Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we were children and our parents put us to bed and said, “Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite,” I didn’t know there was such a thing as bedbugs. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
We’ve heard media reports and we’ve had a press conference held by the former Minister of Health and Social Services about the fact that bedbugs have now arrived in the Northwest Territories. This is a serious and costly problem. I have heard of apartment buildings, I have heard of people in public housing here in Yellowknife. It’s so insidious you don’t even want to name names of where you’ve actually heard these things are. And they are so transportable: on people’s shoes, on their socks, on their clothes, on their suitcases. I’d like to know what initiative is this government taking to address this, what I consider to be a public health issue, as a government to address bedbugs in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are protocols that are fairly standard in terms of how you deal with these type of infestations and when they occur. We become aware of them. We work with building owners or whoever’s necessary, and pest control people, to look at the steps for proper eradication.
This is fairly new to the Northwest Territories, I think. At least that’s what we’re told. Does this government have a specific policy initiative, some means to assist people that may encounter this situation? It is not an inexpensive solution. Do bedbugs pose a health risk?
Bedbugs do not spread disease and are not considered a public health hazard in terms of spreading disease. There are ways to deal with them. There are eradication methods, pest control systems in place to help deal with those type of infestations. We will work with, as I indicated, communities, businesses, building managers, to assist and make sure the proper steps are taken with properly qualified pest control folks.
We read in last week’s Hub, I guess, that this has become a problem or has been identified as a problem in certain buildings in Hay River, as well. Unfortunately, it started off in Yellowknife. It seems they seem to have migrated from Yellowknife outwards. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what the point of contact is in our communities for finding out what we can do. Where is the information? Where is the awareness? Where can people access the support that he speaks of?
In Hay River it would be the folks that work in the hospital that deal with environmental health issues. Here it would be the same. With your local health centre, if there are no environmental health officials available. The folks in the health centres, the trained staff, nurses and such would be the first point of contact.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To curb the spread of infestations of bedbugs in the Northwest Territories, will public health officials, environmental health inspectors, be prepared to issue work orders to insist that buildings known to have infestations address the problem and not leave it unattended so that the situation gets worse and it spreads to more places? Will work orders similar to what would be issued by a fire marshal or any kind of health inspector work order, will those type of work orders relate to this matter?
There’s a range of intervention that we have possible and I believe that is one of them. We try to work collaboratively and proactively with those that are involved, so we’ll follow that process. If it comes down to that type of final decision, I believe that, yes, we have the authority to do that.
