Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, each profession can speak about the importance of their legislative requirements and regulations on how important they may or may not be over, certainly, other ones, but I can assure you that there is a concern about health and safety. If one can only imagine that if they’re laying on a chiropractor’s table and someone’s twisting their neck, what type of rules, education and authority have they played to ensure that they’re safe at that particular time.

Mr. Speaker, the point I’m getting at is there’s a health and safety issue on both issues, massage as well as chiropractic, that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I want to thank the Minister for that answer. That’s the type of answer they’re certainly looking for, is that the WSCC will listen and certainly evaluate, if not consider their response.

The other problem with changes to the regulations is the reality that changes mean money. One of the big fears is the cost of any of these potential regulations that will be happening. May I remind this House, and the Minister knows this, that there are almost 400 pages of regulations being updated. What is the WSCC doing to ensure that the administrative burden is not being ploughed down onto industry when...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Small and medium businesses are truly the breadbasket of our territorial economy. They are willing and able, and if I may say, resilient in their ways of finding just the right way of contributing to our North, whether it’s through their volunteerism or through their donations to the communities. But first and foremost, they are certainly one of the employers that are the building blocks of our North.

Mr. Speaker, outside of the government, without the small and medium businesses, our economy would be quite fledgling, and certainly the cost of living needs to be...

Mr. Speaker, although I enjoy question period to be disagreeable, which is my right, the reality is I think the Minister is incorrect on this particular occasion, because massage therapists, some of them do belong to national organizations, and I will say that’s correct, but they don’t have to be -- and certainly if you’re in the chiropractic industry you’re not obligated, to my knowledge -- associated with any public body or national body. If you said that they were self-regulating, there are only a couple of them, so, I mean, that’s really challenging.

Mr. Speaker, in light of that, what can...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Health and Social Services. At the start of the term I raised the issue of the lack of legislation regulations for massage therapy and still we have seen nothing to date, that I’m aware of. The reason I raise that is because recently someone had brought to my attention that there is no legislation or regulations set up for chiropractors in the services in the Northwest Territories. With some looking in the issue, I found that we do not have anything, although it’s considered a normal type of legislation throughout Canada.

Mr. Speaker...

I appreciate the Minister’s answer. As I’ve highlighted a few times in this House this term and certainly the last term, my concern about red tape and a red-tape bureaucracy, and B.C. has a red-tape Minister. If they bring in a new regulation, they have to take away two. The point being is they don’t want to continue burdening industry as well as the everyday person with more rules and unnecessary regulations.

The Minister had said this is a draft and I’ll accept his statement that it is a draft. My concern is the draft will roll into this is the way it will be before costing out these...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the WSCC regulations and the concerns that the regulations won’t take into consideration the feelings and worries of industry, both small and medium. As I highlighted continually, that small and medium industry certainly is our breadbasket in our economy and if we don’t do everything we can to keep them competitive, it makes it very challenging for them to keep up and running.

My question to the Minister is: I understand that the WSCC has extended its feedback deadline, which certainly has been received positively. However...

Again, sort of just to narrow it down a little further to help clarify the confusion out there, I’d like to highlight again my concern, because it does seem insulting to many of the parties that are involved here in a very offensive type of way that it is now out there and the public are running around. It’s an open negotiation and it really shouldn’t be.

The reality here is, it’s there and we have to sort of deal with it. The question really comes down to is a plain language document one of the options that the Premier could conceivably be working on when he says there’s things they could look...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to highlight on-line petitions in my Member’s statement.

I am very pleased that the Legislative Assembly will soon be accepting on-line petitions here. It’s a new form of democracy being created right before our eyes, and I intend to promote this option to all the residents of Yellowknife Centre as well as throughout the North to all our northern constituents. I certainly hope Northerners will consider using this site to submit their petitions and make sure their voice is heard in this Assembly.

I was in favour of this direction from the start of our...