Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to introduce Bill 32, the Naturopathic Profession Statutes Amendment Act. The Legislative Assembly passed the Health and Social Services Profession Act to enable the Government of the Northwest Territories to regulate numerous different professions under one legislative framework and later amended the legislation to strengthen competency requirements for professionals.

Work has been under way to draft professional regulations to bring the Health and Social Services Profession Act into force. This includes regulations for three groups of professionals; the emergency medical service providers, naturopathic practitioners, and psychologists. We expect that the Health and Social Services Profession Act will come into force later this year with the regulation of EMS providers, followed by naturopathic practitioners, and both will be newly regulated professions in the Northwest Territories.

Some of the Members may recall that naturopathic practitioners were added to the list of professions to be regulated under the Health and Social Services Act in February of 2014. This decisions was supported by requests from MLAs, members of the profession, and by the 17^th Legislative Assembly Standing Committee on Social Programs. Regulating a profession helps ensure the safety of the public, as it establishes rules and requirements for how a profession must practise, train, and conduct themselves.

Since naturopathic practitioners are not currently regulated in the Northwest Territories, there are very few parameters for how the profession can practise. Once regulated, naturopathic practitioners would be subject to complaints and disciplines processes if a patient, a member of the public, another professional, or a complaints officer files a complaint.

Prior to bringing these regulations into force, consequential amendments must be made to the Medical Profession Act, the Pharmacy Act, and the Public Health Act. As regulations do not have the authority to amend or repeal an existing act, the department is putting forward this bill to address the consequential amendment required by the new Naturopathic Professions Regulations.

The proposed amendments will:

• allow persons who are entitled to practise under the naturopathic profession regulation to use the title of Doctor or the abbreviation "Dr." in accordance with the regulation;
• exclude naturopathic professionals from the Medical Professions Act;
• replace the term "naturopath" with the term "naturopathic doctor" in the definition of the personal services establishment under the Public Health Act; and
• allow pharmacists to accept a prescription issued by a naturopathic practitioner who is entitled to prescribe a drug.

The change to Bill 32 will not come into force until the regulations have been finalized and are ready to come into force.

This concludes my opening remarks, and I will be pleased to answer any questions that the Members may have. Thank you.