Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My colleague MLA Hawkins recognized Mr. McMahon and Ms. Margaret Petersen, but sitting with them is Amanda Petersen from Petersen’s Outfitters.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document titled Youth Smoking in the NWT: Descriptive Summary of Smoking Behaviour Among Grade 5 to 9 Students. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned earlier, the department, along with the medical community, is reviewing this program to come up with a plan that could assist its patients. I would recommend the Member and any Members in the House to have names of constituents that they would like us to consider in this review. I would be happy to receive them and get back to the Member separately. Obviously, this is not something I can talk about here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is not a change of policy, but it is about adhering to the policy. Weight loss procedure is not an insured service. It is not something that is covered anywhere in the country. Under our health care coverage, we pay for hospital and doctor services. Most of the situations we know of are not being done at a hospital setting. Mr. Speaker, our policy does allow for exceptions. It would have to go through a doctor’s coverage. We are working with the doctors to have a very clear clinical guideline on that. As well, in the interim, we are looking to see how we could come...

Since the Member and the committee have toured the Stanton Territorial Hospital, perhaps next they could do a tour of the Norman Wells Health Centre or Hay River hospital. My point being, Stanton Hospital is a very important piece of infrastructure for us and it provides very important territorial health care programs and services, but it is not one of the most aged buildings we have. It does require a midterm retrofit. It’s about 25 years old, but the Norman Wells facility is 40 years plus. The Hay River facility that we are working on right now, I believe it was built in 1966, plus the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I’ve indicated in the House previously, we anticipate that it will take at least two years to finish the Master Development Plan for Stanton.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, later today I will table the Youth Smoking in the NWT: Descriptive Summary for Smoking Behaviour Among Grades 5 to 9 Students report. This is a summary of findings from the NWT School Tobacco Survey, The first survey was conducted in 1982 and is carried out every four to five years. The purpose of the report is to monitor youth smoking behaviour and related issues.

Mr. Speaker, Youth Smoking in the NWT: Descriptive Summary for Smoking Behaviour Among Grades 5 to 9 Students reflects Health and Social Services ongoing efforts to curb smoking initiation rates...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I might be repeating s some of the things that have already been said, but I feel it’s important that I add my voice to this important debate.

Mr. Speaker, I feel it’s really important for us all to concentrate and be very clear about what this is all about. We are talking about extraordinary measures taken to respond to an extraordinary emergency situation we are faced with. It is important that all leaders in and out of this House understand clearly and act responsibly about the decisions we are making on this issue and how we inform our public about this...

Mr. Speaker, perhaps one day we can have a big debate on that.

Mr. Speaker, wellness includes a lot of things. It includes healthy eating, healthy lifestyle. Our program does not… Canada Health Act, for example, does not support alternative medication, herb medication, acupuncture. I think there are a whole slew of things that our people would like us to cover, because definitely it would include their wellness, also probably their medical condition. The fact is, weight loss reduction services are not part of our Canadian health insurance system. It is not covered anywhere or in any part of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The department is responsible for two areas in this regard. One is family violence shelters, which is not necessarily a homelessness shelter but that might be the area in which you have seen some increase in funding as a part of our Strategic Initiatives committee and that money funds family violence shelters in Yellowknife, Hay River, Tuktoyaktuk, Inuvik.

The homelessness programs in the department, we have three. We have two under homelessness. One is Homelessness Assistance Fund and small community homeless fund. Small community homeless fund, we have about $200,000...