Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. There have been a number of questions posed to the Minister over the past couple of weeks in regard to naturopathic medicine and the licensing of that practice in the Northwest Territories. I would like to continue on that vein, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to begin by asking the Minister -- she has been hard to get a commitment out of, but I am going to try again today to get a commitment out of her -- can the Minister provide Members of this House with any correspondence she sent back to inquiries she or her department has had regarding the licensing of naturopathic medicine in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had an inquiry about this issue. I have asked my staff to meet with people in question. The meeting was held. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I wasn’t sure if I heard her say the meeting was held or wasn’t held, but would the Minister commit to sitting down face to face with her officials, the deputy minister, with the naturopathic doctors to move their concerns forward? Will she commit to that? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I don’t have a problem meeting with anybody who wants to meet with me, but I want to assure the public and the Members here that we respond to inquiries that we get from the public and this specific issue in question, we have responded. I have asked staff to meet to explain what the rules are and what the government has in place in terms of the work that we are doing to regulate some of the professions. We have been open and communicating. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, what response is the Minister referring to, when it was sent and who it was sent to and when this meeting supposedly took place? I would like to ask the Minister those questions. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I don’t know exactly what he is asking. Mr. Speaker, with respect to the naturopath issue, I received correspondence last fall. I asked the staff to meet with the person so that we could explain what the situation is with naturopath practice. Also, there was a concern that there might be a misuse of the word “doctor,” given that our Medical Profession Act states that it prohibits use of that word where there might be some misunderstanding that some people may be practicing medicine. I am just saying this because that is what the Medical Profession Act says.
There were meetings held in December. Our staff, the director of policy of the department met with the person in question to give them information. They had agreed to continue to communicate on this issue. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Whether or not somebody can be called a doctor, that is not the question that I asked the Minister. I am not sure why she had to say that again.
Anyway, getting back to the question about correspondence back to the naturopathic doctors who have inquired about licensing in the Northwest Territories, I’d like to ask the Minister, has the Minister signed any letter going back to the naturopathic doctors in terms of licensing in the Northwest Territories. If she hasn’t, when will she? Thank you.
Thank you. I can tell you right now he’s not going to like this answer, but perhaps he might understand if I tell him that I can’t necessarily write to everybody who writes to my office. There are some people who write to my office that has to do with operational and administrative issues. When it has to do with the regulating practice, often on many issues I write personally to all the MLAs that write to me, I respond to constituents, but there are issues where it’s operational and it is within my responsibility to assign staff to meet with them. So in this situation I assigned the staff to meet with her and that meeting took place in December, whereby she was given technical background about the state of affairs, which I believe was the right thing to do. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
