Thank you, Mr. Speaker. About three-quarters of Canadians seek some type of alternative therapy. Therefore, I’m standing today to speak in support of fair and reasonable regulations over alternative therapies such as chiropractic, massage, acupuncture and naturopath therapy.
Mr. Speaker, regulation has been called for many times by many of these people and these organizations. It’s been calling out to this government by both therapists and clients. These people would like the government to move forward on regulations and protection measures that would ensure both the therapists and the clients are protected through safeguards. Safeguards such as mentioned earlier that the government would come up and define a scope of practice, standards, a code of ethics; as well, it would help regulate through the licensing and registration of these types of therapy practices, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, in spite of our lack of legislation and regulation at this particular time, five provinces regulate naturopathic therapy at this present moment and only three regulate massage therapy. Mr. Speaker, there is a real need to ensure our northern citizens are protected by fair and reasonable regulation. That’s something that they want to ensure; that they’re getting protection, getting help in the most safe manner as possible. Mr. Speaker, many people feel strongly that the government has not moved fast enough on this particular initiative. I can tell you, specifically, myself, I’ve had people approaching the government through my office for well over four years on this particular matter and wondering where it is today.
Mr. Speaker, I’ve heard that a complementary medicine legislative proposal that will work as an umbrella piece to help protect our Northerners under these types of therapies will be coming forward. Mr. Speaker, today is more of a call of action to ensure that we, first of all, do it right, make sure we cover enough of these therapists, and at the same time ensure that we do the due diligence by talking to our northern citizens who want this.
But mainly, Mr. Speaker, I just want to finish off by saying, as I understand, it is looking at things like chiropractic therapy as one of its particular areas it wants to cover, but I want to stress that we need to ensure that we consider naturopathic therapy and massage therapy at the same time. We don’t want to miss this particular window, and as we all know very well, legislation discussion doesn’t happen very often, so let’s take our time, ensure we do proper consultation and get it right. Thank you.
