Sandy Lee

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Listening to her questions as well as the Member’s statement, I want to say first off that we do provide multi-year funding to organizations. We review them on a case-by-case basis. So I want to state that to start with.

There are two issues the Member is raising. One is there are some specific situations here that happened with respect to this organization whereby they asked to make adjustments specifically, and I would like to look into that and I can commit to look into those details and see how we could accommodate. Secondly, I will undertake also to see if we could...

Mr. Speaker, I need to first get the information. I am not sure if I will be talking to the Minister on a specific situation like that, but I would be happy to inquire on the basis of facts to get the answer for that specific situation and, in terms of a process, where could a person go to inquire when something like that happens.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, this is a federal program administered by the federal government, but I would be happy to just sit down with him and get the details and inquire on his behalf. Thank you.

I would need to look into that specifically, but I am aware, in visiting a lot of schools in our communities, that they do serve these programs and we have lots of food programs in the communities. The information from Education, Culture and Employment is that under NWT funded programs we have spent almost $600,000 and that under federally funded, with resources managed by GNWT programs, we have provided funding to almost every region to help with Healthy Food for Learning, Drop the Pop, Health Promotion Fund, Together for Healthy Living, Breakfast for Learning. There are lots of programs that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member knows that it’s the Department of Education, Culture and Employment that has programming for providing support for food in schools. Education, Culture and Employment has extensive school nutrition programs.