Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the committee wishes to consider Bill 11, Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 2007, and Bill 12, Public Health Act. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Lafferty. We will deal with Bill 11 and Bill 12 after a short break. Does committee agree?

Good afternoon, committee. I would like to call Committee of the Whole to order. I am wondering, if committee agrees, can we go with Bill 12 before Bill 11? Is committee agreed to that?

Thank you. We will now turn our attention to Bill 12, Public Health Act. I would like to ask the Minister responsible, Mr. Roland, to introduce the bill, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to introduce Bill 12, Public Health Act. This bill will replace the out-of-date 1950's act and represents the culmination of several years of work by the Department of Health and Social Services.

In developing this bill, the department identified the following goals:

• • to ensure the chief public health officer has the independence to make decisions and act to protect the public's health, while having an adequate organizational support structure;
• • to provide updated and appropriate remedies and powers so that the chief public health officer can protect the public's health;
• • to ensure that public health emergency functions are appropriately linked to territorial emergency
• •
• • authorities and provincial and national public health authorities;
• • to support health promotion; and
• • to repeal the Disease Registries Act and incorporate its reporting and surveillance functions for communicable diseases and health conditions into the new Public Health Act.

The bill is based on standard modern public health legislation, taking into consideration other jurisdictions' most recent experiences with public health risks and adapted to suit the uniqueness of the NWT.

Under the bill, the chief public health officer directs a team of public health officials in the Department of Health and Social Services, as well as public health officials in each of the regional health and social service authorities. This ensures the public health office will have the administrative support it needs and that public health officials have sufficient latitude to act to protect public health.

The chief public health officer will have the appropriate and necessary powers to respond to common health hazards, dangerous communicable diseases and other health conditions and public health emergencies. The chief public health officer will also be able to monitor general public health, by tracking incident rates of such conditions as cancer.

The bill includes a section on drinking water sources and water supply systems, covering approvals, standards and requirements, protocols in case of health hazards and broad regulation-making powers.

That concludes my opening remarks and I'd be pleased to answer questions the Members may have. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much, Minister Roland. I'd now like to ask the chairperson responsible for the review of the bill, Ms. Lee, to provide committee's response. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Standing Committee on Social Programs, in association with the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight, conducted public hearings in Yellowknife on June 6 and 7, as well as on August 13, 2007, and in Behchoko, at an evening meeting on June 6, 2007. The committee then split into two committees to conduct public hearings in Fort Smith and Inuvik on June 11, 2007; Hay River and Tsiigehtchic on June 12, 2007; in Jean Marie River and Tulita on June 13, 2007; and in Fort Simpson and Gameti on June 14, 2007. The committee is grateful to all persons who took the time to make their views known to committee.

The Public Health Act is a rewrite of an act that is over 50 years old. It recognizes modern methods of dealing with public health issues and provides the Minister and the chief public health officer with the authority they need to respond to a public health crisis while respecting, as much as possible, the rights of the individual.

There were no specific concerns expressed on the content of the bill during any of the public hearings; however, during the northern swing, committee members heard concerns from Gordon Yakeleya, the mayor of Tulita, on the lack of readily available parts for the water intake pump and the potential impact on water quality in Tulita. Committee also heard concerns in the community of Tsiigehtchic on the suitability of the present water supply as beavers have been observed in their reservoir and some people are experiencing rashes after bathing in treated water. The office of the chief public health officer is encouraged to work with these communities and the other responsible GNWT departments to allay the community concerns with their water supply.

Mr. Chairman, this concludes the committee's remarks on Bill 12, the Public Health Act. Individual Members may have questions or comments as we proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much, Ms. Lee. I'd now like to ask the Minister responsible if he'd like to bring in witnesses. Mr. Roland.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Minister Roland. If you could please escort the witnesses in, Sergeant-at-Arms.

