again. But there is also a triage applied to where doctors are needed. So the highest priority always is the Stanton emergency room because all of the regional health centres and acute care centres call into Stanton for advice on dealing with emergencies. So there is some discretion by the doctor and also some need to ask doctors to come to the emergency room in Yellowknife preferentially to serve the entire territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister what initiatives or are there any special initiatives in place or have been taken to recruit physicians specifically for the locations outside Yellowknife, such as Hay River. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think that when the human resources people go to the career fairs, they talk about the NWT as a whole, and then people when they apply can potentially be directed if they don't have a particular preference about where to live to areas of greatest need. As I said, I know that there are relationships that develop between locums, and they continue returning to the same communities over and over again. That is certainly the best outcome. But there isn't a specific Hay River doctor recruitment campaign. It is done for the NWT as a whole. And, of course, the or Hay River health and social services is an important part of that as the second largest community in the territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the other day the Minister said something along the lines of you know, when I asked her could Hay River I guess she said could Hay River do better, I guess, at hiring doctors than the NTH SSA. Well, I know we couldn't do any worse because we just don't have the full complement of doctors. We don't have enough. So I think it's you know, we have an opportunity. I hear the agreement is coming up between the NTH SSA and Hay River. And I'm just wondering if the Minister's willing to discuss moving physician recruitment to the Hay River's SSA and try it out and see what happens, because I think that if we're I'm hoping that if we're selling it ourselves, maybe we could do a better job at it. I don't know. But right now we've got to do something because, you know, health is important in Hay River; it's important to the people. You know, I hear more and more complaints, people not getting proper care. You know, I hear of people, you know, going south on their own dime now to try and find doctors that they could rely on. And so we've got to do something. And it's getting critical. And the other issue too is that, you know, without doctors, the staff are getting stressed out. And I'm afraid what's going to happen is that we're going to see some of them exit and go to places where they have doctors, such as Yellowknife or down south. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You did that yesterday too. Mr. Speaker, I don't have a full grasp on what is required to recruit doctors. But I think it's a fairly specialized a fairly specialized skill. NTH SSA has capacity to do it. They have contacts. They, as I mentioned, go to the career fairs and so on. So I guess my question about Hay River taking over the recruitment of doctors is whether Hay River Health and Social Services Authority has the capacity to do that. Do they have staff who are skilled and available. And my other question would be whether the economies of scale would work. So for the physician complement for Yellowknife or pardon me for the NWT as a whole, if I remember correctly, is around about 70. So, you know, we've got this one unit dedicated to doing that work. So it wouldn't work as well if we had people working on seven contracts at a time. It's a question that's worth answering. And Hay River health and social services, as the Member mentioned, has a Memorandum of Understanding with NTH SSA, and so there is an opportunity to discuss that when the MOU is renewed. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a third set of questions, and surprise, it's about rabies again. Mr. Speaker, my question is really, my interest in doing this is making sure that no humans die of rabies. So my question's for the Minister of health and social services, just how quickly after a potential exposure to rabies must someone get treated. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Health.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, not to be facetious, but it really depends where they are. If that's a hunter or a trapper out on the land, it could take some time for that person to get into a community with a health centre and be assessed for the exposure. If they're in the town already or a community, then obviously it would be a lot faster. So if somebody has been exposed, whether that's a bite or a scratch, so in contact with the mucus membranes, the eyes, the mouth, the nose of the animal, then they should get themselves to their community health centre as soon as possible for assessment. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the one of the things about rabies is that the people most at risk are our hunters and trappers who are out on the land, often remote, and the other people are children, who perhaps just don't recognize the signs of a rabid animal. And I just want to ensure that we are treating people quickly as possible because even if you survive, there are some very nasty longterm cognitive effects if you ever get exposed to rabies. Can the Minister of health just confirm where people can get the rabies antidote. Is it presently available at all our community health centres. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think I just want to clear up the word "antidote." There isn't an antidote for rabies. But there is a vaccine, and it's available in each health centre or hospital pharmacy and emergency room in the NWT. And anyone who might potentially have contact with wild animals, for example, again, hunters and trappers, can go to their health care provider and ask to have this preexposure vaccination before they go out on the land. So that is an option that people who are working far away from health centres might want to consider. And even if they do end up having contact with a rabid animal, they will be protected, but they should still report the incident to their health care provider because that is something that we track, and we warn the public about. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just have one last followup. I heard the Minister of MACA/ENR say that the Dog Act is perhaps not the place to mandate that all dogs be vaccinated for rabies. And in Ontario, it was actually done under public health. I really don't care, I just think that we should be making sure can the Minister of health look into whether it's possible that, under public health, we mandate that dogs are up to date for their rabies vaccine. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I realize that this is a serious issue, and I look forward to hearing what public health has to say about dog vaccinations. I understand that that would be beneficial. There are lots of dogs in the NWT and lots of dog/fox interactions. Even where I live in Yellowknife, the foxes live in a den on the sliding hill, and myself and my neighbours all have dogs. So it is a serious issue. I mean, fortunately in Yellowknife we have vet clinics and so vaccines are easy enough to get. And I know the SPCA has tried to expand vaccinations out into the communities. But there hasn't been enough money to make this a complete coverage of vaccinations for dogs to ensure that they don't contract rabies. Thank you.
