Mr. Chair, I'm here as the Minister of health to discuss this Private Member's Bill, Bill 80, the Dental Hygienist Profession Statute Amendment Act. I would like to thank the Member for Kam Lake and the Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes for their efforts to advance a modern regulatory framework for dental hygienists. I'd also like to thank the Members of the Standing Committee on Social Development for the time they have taken to hear the department's concerns with the approach taken to this bill, and specifically the time it will take to create new profession-specific regulations for dental hygienists under the umbrella Health and Social Services Professions Act.

The department recognizes that there is a significant gap in the provision of preventative dental services in our communities and agrees that expanding the scope of dental hygienists is one potential solution. We also acknowledge that the current regulatory framework for dental hygienists is outdated and unnecessarily restricts their scope of practice.

Mr. Chair, this bill will not fix this problem. Dental services are not part of the NWT health plan. In small Indigenous communities, dental services are funded by the non-insured health benefits program, which is, in turn, funded by Indigenous Services Canada. The fact is the federal government isn't allocating enough money to attract providers to travel to the small communities to offer services.

All the dental contracts we had expired on March 31st, 2023. And prior to that, we advertised for new regionally-based contracts. What we got out of that was two regions did not receive any bids. Two regions received a single bid however both proposals were noncompliant.

The department and myself, in particular, have been advocating for changes to the requirements of working with Indigenous Services Canada to determine next steps. But until the contracts are awarded, if and when, access to dental services outside of the home community is being assessed by Indigenous Services Canada on a case-by-case basis. We need our partners at the federal government to come to the table to understand the challenges that are preventing the delivery of these services. This includes reviewing rates offered to providers for services and working to improve communications on how residents who qualify can access services while they are not available in their home communities.

We agree that the regulatory framework for dental hygienists should be prioritized for modernization. However, we remain concerned about the legislated timing for completing the new profession specific regulations for dental hygienists. Pharmacists and midwives have both applied earlier than this bill arrived to be regulated, and those -- we are prioritizing those.

There are risks to missing the legislated deadline. If that were to happen, dental hygienists would not be regulated and without regulation, they probably could not obtain insurance. The department would prefer more time in order to manage this risk and looks forward to working with the NWT dental hygienists to update their practice. Thank you.