Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've spoken and will continue to speak about accessibility of health care in the NWT. This impacts directly my constituents, your constituents, constituents up the Valley, down the Valley, all the way around, Mr. Speaker. Nobody cares more about health care than Northerners I'm sure. But that may not technically be a fact, so I don't look forward to the Premier calling me on my fact checking statement on that. Everyone cares.
Mr. Speaker, not to upset the government but, you know what, I've seen the hallmark of this Assembly so clearly it actually speaks more like the trademark has become we're working on something, we're having discussions, we're -- we don't have enough policy people here, we don't have legislative people here. In other words, I hear a lot of we haven't done a lot.
Mr. Speaker, I have seen so little out of this government as far as policy legislative initiatives, I'm getting worried. Its key policy legislation it's moved forward this Assembly was done 99 percent in the last Assembly. So what has it done other than a few typos and a few corrections here or there? Mr. Speaker, when I hear the government again talk about how they can't do something, I hear delay, deny and, even sadder, do they really care.
Mr. Speaker, there's a phrase used in this type of business that's referred to mirrored legislation. It's actually a keystone to how a lot of Legislative Assembly initiatives get done. So, Mr. Speaker, why is this government not scratching the itch of copying other legislations? Use the incentive. I say don't view it as you've stolen it; use it as you've liberated great ideas from other jurisdictions.
By way of example, as I've already brought up here, Mr. Speaker, we have the Pharmacies Act and the scope of their practice used in so many jurisdictions. As a matter of fact, it's used in almost every jurisdiction where we can have pharmacists issue vaccines, things like for influenza -- I can't say a few of the other words, but I can certainly say HEP A. Well, some of them are pretty tricky. HEP B, you know, measles and mumps. Mr. Speaker, could you imagine if we had our pharmacists, health care warriors, out there helping us with COVID-19? We'd have people cured and maybe protected in different ways, giving vaccines, flu.
But, Mr. Speaker, as we stand now, I had a constituent last night tell me they went to go book a vaccine appointment. They had to wait until April. Well, they'll probably cure themselves at this rate we're moving.
Mr. Speaker, I'm not saying our health care warriors, known as pharmacists, can do everything, and I'm not suggesting they do everything. But we have willing partners, and we have smart people in the legislative branches, and we have smart people in in the policy branches, why can't they go liberate other legislation and mirror it and allow us to have our pharmacists help us? Part of the solution. I mean, it was yesterday, I believe -- if not the day before -- I was asking about changing the Nursing Act so we could allow to find better ways to get nurses here. Mr. Speaker, here is another simple way.
So while the government over there sits on billions of dollars and says -- billions of dollars and says oh, well, the Members should tell us how to do things, well Members with their meager budgets are presenting real solutions. And I'm going to ask, would the Minister be willing to do this and make minor changes to the Pharmacy Act and just get rid of some of the consultation, get the acts in the public, get it out, let's start talking about solutions, Mr. Speaker. Let's show some courage to the public that we care about their health care because I do, and I know everybody on this side cares about northern health care. And as I use the last moments of my very good long statement, Mr. Speaker, which I appreciate, Mr. Speaker, I cannot say enough: Pharmacists give a darn and, Mr. Speaker, let's empower them to be the health care providers they so dreamt to be when they joined that industry. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Members' statements.
