Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. What are the current rates of smoking in the Northwest Territories? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can’t remember the exact rates off the top of my head but I do know that we have some of the highest rates in Canada. Thank you.
What is the Department of Health and Social Services doing to help people quit smoking cigarettes? Mahsi.
There are a number of things that we are doing to encourage people to quit smoking or to reduce the amount they smoke, preferably quit smoking. We are promoting some services, resources, tools to help people quit smoking, such as the NWT Helpline, we have tobacco cessation aids, we are continuing to promote things like National Non-Smoking Week, and we are also promoting World No Tobacco Day. We are putting together some new websites, building upon the good work that was done with the Don’t Be a Butthead campaign. Those resources or tools still exist and we will continue to hand those out until we are out of them, but we are working with some of our community health reps in the communities to tailor make programs for each individual community as well. Thank you.
I want to thank the Minister for his reply. One of the experiences that I have had is that you could approach your family doctor or physician in trying to assist you in terms of quitting cigarettes. They could offer a smoking cessation program. One of the examples of what kind of services that the people could find through their doctors is the patch, the Nicoderm patch, and that is what I personally use.
What is the department doing to reduce the overall impacts and costs to the health care system caused by chronic illness caused by smoking cigarettes and tobacco use? Mahsi.
One of the best ways to reduce the amount of smoking is to ensure that new people don’t start smoking, which is why we are working with the schools and the community health reps in the individual communities to tailor programs to suit, match or meet the needs of individual communities.
With respect to individuals that are already smokers, we are providing the NWT Helpline, and we also encourage them, if they need additional support, to talk to their physicians or health practitioners in their communities, who will be able to point them in a path of tools that might work for them on a cessation program. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of the initiatives in trying to educate the public is prevention strategies, and the department should be commended in terms of doing the public campaign in terms of informing citizens of the facts of smoking.
What are some other healthy living initiatives that the department is undertaking to combat the overall costs of cigarettes and cancer, and so forth that affect people in the NWT? Mahsi.
We have a number of different programs that we are working on. We do have a chronic disease prevention promotion program that is underway and we have programs like BETTER and other tools that are available in individual communities to residents across the Northwest Territories. In every one of those programs we talk about the value of not smoking, eating healthy and getting lots of exercise. Healthy people will be more productive, they will contribute to society more, they will be living better lives and, obviously, that will result in lower overall health care costs in the long term. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
