Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A number of organizations representing health professionals in the Northwest Territories continue to ask for regulation of their sector. They continue, primarily, to come knock on the government’s door as opposed to the government telling them that they should be regulated, and that certainly needs to be noted.
Who am I talking about? The chiropractic and massage therapy groups are certainly leading and becoming champions on this particular issue, because they feel it’s very important to have clear regulations that protect themselves and our public.
It’s becoming very popular, as we all know, how people continue to use those services of chiropractic and massage therapy. Of course, we all probably know somebody who wants to enter these types of professions with full accreditation. Many of these young students and even some of them a little bit on the more mature side who enter these careers go seek training and spent a lot of money on full accreditation, but when they come to the Northwest Territories they’re not regulated.
Regulations would help everybody, not just the health professionals but also the public. Licensing the practices in the Northwest Territories would help define the scope, certainly the standards and code of ethics, which are very important. It will enhance the primary care through increased collaboration among all health professionals. Of course, when there are problems, it certainly gives an avenue and a direction on how to handle complaints.
This topic is not new to this House. It was brought up many times during the 16th Assembly, and there was talk even about creating an umbrella legislation to cover a health professional’s act in some form. We’re now into six or more months of the 17th Assembly and we’ve yet to hear anything on this particular subject.
I’ve spoken on this particular topic a number of times and perhaps even we should be looking at the issue of omnibus legislation and we could even reach out to the naturopathic profession, as well, that would like regulation included.
In short, new legislation needs to come forward soon, not just for us but for public confidence. It builds assurance with the public that we are watching out for the good and health… This is a particular subject that I think the public has finally come to say we expect our government to be watching out for us, and regulation and legislation is the mechanism that needs to be done on this particular topic.
That said, I’ll have questions for the Health Minister later today. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Member for the Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
