Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today’s Member’s statement will be about the happiness that I am having with a lot of my friends who are expecting children. However, the difficulty is they are having to travel to Yellowknife or southern destinations, Grande Prairie, Edmonton, to have these children, because in Hay River we cannot deliver babies.
My question today will be to the Minister of Health. Now that the Midwifery Program has been completed, I am looking to know when we can see the implementation of these recommendations to put the delivery of children closer to home. The Midwifery Program review indicated that there is a cost savings to allowing these ladies to have their children closer to home and in the regional centres. There is also a benefit to the families and the young children that are being born to be closer to home.
As I have indicated to the Members here earlier a couple of months ago, we had the joy in Hay River of actually accidentally delivering a baby in Hay River. It gave great joy to myself and several friends and family that were able to be close to the family when they are right in Hay River. As well, the staff at the hospital were happy to see a newborn baby, like I indicated in my Member’s statement a couple of months ago. They could see the start of life as opposed to always having to see the dark side in the illness in the hospital.
I look forward to hearing from the Minister on the implementation of midwifery. I do believe that we need to get the names of Hay River, Fort Smith, Inuvik, Norman Wells, Fort Simpson back on the birth certificates of residents and to our future voters of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.