Thank you. Thank you, Minister Roland. I'd now like to ask you to please introduce your witnesses for the record. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, joining me at the table here, to my right is deputy minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Chuck Parker; further to my right is Dr. Andre Corriveau, at this point, chief medical health officer, Health and Social Services, but that title will change with the passing of this act. To my left is Janis Cooper, legislative counsel, Department of Justice. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland, and welcome to the proceedings this afternoon. We'll now move on to general comments on Bill 12. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Just briefly, I just want to say something that was not included in the chair's remarks, and I'm speaking as a Member, of course, but I think the briefness and conciseness of the chair's report and the Minister's report, I mean statement, does not, they do not speak to the weight and depth and breadth of this legislation. It's quite a substantial piece of legislation that has had many years of work by many, many people, not only in the department but in the medical profession and health care professions and I think that should be recognized. I think because of the fact that this was not a topic of discussion in many of the hearings that we've been to, that's why we don't have a lot of words here in statements, but I think it is a good piece of work and I think we should also give credit to the Member from Thebacha who was the Minister who, when this bill has been worked on from the beginning of this Assembly but also on this side of the floor, worked hard to make sure that this piece of legislation stayed on the legislative agenda for this Assembly. So I'd like to recognize that and I'd like to thank the new Minister of Health who made sure that that happened, too, and I think that's just important to mention that.

But I do have a question in light of my statement from the standing committee, Mr. Chairman. I'm wondering if we

should give the Minister a chance, or the chief public health officer a chance, to explain what actions they have taken with regards to the beavers being found in the reservoir because it is a serious issue from the health aspect.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the new act would change the way we've looked at things and clarify the roles and responsibilities of the department and the chief public health officer. At this point, I'll go to Dr. Corriveau to give some detail to that response. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Mr. Corriveau.

Merci, Dr. Corriveau. Next on the list I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, the bill itself, I applaud the people who were involved in terms of making this a more up-to-date bill and the health system. Mr. Chairman, the question I have is in terms of the concerns that we heard, the powers for the new positions that are going to be in this act here has to speak to a concern from one community we visited in the Sahtu, Tulita, in terms of water intake treatment plant and the quality of the water is not there and it's a funding issue in terms of the Health department somewhat has to bring the standards of quality of water into our communities. How much power does that position the department has to order the department, not so much the headquarters, sorry, the headquarters of that water treatment plant to get the parts? Because these parts in Tulita are from two different countries: one in England and one in the United States, the costs of those to run the budget for that hamlet. So are you going to starve the hamlet or are you going to put them in a bad position? Someone's going to be held liable. So how, in this new act, are these positions going to support the communities in terms of we want to bring the quality of the standards of water up to a certain standard? Do we have the means to back up our request? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, our role from the Department of Health and Social Services side and with this act stated in a number of circumstances we would be directly involved in the quality of the water after it comes out of the plant and delivered to homes. So the testing and that end would be done and we would make recommendations if we were to find substances that were not acceptable. In our case, within the government, we've formalized a working relationship with a number of other departments, Municipal and Community Affairs being one of them as well as the Department of Public Works and Services. From our aspect, when it comes to the water treatment plant of testing the quality of water once it goes through the facility, we also certify the training of staff that work in those facilities by setting regulations and training requirements. But for equipment, for design of a structure, the infrastructure of the water treatment plant itself, that would be dealt with in cooperation through MACA and Public Works. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Anything further, Mr. Yakeleya?

Thank you. I appreciate the Minister laying out the procedure. Again, it's a question of this new act coming into force if this existing infrastructure is in the communities that requires additional dollars to, once it comes out of the system and in order to improve...the testing fails and they want to improve the quality of water. The parts in some of these facilities are out of this world in terms of the funding in terms of the United Stated and England. So who's going to be left holding the bag at the end of the day? Is it going to be the community itself or the department? You look at those filters, Mr. Chairman, the cost at this plant, it just eats up their budget for one whole year, the maintenance of this. So I just wanted to ask the Minister, I know this is something that needs to be considered and how strong will this act ensure that support will be there for the hamlet and the communities to have good water coming out of the treatment plants? Someone's going to pay. Who is it? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the area of involvement, again with the new act, clarifies our roles and deals directly with the issue of water and water quality now instead of the way it was done before. We can, with the passage of this act, make orders in response to the water quality if it, in fact, fails. That would be made to the community and working with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs as to what needed to be remedied. As for the budget for equipment, that type of area, that would be a direct relationship with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Anything further, Mr. Yakeleya?

