Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to address my questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services and I’d like to follow up on my statement. AEDs have a fairly low profile in the NWT. Certainly when my office was doing some research, it was pretty obvious. Some organizations have taken actions and others have not. For instance, we do not have an AED here at the Legislative Assembly.
So I’d like to ask the Minister, first off, whether not the Department of Health and Social Services or the GNWT, if he knows that, has any policy regarding the placement of AEDs within the territory, within our buildings and our public places. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe that we actually have a policy requiring private industry or businesses or public places to have AEDs, but I do know that Yellowknife currently has defibrillators in the arena, swimming pool and other sport facilities. I also know that the airport here in Yellowknife has a defibrillator and, just for information, every health centre has a defibrillator and every health cabin in the Northwest Territories has an AED.
There is a federal program in place to help pay for defibrillators in arenas that any community with an arena can access. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that and I can advise the Minister that there are defibrillators in every NorthMart or in every Northern Store within the territory, which is good to know. So some buildings have them and some buildings don’t. We obviously don’t have a policy within the GNWT and I would suggest that’s someplace that we need to go.
I would like to ask the Minister whether or not we have, apart from what he’s listed, a registry that encompasses all the defibrillators that exist within the NWT, all the places where they are. Thank you.
No. We can tell which GNWT facilities have them, but I couldn’t tell you what private facilities have them. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister and I didn’t think we had one, so I’m glad that that’s confirmed.
The Minister mentioned a program that exists, I believe it’s the federal government that provides money to communities so that they can get AEDs and put them into their public places and their public buildings.
I’d like to know from the Minister if he’s aware of any program within the GNWT that would provide money to organizations, to communities, to basically organizations and communities if they wish to buy an AED and install it in their space. Thank you.
I’m not aware of any program that we have that would allow private companies, businesses, to purchase or support their purchase of defibrillators or AEDs to put in their public places, but I will say earlier in her statement the Member mentioned Manitoba passing an act in 2013. Under the Manitoba act, owners of the designated premises under the act were required to install AEDs in all the premises. So, purchase and maintenance was the responsibility of the business or the organization that had the public space, not the responsibility of the Manitoba government. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for advising me of that. I’m not suggesting that the government needs to be totally responsible, but legislation, if we put it in place, certainly would provide the need for people to buy and install AEDs. This is a difficult situation. Obviously, GNWT does not have any kind of a policy, we don’t have any department, from the sounds of things, that is responsible for this particular issue.
I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not he would be willing to commit to discussing this issue with Cabinet, whether or not he could then, after discussion, advise which Minister has been assigned this responsibility and who will take on the responsibility of AEDs and providing for them in legislation, if possible, or policy, if possible, and advise Members and the public. Thank you.
Thank you. There is an extensive legislative list in front of the government right now, but if it is the wish of committee that this be undertaken, that we follow Manitoba’s lead with respect to AEDs, I’d be happy to listen to committee and take that forth to Cabinet. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Just to let the Member know that the Clerk’s office is ordering one right now, so we’ll have it in the building.
---Applause
I think we now need two of them: one on the Members’ side, the Ministers’ side and my office. We’d need three.
---Laughter
Anyway, a good question, Ms. Bisaro.
The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
