Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's about time. It's nice to see this legislation coming forward. It's something that a lot of us have been waiting to see for quite some time. Like Mr. Bell, right up front I would like to thank the Minister for responding to the concerns that were brought forward by many stakeholders about the designated sites issue.

This was a fairly significant point of concern among the people who presented to the committee. There was some concern because of the timing between the public hearings and when we were going to do the clause by clause with the Minister that there might be a problem getting this back into the House in time. The Minister was very proactive in ensuring he had Cabinet approval upfront to make sure he could agree to the necessary changes to the legislation and then made sure we could bring this legislation forward. I think that's an example of very cooperative work between committee and the Minister and I appreciate that and congratulate the Minister on that approach.

Mr. Chairman, the practice of midwifery is an ancient one and it's only been in the last half of the 20th Century that hospital births became the norm as opposed to home births with a midwife in attendance. All of the research so far indicates that the practice of midwifery is a safe one and one that provides a level of pre-and post-natal care that is not common with our current overloaded health system. Midwives are able to focus on a woman and her family throughout the pregnancy. In fact, we were told in presentations, that typically appointments can last up to an hour. We know that physicians can't dedicate that kind of individual time in our system right now.

Mr. Chairman, we spend an enormous amount of resources right now in the NWT trying to deal with the impacts of poor prenatal care, including Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. With the introduction of this legislation, hopefully we are going to be increasing the level of prenatal awareness and hopefully, again, lessening some of he harmful behaviours that lead to problems like that.

As Mr. Bell noted, this legislation allows women and their families more choice for the birth of their children and right now, too often, women in communities outside of the larger centres are required to go to the larger centre three or four weeks before their babies are due. So that often means they have to leave family, friends and support behind while they wait for their child to be born in Yellowknife.

For some women, coming to Yellowknife to have their babies is a desired thing, but for many other women, coming here is difficult. So, Mr. Chairman, it's good that this legislation will more often allow women to remain in their home communities and give birth to their children close to their loved ones.

Mr. Chairman, the NWT is the sixth jurisdiction in Canada to bring forward this type of legislation. For it to work, we have to ensure that there is support in place so that the practice of midwifery can flourish in the North. This includes ensuring that there is universal access to the service through the health care system. So the Ministry of Health will have to support doctors, nurses and midwives to work in cooperation to ensure the best care for their patients.

Mr. Chairman, I encourage the Minister to recruit and properly support midwives in the North and to work closely with health authorities to help them educate the public and professional groups about the role of midwives and their range of knowledge, skills and expertise. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.