Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Health and Social Services provide details on the work done to date by this government on regulations for physician-assisted dying? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last June, we formed a partnership with the other provinces and territories and we actually had an expert advisory group pulled together to go out and do some research and analysis on physician-assisted dying. That report has been made available. We have had a number of discussions at the FPT level to see what other jurisdictions are doing so that we could have as coordinated an approach as possible. At the same time, earlier this calendar year, we actually went out for a public call for information and feedback from residents across the Northwest Territories. We sent letters to a large number of different stakeholders to seek guidance on what we should do here in the Northwest Territories with respect to facilitating physician-assisted dying. Later this week, I have a meeting with the NWT Medical Association here to have some further discussions on that as we move forward with a June 6, 2016 target date. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to releasing the details of that public consultation with the members of the Standing Committee on Social Development, and as a public document as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe the expert advisory panel report that was done for the provinces and territories is already public. As far as the information we receive from different stakeholders, we are going to consolidate all that information as we move forward with putting in some interim measures that will come into effect on June 6. I will certainly be having a discussion with Members on what we have heard and where we are going prior to June 6. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, I was referring to the northern stakeholder information that was gathered by the government. If the Ministry could also detail what is the government's plan for moving forward on physician-assisted dying in the Northwest Territories following the June 6 deadline? I am looking for specifics, please.
We won't know what the federal legislation looks like until it is passed. We anticipate that it will be passed on June 6, which means we will have to be in a position to facilitate physician-assisted dying here in the Northwest Territories. Now that we have pulled together some information from stakeholders across Northwest Territories, we have the expert panel's report, we also have the report that was prepared for the federal government, and we also know that a number of the different provincial colleges of physicians are doing a significant amount of work on this. We are going to pull all that information together and, shortly, we are going to be pulling together a steering committee of key stakeholders here in the Northwest Territories that are going to help advise what our interim measures should be for June 6.
We anticipate that there is going to be some legislative requirements here in the Northwest Territories to help facilitate this in the long term, but we won't know what those are until we actually see the federal legislation. Our first step here is to put the steering committee together, get some interim measures that we can put in place so that we can facilitate respectful, choice-based, physician-assisted dying here in the Northwest Territories on June 6, and then move forward through the legislative process once we know what the federal legislation looks like.
I would like to thank the Minister for providing those details and showing that the government has done quite a bit of work on this. That’s appreciated. I trust that the government will continue to work with the committee moving forward. This is an issue that is very important and on the minds of many Northerners. I think there is a lot of concern on the part of our communities, and we need to do the best job we can at making people understand what options are available to them and what choices they can now take with it comes to end-of-life care. I look forward to the Minister continuing to work with federal and provincial colleagues and this side of the House.
Masi. I will take that as a comment. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
