Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to recognize a couple of constituents of mine, Elizabeth Anne Mackay from Fort Resolution and her daughter Karen Lafferty from Hay River. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 21, An Act to Amend the Dental Profession Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we are prepared to look at the requirements of handling uninspected wild fish and game. This is really the key issue, is how traditional food is brought into these residences for long-term care, hospital or any residential type of facility where there is a requirement to serve food. We have to discuss an effective and consistent way of getting uninspected wild fish and game into those places as part of the menu. Thank you.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Our environmental health unit has, in the past, worked with the various institutions that are run by Health and Social Services or the authorities to try to get traditional foods into these homes. In addition to that, recently the Member has brought to our attention that perhaps we should start looking at institutions that are under our authority that already are providing traditional foods on a regular basis and start working with them to see if they can expand the traditional food by delivering it to other institutions in town where traditional foods are not usually...

Mr. Speaker, this Assembly is committed to a goal of healthy, educated people free from poverty. Improving the health status of the Aboriginal population in the Northwest Territories is one way the Department of Health and Social Services is accomplishing that goal.

Clearly, if we want to make meaningful change, we have to focus our efforts on the areas of greatest need. We must stop designing “one size fits all” solutions and start listening to communities about what will work.

Aboriginal people in the Northwest Territories are suffering from an increased burden of chronic diseases and the...

Mr. Speaker, the Food Establishment Safety Regulations under the Public Health Act lay out what we can do legally when we provide traditional food into the long-term care centres or the hospitals. One way that we are thinking about getting around that specific issue is that because fish and game can be donated by individuals that have a general hunting licence or individuals that have the right to hunt and donate food. A lot of that has been done at the Vital Abel where they are serving traditional food, and the Member talks about how we would be able to work with the Vital Abel to provide...

Like I had indicated, we are now reaching out to the organizations. Immediately after my conversation with the Member, I had asked the department to talk to the two organizations that he is referring to. We have done that. All we need to do is find the various ways within our policies on traditional foods, the various ways we can legally provide traditional foods in that type of institution. Thank you.

Thank you. That is the ultimate way to go. We recognize that the doctors will be living in the communities where they’re serving, so that continues to be our push. When I talked to all of the Joint Senior Management Committee a couple of weeks ago, I did talk only about trying to get doctors into a community. The new CEO that will be coming on is very versed in bringing in and talking to doctors and trying to hire doctors and so on. We also have a support system in Health and Social Services that will help the communities and CEOs recruit doctors for their communities. That continues to be the...

From our perspective, if the other dentists wish to practise in the NWT that would provide more services. We’re short dentists, as we hear in the Legislative Assembly frequently, so we would welcome other dentists to come in and practise.

No, it’s not essential that we wait for the health centre to be completed in order to have some sort of board structure. The public administrator and I did discuss that possibility. He recommended that we start off by maybe asking a couple of people from Hay River on the recommendation of maybe even the municipality, the MLAs or even the Aboriginal organizations’ area to appoint people that he could start working with and having some discussions. That’s something that we are currently contemplating. I’ve had my first discussion on that type of structure, I would say, about two months ago with...