Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to update the House that the transition in the elders program for Aklavik is going well. We have hired an extra home support worker who will begin on April 1st. We are in the process of going through the competition process for the third home care worker. This will triple the coverage of home care workers for elders in Aklavik. We plan on extending hours of home care support to include weekends and evenings. We will continue to deliver an elders day program out of Joe Greenland Centre.

Mr. Speaker, I can also advise you that there was a public meeting held...

Thank you. I can tell you right now he’s not going to like this answer, but perhaps he might understand if I tell him that I can’t necessarily write to everybody who writes to my office. There are some people who write to my office that has to do with operational and administrative issues. When it has to do with the regulating practice, often on many issues I write personally to all the MLAs that write to me, I respond to constituents, but there are issues where it’s operational and it is within my responsibility to assign staff to meet with them. So in this situation I assigned the staff to...

Mr. Speaker, I don’t have a problem meeting with anybody who wants to meet with me, but I want to assure the public and the Members here that we respond to inquiries that we get from the public and this specific issue in question, we have responded. I have asked staff to meet to explain what the rules are and what the government has in place in terms of the work that we are doing to regulate some of the professions. We have been open and communicating. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I am open to continuing to have meetings. We are working with the staff that are affected with HR. We are working on recruiting and training the new staff so that we could have a transition. We will have a continued dialogue with the community. We want to continue to work with the elders and leadership of the community because we want this to work, and the only way it is going to work is to have support from the communities. Also, we continue to work with the two residents that are in the centre. We talked to the families and listened to their input about what they would like to...

Mr. Speaker, we see that by changing the use of the Joe Greenland Centre we will be able to increase the assisted living space there in partnership with the Housing Corporation. We are going to be going from eight to 15 beds in that facility. We are aware that there are elders and persons with disabilities who are on a wait list to move into the Joe Greenland Centre. From the Department of Health and Social Services’ perspective, our expanded coverage of home care will be able to provide better service at the Joe Greenland Centre for the existing residents as well as the new residents that...

Mr. Speaker, I don’t know exactly what he is asking. Mr. Speaker, with respect to the naturopath issue, I received correspondence last fall. I asked the staff to meet with the person so that we could explain what the situation is with naturopath practice. Also, there was a concern that there might be a misuse of the word “doctor,” given that our Medical Profession Act states that it prohibits use of that word where there might be some misunderstanding that some people may be practicing medicine. I am just saying this because that is what the Medical Profession Act says.

There were meetings held...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I said that yesterday, and today I say it again, that we are reviewing the possibility of including that.

I believe I did a very good job in explaining that yesterday, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference to the Member. I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again, there’s nothing absolutely that stops a naturopath or other therapist and professions from practicing in the Northwest Territories. They are absolutely welcome and able to practice. Thank you.

Absolutely nothing, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One hundred years ago women were chattels with no privileges or rights as those enjoyed by men, yet women felt the full brunt of the punishment of law. One hundred years ago women did not have the right to vote, as women were not considered responsible enough to have a say in how Canada was governed. One hundred years ago women were not considered persons under the law.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, Mr. Speaker. March 8th is a global day of celebrations connecting all women around the world to honour women’s advancement, while reminding...