Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here to express my support for this bill. It is a very good companion to one that, I believe, was passed in the previous Assembly, which gave people far more certainty and authority over their fiscal and financial affairs. This one, as I look at it, is a companion. It says, here is how I would like my living conditions to be organized.
One of the bits of testimony or comment that we heard that I found very useful on this, Mr. Chairman, was in Fort Smith. A nurse came to appear before our committee, and she related to us some of her experiences as a nurse dealing with people who are in the last days of their life, and the great anxiety and confusion, sometimes, and conflict that occasionally happened, especially with patients of different cultures who may have language difficulties, on top of cultural differences in a western or modern clinical hospital situation. The impression that I got from listening to the nurse was that if the ability that people will have through this bill is well communicated, and if it is simply and effectively implemented, then I think we will be doing a considerable service to people who can then have the kind of certainty, and the kind of treatment and care, and the dignity that is important to them and their families, even when they go into these clinic or hospital situations.
I was a bit surprised to find, Mr. Chairman, that even now if I were to sit down and write out what I wanted to happen to me in this kind of event, the medical practitioners or the legal people would not necessarily have to follow it. They would have an option of making a choice for me, or perhaps my family members or somebody else who would assume authority, would make those decisions for me. This act will set it out absolutely clearly, that my wishes are the ones to be followed. That is a very positive and welcome thing.
There are two aspects of this that I wanted to bring to the floor and ask the Minister about. One was an inter-jurisdictional area, where we prepare the certain document to conform to NWT standards or protocols. Most other provinces already have this kind of thing. Will we recognize, or do we recognize, their personal directives acts or whatever they may call them?
Mr. Chairman, would our personal directive that somebody created on an NWT form be recognized in another part of Canada? Do we have some inter-boundary connection here, Mr. Chairman?