Sandy Lee

Thank you. There are massage therapists and other professionals who are able and allowed to practice in the Northwest Territories and their credentials that they received from other jurisdictions are recognized here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are quite a few people in the gallery that I would like to recognize, with the House’s indulgence. We have the Wise Women Award recipient Ann Kasook and her husband, who sings beautifully. Her husband’s name is Charlie. I didn’t want to be wrong. Allison Dejong for the Sahtu; she has her mother with her in her honour. Sylvia Nadli from Deh Cho; Alizette Lockhart from South Slave; Lena Pedersen for North Slave/Tlicho. We also have the president of the Status of Women Council, Dolly Simon, and executive director of the Status of Women Council of the NWT, Lorraine...

Mr. Speaker, I repeat, we are reviewing the situation. I want to assure the profession that they are allowed to practice in the meantime with the licence they have, we are looking at that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Once again I need to state, the naturopathic practitioners are allowed to practice their fields as they are now. So there’s nothing that needs to be done to have them practice. They are allowed to practice that now. I have stated earlier that we are reviewing this. I want to say again that I just don’t want to load so many things onto this umbrella legislation that it doesn’t make it off the ground. It is really important that we regulate chiropractors, psychologists, licensed nurse practitioners, as well as emergency responders. Those professions have been at the front of the line and they...

The Member’s line of questioning in itself is questioning the competence and the quality of the people that are practicing. I want to say that those that are licensed to practice as a therapist and naturopathic practitioners and even acupuncturists, all those professions are allowed to practice in the Northwest Territories. They just cannot call themselves a doctor. That might give an idea to the public that they are practicing medical doctor medical practices. That’s clearly defined in our legislation.

Mr. Speaker, let me just say once again what I said to MLA Abernethy, which is that we are...

I think it’s important for the Members and the public to know that professions like massage therapist and naturopathic practitioners can continue to practice their fields. They do not need the legislation to practice those. As I stated, unregulated professions pose certain regulating challenges such as small professional numbers and significant licensing differences throughout Canada. It does require tremendous research to determine how best to accommodate these unique circumstances. We believe that, as a department, by finding a framework for the most challenging and complex professions, the...

Mr. Speaker, I think the Member is drawing a clear picture of the complexities involved in this. Our staff has met with the people that practice naturopathic medicine in the Territories. They were advised that they should continue to keep their licence in other jurisdictions, then they can continue to practice naturopath medicine here. They can continue to provide services to their clients. It is just that they cannot call themselves a doctor. In order to do that, we need to do some more work. We will continue to do that, but this will be something that would require more work and it is under...

Mr. Speaker, I need to caution the Member and anybody else who is discussing this naturopathic medicine, that we do not refer to anybody as a doctor. That is actually the issue in question, because under the NWT legislation, no one other than a doctor, physician or surgeon is allowed to call themselves a doctor. Naturopathic doctors are not recognized as doctors in the Territories and of they were to call themselves a doctor, that is illegal. That is an issue here. I need to let the Members know, and the public know, the naturopathic medicine, people can practice that right now without...

There’s nothing that we are doing or not doing that is stopping this profession from practicing. There is nothing that stops them from practicing. They are allowed to practice. They’re like physiotherapists, occupational therapists, massage therapists, acupuncturists, Chinese, Asian doctors or whatever. They can practice. I don’t mean Asian doctors, I mean Chinese medicine. So, Mr. Speaker, they are allowed to practice. We see the role of their profession and we’re just telling them it’s going to take time to bring them all on board, but in the meantime, Mr. Speaker, they’re absolutely welcome...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I absolutely see the role of naturopathic practitioners and they are allowed to practice as they are now under the licensure they have with other jurisdictions. There’s nothing absolutely stopping them from practicing their field. I want to tell the Member that I’ve no problem seeing them practicing here.

The issue here right now -- they don’t need to be regulated to practice -- is that they want to be called a doctor. Because there might be some confusion in that the people might feel that they’re medical doctors, that’s the only thing they’re not allowed to do...