Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Mr. Mark Aitken, director of legislation for Justice; Mr. Blaire Barbour, senior policy advisor for legislation for Health and Social Services; and, Dave Murray, the deputy minister of Health and Social Services.

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.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for his comments. This has been a very compressed process. I believe it's 10 months that we moved from ground zero to having a piece of legislation that is now before this House for consideration for third reading and it is long overdue. It's a fundamental piece. It's the foundation that will allow us to move birthing services to other communities and make it a service women can access closer to the communities that they live in. I would like to thank as well the committee and all the people who have worked to make this possible, and the officials who have worked extra hours to get this done It has been a mission for people like Leslie Paulette and Gisela Becker, two midwives. I know it will allow midwives who I know exist in Yellowknife, Inuvik, Fort Smith, Hay River and hopefully soon other communities to practice their profession in a regulated way that makes them part of our integrated service deliver system. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Like my colleagues on the standing committee, this was a bill that had an extraordinary characteristic to it of a groundswell of public and professional support that is a really rare thing. So it was quite a pleasure and a real learning experience for me to attend with the committee the public hearings and to hear from such a diverse public on this, Mr. Chairman. From the midwives in the NWT who are already practicing and who have been the passionate advocates for this to some of the physicians and the parents of people who have experienced midwife attendance, that includes a couple of grandfathers who are, at least on my list, some of the most passionate supporters of this service.

What I hope that I have, an expectation that I have, as midwives become established in our communities and people become families and mothers become more aware of the services and the advantages that we are going to see in subtle, but very significant ways, Mr. Chairman, I think there will be some changes in our communities and in our families. As my colleagues have already pointed out, it really almost seems atrocious that we insist that mothers leave their families for approximately a month to come to a larger centre to have their baby and then go back home. The joy and the care that surrounds the birth of a new child is denied, that immediate family in that community. This, over time, will help to restore that.

We haven't had this in our communities for 30 or 40 years. I think that's approximately the time frame of this kind of regime where mothers had to leave their communities. So I hope we are going to rediscover an attachment of significance of families being able to have their children in their homes with their own families. I think that will have significant benefits.

So if I have only one thing to leave in comment, Mr. Chairman, it would really be to echo the sentiments of Mr. Dent who said that we are anxious to see this implemented as soon as practicable and as soon as our systems can allow. This really is a significant and a positive piece of work. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As a grandfather, I would like to thank the Member for his comments. The bill is scheduled to come into force April 1, 2004. We already have some identified resources in the budget for this year. So we have made the initial investment and we intend to make this a living useful tool for us. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, from one grandfather to another, I would like to say to the Minister, I am glad to see this legislation has come forward. I was not on the standing committee that went around doing public consultations on this bill, but from everything that I gathered, there were some really good turnouts and a lot of support out there for this piece of legislation.

I know that if this will do anything to open up the doors to others being able to give birth in the community I represent anyway, it's been a service that's been lacking for awhile, and it's always been a concern of mine, the amount of money, the expense, the hardship for the families that have been caused by women having to travel here to Yellowknife, whether it's a single mother or a mother with two or three children and their husbands are working. It really disrupts a family to have the women come over here and be here for three weeks on end to say nothing of the cost involved. So I am really looking forward to this maybe being a piece of the puzzle that helps restore the birthing in Hay River. I just want to say to the Minister that I am glad that this is happening and I look forward to the services being offered in Hay River and that birthing does take place there again. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Those are all the comments I have.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to make a brief comment in support of this bill as well. I do believe that this will enable women and others trained in delivering babies to do this and facilitate some of the gaps in services in our communities -- close the gap, I should say. This will allow our people to go back to doing things that I am sure people have done for many years. I also come from a culture where it was the normal practice that grandmothers delivered babies and other family members who traditionally learned to do it, who are able to do it without any problem whatsoever. I think that this is a step in a positive direction. We are blazing trails in some ways because this is not done everywhere in Canada, but I do believe this is a step in the right direction.

I would just like to make a comment that given that this is something that we are introducing in a new way, we are introducing an old way of doing things in a new way, and there might be some gaps in training and support. So I think that it's really important that while we are passing this legislation allowing this practice to take place more formally that there are necessary resources and support provided for training and other medical attention that might be required in delivering babies by midwives and all of the regulations and standards that need to be in place.

So I think it's very important that the government and the department work very closely with those partners who will be providing this service and training other people to do it. In principle and in the spirit of this legislation, I support what this legislation is doing. I am glad to be part of this process. I just wanted to put on record a very short comment in support of this legislative action. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. I didn't hear any questions there. General comments. Mr. Krutko.

I would like to take this time to congratulate the Minister for accomplishing something he's been working on for quite some time and bringing it forward by implementing it through legislation. I feel it's important that we have such legislation, but I would like to ask the Minister some questions on the implementation of this scenario. It's good to pass legislation, and good legislation, but it's also important to be practical. We have to ask if this is available to all communities in the Northwest Territories and is this program going to be implemented over a period of time to ensure that communities have the capacity and human resources to offer midwifery services in all communities in the Northwest Territories. Does the Minister have a strategic plan in place of how this will be implemented in all communities in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this is a process of capacity building. The key building block is this legislation. We have made an investment with two midwifery positions, one in Hay River and one in Smith. I know that there are also midwife/nurses in Yellowknife and some in Inuvik. The intent is to give the authorities the legislative base and, through the business planning process, the capacity to start moving out birthing services to the regions and to the communities as they are ready and as they can meet the standards. As has been indicated by the Members, there is a wide range of service provided by midwives, prenatal and post-natal as well as actual birthing services. So, Mr. Chairman, yes, the intent is in the coming months and years to have this service more and more available to more and more communities. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's good to say your goal is to see it in more and more communities. My question was do you have a plan to implement this program in all communities in the Northwest Territories? Yes or no?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there is a plan to move birthing services to the communities. Do I have the plan that's going to say when it will be in each individual community? No, I don't. Mr. Chairman, the authorities will play a large role in looking at the resources we have. What we are doing with this exercise is giving them the legislative capacity to engage in that development of services? It is going to happen. We have committed some significant resources already and the authorities are all committed to this process as are the people in this Legislature. Thank you.