Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The bill we have before us will modernize the practice of pharmacy in the Northwest Territories. It provides pharmacists with their scope and regulation of practice, and further clarifies the roles of doctors, pharmacists and nurses in issuing and...(inaudible)...prescriptions.

It also moves the drug schedules from legislation to regulation, which will allow the department the ability to add and de-list drugs from the schedules as required, and respond to emerging health care crises by temporarily moving drugs to a lower schedule in order to increase availability.

Following the committee's review, a motion was carried to report Bill 7, Pharmacy Act, as amended and reprinted, to the Assembly as ready for Committee of the Whole.

This concludes the committee's opening comments on Bill 7. Individual Members may have additional questions or comments as we proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. I'd now like to ask Minister Roland if he'd like to bring in witnesses.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. I will now ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses in.

Thank you. Minister Roland, I would now like to have you introduce your witnesses for the record.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, to my left is Ms. Janis Cooper, the legislative counsel for Justice; to my immediate right is the deputy minister of the Department of Health and Social Services, Mr. Chuck Parker; and further over is Ms. Gay Kennedy, director of policy, legislation and communications.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Welcome to our proceedings here this afternoon. We have general comments next. Anybody for general comments, committee? Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This has been an interesting, multi-faceted piece of legislation. It's been working its way through committee for some time now and I'm pleased to speak in favour of the bill, as a member of the standing committee. I guess in general comments, very general comments, a couple of things that the public, as consumers, may be interested in in relation to pharmacies and the business of dispensing drugs. One of the things that has been quite controversial for the last couple or three years, in Canada especially, is the industry established through Internet purchase and merchandising of prescription drugs. I was wondering whether this was something that the NWT considered in the context of the...Even though we have relatively few drug dispensing pharmacists here in the NWT, this is something that causes some concern or some interest in other parts of Canada. Was this addressed or how is this addressed in this bill, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Internet pharmacy issue that's been out there in Canada is something that this bill doesn't deal with particularly. It doesn't deal with that section of it. That more falls into the actual physicians' side of the equation and how they deal with that. So that part of it is not covered in this act. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Mr. Braden.

Okay. So then the bill does not either restrict or enable this kind of thing to happen. It's simply silent on this aspect of dispensing drugs, Mr. Chairman. It's silent.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The act itself, this Pharmacy Act doesn't cover, or I guess the term is "silent" on that. But there are some other categories or effects here that I guess would fall in the territory. Ms. Cooper may be able to address that.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Ms. Cooper.

Thank you, Ms. Cooper. Anything further, Mr. Braden?

I guess that's enough on Internet. I take it that it's not going anywhere.

Mr. Chairman, something that is always a consideration with a bill of this nature is that there's usually a large package of regulations also bolted onto it. The legislation, of course, is the platform. The detail is implemented through regulation. I wanted to ask the Minister if he could give us some sense of when we will see the regulations that affect this new legislation completed and when this new legislation could potentially come into effect, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as with most legislation that flows through this House, as the Member stated, the bill itself, the law that gets put in place follows with regulation being worked on. I understand that they're aiming for April, but Ms. Kennedy can provide more detail, as well, on that.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Ms. Kennedy.