Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to first start off by thanking all of the Members once again. This is something that was important to me as well as so many of the Members. I am honoured to have been able to carry this across the finish line on behalf of the Members.
We don’t have the ability to develop an online registry here in the Northwest Territories, but given that the majority of the individuals, or actually all of the individuals who will be donating tissues tend to go through Alberta, we’ve been working very closely with Alberta about joining into their online registry. Before the bill was even before the House, I did send the Minister in Alberta a letter outlining our desire to work together and be partners on this. The response back was in the positive that, yes, once we get ours up and running, we would be happy to work with you. They now have their online registry up and running. We’ve been working very closely with them to identify what our needs and expectations are as well as what their needs and expectations are. We have started moving forward to the point where we are actually at the point of costing it, figuring out what the cost will be so that we can move forward quickly in order to get that tool available to residents of the Northwest Territories. At the same time, we’re getting ready to go live with a bit of a marketing campaign to identify, once it’s up and running, what the program is, how you go about registering, how important it is for you to donate, recognizing that it is hard for some people to take that step and actually sign the
registry. We’re hoping, through dialogue and discussion and the types of things that are being brought up by Member Dolynny, Member Hawkins and yourself, as well as MLA Yakeleya, that individuals who start to show an interest and want to learn more about this and then go and get registered online.
So we are making good progress. I don’t have a date at this point in time. It depends on Alberta, but negotiations are going well. Like I said, we’re at a point where we’re getting down to the brass tacks and getting ready to figure out what the costs will be for us to be partners.