Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we continue to consider the budget for the Health department today, I want to talk about a health-related issue.

The NWT has a number of chronic diseases which plague our territory. One of them is diabetes. The rates of diabetes in NWT residents are markedly higher than in the rest of Canada. More than one in four residents in the NWT lives with either diabetes or prediabetes. Prediabetes is a condition which, if left unchecked, puts you at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Statistics also indicate that, on the whole, NWT residents are overweight compared to the rest of Canada, and that statistic continues to increase.

Some of our residents recognize their overweight condition as obesity, and unsuccessfully struggle to overcome it. In Canada, about 2 percent of men and 4 percent of women are morbidly obese. Obesity-related death rates are at least on par with deaths related to smoking, and the World Health Organization links obesity to a doubled risk of premature death.

The only viable solution for some is bariatric surgery – gastric bypass, for instance – a procedure which is not an insured service for NWT residents. But we would be wise to reconsider that position. The drain on our health resources due to obesity and its associated health conditions is large. Diabetes is one such condition; hypertension, or high blood pressure, another; then there is cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea, liver disease, orthopedic problems and asthma. In the NWT the rates of diabetes and heart disease are particularly troubling, but studies have shown that 83 percent of patients are cured of their diabetes after bariatric surgery. A similar percentage of patients, 80 percent or more, are cured of other health conditions, as well, after surgery – hypertension, sleep apnea, asthma, liver disease and cardiovascular disease – and there is an 89 percent reduction in the death rate for the morbidly obese.

It may cost our health system a bit more for surgery in the beginning than just treating the systems of obesity, but in the long run our costs are significantly reduced and the quality of life for the patient very much improved.

Elsewhere in Canada, all provinces cover at least lap band surgery; some cover both lap band and gastric bypass surgeries. We would do well to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent approved