Thank you. It's an ongoing issue, so, Mr. Chairman, I'm not going to continue on with that

question. It's an ongoing issue and those other issues will come up. I want to say to the Minister in terms of the other issue of the beavers in the reservoir, I heard this also in Fort Good Hope, so I hope that the Minister, somehow with the powers that we're going to look at with this new act here, helps remediate some of these concerns with some of the smaller communities that have reservoirs and, you know, dust on them and a whole bunch of other issues that finally is getting some attention through this new act here. I want to let the Minister know that those beavers can...Tsiigehtchic and Fort Good Hope on this issue here. So I wanted to ask if he would also work diligently with the appropriate departments to look at this issue?

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as we've heard, quality of water is one that does come up from time to time in communities and the safety of that supply is something that we can get involved with once this act, it clarifies the process and the rules we all operate by. Ultimately, as we've heard from other sources as well, that the piped water, once it goes through the plant, is filtered and takes out contaminants and supplies a quality of water that is acceptable by national standards. If we find problems with that, we will issue orders around that area. I guess in one degree it's a bit ironic that though we hear from time to time that the best tea that you can have is one that's what we call bush tea from local people. You go out on the land and you make yourself some tea and you get the water from the lake, directly from the lake. Well, that lake has all kinds of creatures living in it but we still say that's the best quality, fresh run-off, river, streams and so on. It's when we have reservoirs and we see that becomes an issue because that water's seen as stagnant, collects dust and is not moving is one of the words that we've heard, but we do go through the filtering system, we do monitor the quality of that water that goes through and when we find problems, we'll issue orders to deal with that and we would deal with the appropriate departments to ensure that that quality of water is a quality that meets the standards that is consumable by people. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Next on the list for general comments I've got Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to thank the Minister for bringing this piece of legislation forward, but mostly I'd just like to recognize Mr. Parker and Dr. Corriveau and the Health and Social Services staff that are hopefully listening, recognize the accomplishments and the significant accomplishments that Health and Social Services have achieved in the last number of years in terms of legislation. I think they mapped out probably the most ambitious agenda of any department in government. By the dint of their hard work and perseverance, we've had, I think, groundbreaking legislation in tobacco and midwifery, we've updated the nursing legislation, nurse practitioners, Pharmacy Act, and the Public Health Act is the latest very complex piece that is long overdue to be done, and there are a couple more small ones coming. It's a credit to the people and staff of Health and Social Services and I just want to acknowledge that and recognize it. I don't think people think about it. So to those staff, I'd just like to recognize that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. I have nobody else on the list for general comments. Clause by clause. Is committee agreed to go clause by clause?

Thank you, committee. We'll start on page 6 of Bill 12, Public Health Act. Page 6, interpretation, clause 1.

Thank you. Page 9, clause 2.

Clause 3.

Part 1, administration and enforcement, clause 4.

Clause 5.

Page 10, clause 6.

Page 11, clause 7.

Page 11, clause 8.

Page 13, clause 9.

Page 14, clause 10.

Part 2, health protection, clause 11.

Page 16, clause 12.

Clause 13.

Page 17, clause 14.

Clause 15.

Clause 16.

