Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, monitoring and reducing the rate of cancer among northerners is one of the department's many important responsibilities. I am happy to announce the department recently received international recognition for its work in one area of cancer monitoring. Along with the screening and health promotion programs, the NWT Cancer Registry is an important tool in our efforts to reduce the rate of cancer among northerners. The registry collects data on all cancer cases in the Northwest Territories. By analyzing this data, we can identify trends and patterns of cancer incidents in the NWT. This information lets us see where our efforts are succeeding and helps us predict where more work might be needed. As a result, we are able to target our programs and our resources more effectively.

Of course, for our efforts of cancer control to be effective, we need to be sure that the information we collect is accurate and complete. The North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, or NAACCR, is an international organization. It has established standards for measuring the quality, completeness and timeliness of data collected by cancer registries across North America.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services recently submitted data from the NWT Cancer Registry to NAACCR for a confidential evaluation. I am pleased to report that the information submitted by the department exceeded the highest standards set by NAACCR, indicating that the information in the NWT Cancer Registry is of uniformly high quality. At an award's luncheon held in Vancouver last month, the department was presented with a certificate recognizing our achievement of the NAACCR gold level certification status.