Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier in my statement I talked about the situation with heart disease in the Northwest Territories, and Canada as well. Trying to address that, this government has a wide and varied approach. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Chronic disease, including heart disease, contributes to sudden deaths in the Northwest Territories. The Department of Health and Social Services has identified tackling chronic disease as one of their major policy and program goals. How will the department take on heart disease in 2018-2019?
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when it comes to chronic diseases, which obviously includes heart disease, we're trying to take a prevention approach, which means we are really focusing on trying to encourage healthy lifestyles for residents of the Northwest Territories, but also put in place mechanisms to help educate people on how to prevent some of these things from occurring. We also need to make sure that we're enhancing screening. We are providing quality screening so that individuals can get screened early so that, if treatment is required, we can provide it.
There are a number of things that are happening currently. We have healthy living fairs that are travelling throughout the Northwest Territories providing information to residents on a number of chronic conditions and the types of things we need to do. There has been a lot of work done on identifying healthy foods. We would work with the NWT Sports and Recreation Council to promote healthy exercise, exercise on a regular basis. There are lot of things happening, but recognizing that science is continually evolving, we're learning new things. We're also working on a chronic disease and prevention management framework, building upon past work but moving forward with a new framework that's really going to be focused. It's going to be a patient-centred approach, and this will build upon some of the existing things we are doing at communities, the good partnerships that we have out there to encourage more healthy living and wellness. That's on top of the existing things that we're doing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'd like to thank the Minister for his reply. The Minister has to be commended, and indeed in his department, in terms of undertaking education initiatives to ensure that people do live a healthy lifestyle. One of the challenges, of course, is language. My question is, once again, did the department recently work with communities in the Sahtu region to develop a Sahtu glossary for cancer terminology with entries in multiple dialects? This is some incredibly valuable work, and I congratulate all those who made is possible. With heart disease matching cancer for health impacts in the NWT, can the department work toward a similar glossary in other Indigenous languages? For example, Deh Cho Slavey?
Obviously, I'd love to take credit for that work, but it was really work that was led by the communities. It was incredibly valuable. I think the people of the Sahtu really need a pat on the back for the incredible work they've done to create this glossary and get it out to residents of the region. The department did play a role; we did provide some support in the form of some human resources and some other supports. It was a great tool. The department is absolutely open to working with other regions, other language groups, to create similar documents, recognizing that, really, it needs to be community-led, and we're there to, certainly, partner and help as best we can. We think it's a great idea. We would love to see more.
The Minister stated that steps were being taken, apart from education initiatives, in terms of prevention. I'm a member of the Standing Committee on Social Development, and that committee has pushed for the department to take targeted action towards smoking prevention and cessation programs in our small communities. How has the department taken action on anti-smoking work in our small communities?
Over the years, there have been many different approaches to encourage people not to smoke here in the Northwest Territories.
One of the things that has been done is we've obviously been working with communities. We feel that communities are really one of the appropriate places to be leading some of this work, and many of the communities have included this type of initiative under their community wellness plans, but the Member is right and committee is right. We need to continue push as a department as well. The department, to that end, has recently launched the Let's Clear the Air campaign, which focuses on the importance of lung health. This campaign has launched in January of this year, and promotional materials have been shared across the entire Northwest Territories.
Last May we brought youth from across the Northwest Territories together as part of our commitment to healthy living and wellness. This gathering was a great opportunity to hear from youth and share information about healthy living. Workshops on lung health and smoking cessation were an incredibly important part of this event.
Our Healthy Living fairs, that the Member I'm sure is aware of, that travel around the Northwest Territories also provide an opportunity for residents in our small communities to learn directly about lung health and smoking cessation, through presentation and interactive learning opportunities. So if the Member hasn't has an opportunity, when one of these fairs comes to his community or region, I encourage you to go. I encourage everybody from your region to go and look at some of the interactive displays and other information that is available to show how important it is not to smoke for the residents of the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, recently I did find myself in the community hall in Fort Providence and it was packed, and it wasn't because of the bingo; it was the health fair that was happening. So I just wanted to follow up with the Minister in terms of what are the plans in terms of maybe building upon the success of the health fairs that are happening throughout the NWT communities? Mahsi.
I'm glad the Member had an opportunity to attend one of the healthy living fairs; and I hope the Member had an opportunity to stroll through the giant colon and see the impacts of colon health and cancer.
For the rest of the Northwest Territories, it's certainly an interesting adventure. The health living fairs are an incredibly important tool. I think it's great that they're getting out to residents of the Northwest Territories, and I'm thrilled, absolutely thrilled, to hear that the event was packed. I think as MLAs, as Ministers, we all need to encourage our residents to go to these fairs and learn about prevention techniques and other things that can be done. We need to take care of ourselves. We all have some personal responsibility to live healthy, and the more people who can be educated, the better. So yes, these fairs are going to continue, they're important, and I encourage you to encourage your residents to attend and take a stroll through the giant colon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