Part 3, drinking water safety, clause 17. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just for clarification on this, more so on the intent, do we do any...What type of follow-up do we do with water testing and do we broadcast our testing results anywhere? So it sort of speaks to the section as a whole. I suspect community water testing gets sent into some facility like the Stanton Territorial Hospital, gets screened out and...Like, what do we do for public assurance, because the average person wouldn't know where their water quality sits. They just assume, unless there's a flag or a report on one of the media things, everything's good. So where does the average person get to find out their type of quality, how good their water is? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I guess a number of factors come in. Usually, when we make a public notice, it is in the opposite end, is boil water notices that would go out. However, we do put on the website our results of the water tests that have occurred, on the Stanton website as I am informed. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Is there anything further? No. Thank you, committee. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I want to ask the Minister and staff in terms of safe water drinking qualities. We have bottled water in our stores in our small communities. There has been some research and reports that our drinking water is actually safer than bottled water, but yet we seem to buy bottled water because of some security or some thought in our heads that it is safer and cleaner. Actually, some reports show just the opposite. We have really good, clean water in the Northwest Territories, Great Bear Lake, Great Slave Lake and several lakes around here. Are there any types of studies that show why people still buy bottled water in the stores while their water is just as good or better in their backyards in the communities? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it is fairly common now throughout the Northwest Territories. We see that in almost every community where individuals now go to their co-op store, their North Mart and other places, to get bottled water. It goes a lot to the pace, as I have heard individuals say. The fact of the matter is all of our water sources are tested and they meet the qualifications nationally to be used for human consumption. We meet the requirements. The bottled water sources out there are tap water in the majority of situations if you look at it, if you do the actual looking at it, that have run through one more filter system. There is not much more beyond that. I think it is difficult but it seems to be a growing trend to have individuals buy bottled water. It is much more expensive than you get out of the tap. We have heard people say they don't like the chlorine piece in it, but that is what makes it safe when you do it in the right measurements. It is difficult, but, in fact, as we do our testing, we can prove the water is safe for human consumption. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Is there anything further, Mr. Yakeleya?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is my last question to the Minister on this discussion here. It is something that we can continue to support. I know in our communities we have some really good water quality. The thought of the day that this bottled water is safer than tap water because it is bought in stores, it is wrapped nice and neatly. It shows a mountain and a little stream coming down. Why in the Northwest Territories and through the department that this new act can say very loud and clear that our water is one of the safest and cleanest waters in the world here? It is free. I want to bring that to the attention of the Minister on this issue here in terms of quality and safe drinking water in the Northwest Territories. Let's put safety back into our lakes and waters and not scare them to other issues where they have to go to the store and buy this bottled water. That is a comment, Mr. Chair. That is all I have to say.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya, for your comment. Next on the list I have Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have just a quick question about water fluoride. Is that an area that we would review or monitor in this particular not just act but section throughout this act? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The work we would do, and again our relationship in this act on how we would provide the testing that is required and the reporting of that is regulated in a number of ways. To give you the proper response, I should go to Dr. Corriveau.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Dr. Corriveau.

Merci, Dr. Corriveau. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Maybe it is not appropriate to ask the question because you say it is not involved, but to further pursue this, why isn't it involved in

the Public Health Act? One could see it as a toxic substance. Yes, it may help cavities, but it is also found in other areas to be quite toxic to people for their general health. Why wouldn't it have been considered for this act? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as we proceed and this bill gets passed and put into force, we will also have to do work around regulations of that. As Dr. Corriveau stated, we would be working with municipalities if they decided to use a product like fluoride. We would continue to be involved in that sense. But as we go the next step and look at regulations, those items can be looked at and incorporated. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Seeing how the good Minister keeps the door open on this topic, which means I can question his comment, then I would like to ask or get confidence from him by saying that they will include this as part of the review when those regulations are drawn up and we move forward on this issue. I just want to make sure that he gets the fullness of review, considering the importance of the subject it is to people's health. So if it doesn't fall into the bill per se, I can appreciate that and I will respect that. But I want to make sure it is put into the regulations at least through the least examined, under that process. That should be all I need if he says yes.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as we proceed with this and as we work with other departments involved in this along with ourselves, we will take a look at this as one of the areas. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Committee, we are on clause 17 on page 17. Clause 17.

Clause 18.

Page 18, Clause 19.

Clause 20. Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just had a quick question in regards to the public health warning. How soon will the chief public health officer get a warning from a community outside of the region that have bigger regions when there is a health warning to be imposed? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if I understand the question correctly, is how soon can an issue be put out there and how soon would it be dealt with. That would work in conjunction with our testing patterns as we found problems. Again, for more detail, we will go to Dr. Corriveau for more detail than I can provide. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Dr. Corriveau.

Merci, Dr. Corriveau. Anything further? Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess the only reason I was asking is just yesterday I received an advisory that Paulatuk was under advisory for boiling water. So I was just wondering. By the time they hear about that, I wonder if the chief health officer put the advisory out. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Dr. Corriveau.

Merci, Dr. Corriveau. Anything further? Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. We are on clause 20.

Clause 21.

Page 19, part 4, health surveillance and reportable diseases, clause 22.

Clause 23.

Clause 24.