Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today the health Minister delivered a statement about care in small communities that included two recommendations that have been adopted by this working group that includes bringing paramedics into the model of care for small communities. The Northwest Territories is one of, I believe, only two jurisdictions in Canada where paramedics are unregulated. We don't have legislation covering paramedics. So how does she intend to do this without legislation to do so? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have a lot of health professionals that have worked in our healthcare system, and we are slowly regulating those health professionals. We are looking, as for instance, LPNs most currently were regulated under the nursing -- I think it's the CANN legislation that we passed last year. There is the Health Professions Act that we are, you know, working on to bring to the floor, and there are a number of different aspects under that that we are going to be bringing forward regulations under. We are currently trying to bring forward all of the staff that are currently regulated throughout Canada and, you know, there's jurisdictional scan. There's some areas that don't regulate certain things, some regulate things, so we're just trying to bring all of those forward. And, you know, I don't know where or what at this point where paramedics are, but we have had -- like, have had unregulated professions working in our system under policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the scope of practice of paramedics is unlikely to be changed without legislation to guide it. Is the department planning on bringing forward a legislative proposal or legislative changes that would bring paramedics into the Health Professions Act? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That would be part of this work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, one of the reasons I'm interested is I've been speaking with paramedics and they'd like to be regulated and they'd like to see an Act. So lest a Member bring it forward in the Private Member's bill, which probably isn't what the Minister wants to hear, when can we get assurances that there will be a bill in this House to review, to vote on, that will regulate paramedics and allow them to do the jobs that are so crucial for our communities, especially our small communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, and I think this is a -- this is why we're looking at how can we implement paramedics into the small communities because currently right now, you know, they work in larger regional centres and not necessarily -- what has happened is over the summer months, we do contract paramedics that are on standby to be deployed to the health centres if needed, an evacuation in a community. And so since we have them -- and usually summertime is when we have our reduced services -- they've been in the clinics doing triaging and helping the CHN, working alongside the CHN. I cannot commit to saying that that -- there's going to be legislation. You know, I'm looking at the legislation and the regs that we want to have to be able to work towards and implement in this government. The department is a small department to try and implement things. It's one thing to pass legislation and then it's to implement it, then it sits there. So what I would like to do is get the current legislative list through this House before the end of this government so that way we can have the implementation plan ready to go with them as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
