Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If you have been following the news, you may have read about a resident of Hay River, Mrs. Dawn Loutit, who late last week underwent a double lung transplant in Edmonton. She had been waiting for this for about 10 years. By all accounts, things went well, and she is recovering. I wish her all the best, as I am sure all of the Members do. I also want to thank the donor for the gift of life, essentially, that they gave her.
This has raised some questions coming out of Hay River about organ donation. I know that, for many years now, there has been talk about being able to donate organs and the process surrounding that and what we are going to do moving forward. I have some questions for the Minister of Health. I would like to start off with asking: what is the current process if someone wants to become an organ donor in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Residents of the Northwest Territories, they can donate their organs and tissues as long as they are in a hospital with access to transplant services at the time of death. Due to clinical capacity, that doesn't exist in the Northwest Territories, so all organs and tissues that want to be donated by NWT residents has to be done in a different location. Often for us, that is Alberta. We did pass legislation in 2014, which still hasn't gone live yet.
Regardless of that legislation passing, NWT residents still can donate. Usually, it is a long process. It requires an NWT or an Alberta clinician believing that a patient, first off, is an appropriate donor. Then, they would have to seek consent and support from family members. Then, that person, if they are in the Northwest Territories, would have to be transported south to have those organs and/or tissues donated. It is a bit of a round-about way, and it requires family consent. Until that legislation we passed goes live, you can't actually pre-identify somebody who wants to be a donor in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you for that explanation. There is a lot going on at that time. When someone is being considered as an organ donor, it means they are close to passing away or they have passed away. It is not a time you want to have to make these kinds of decisions. My understanding is the registry would allow people to register as an organ donor prior to passing away, even when they are in good health. I am glad to hear that the work is going on. I would like to know: what is the status of this work, and when can we expect it to go live?
This is a file that has been important to me for a large number of years. Unfortunately, it has taken way longer to make progress on it than I or anybody had hoped. We had hoped actually to be live early in the life of this government, but there had been a change in the government in Alberta. They are a key partner in making this happen because we want to be able to have our residents register on their Alberta Organ and Tissue Donation Registry.
I am happy to say that we have made significant progress. Negotiations have basically been concluded. We are now basically dotting some i's and crossing some t's on an agreement. It is my understanding that we are going to be able to go live with our component, our ability to have NWT residents register this summer.
That is great news. I know it has been a long time coming. I am happy to hear that. To make this program successful, I think there needs to be a public education campaign. Can the Minister detail whether or not there is such a campaign in the works and maybe give us some information about it?
Absolutely. The Member is absolutely correct. We can do this. It can be available, but if people don't know about it, they are not going to register. We are planning a significant public launch where we will have an opportunity to explain process, get information out. I will certainly be working with MLAs, hoping that they can help share the information with their constituents. We are in the process of developing a comprehensive communications plan to get this information out. I look forward to working with the Members to get that information out.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
