For the Member to say there’s no plan, that really speaks poorly to the people who are taking care of our medevac planes and travels everyday all over the Territories. We are involved and we are responsible and our staff does a very good job of moving patients around, bad weather notwithstanding. They have to accommodate that.

Mr. Speaker, I am not at all aware of the specific situation he’s talking about. I do not have the information on the situation where somebody waited for two hours. I don’t know how he can say there was no involvement by anybody, because I’ve not had a chance to look at that. If the Member wants to give me specific information that he has, I’d be happy to look into that.

In general, Mr. Speaker, I think we should be careful about making a general statement that makes it sound like we’re not in charge of taking care of our patients, because we really are. There are hundreds of people involved and we spend millions of dollars moving patients from place to place. Thank you.

I thank the Member for asking for an update because he is working with very outdated information. As the mayor from Edmonton, when he was visiting here, had told us in the briefing meeting we had with all the Members, the Premier of Alberta, which I have advised the Member many times, has set up a Health Quality Council of Alberta with a mandate to come up with a plan on how we deal with emergency medevac programs at the airport. The city of Edmonton, citizens of Edmonton have voted resoundingly to approve the plan to close that municipal airport. Members should know, and I tell them again, that that last runway is not going to close until there is a plan in place to deal with medical travel. This government, this department, my officials are part of that Quality Council review and we will have a plan before it’s closed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How is it possible? That’s the weather. People who move patients around all over the Territories work with our weather system. The health care professionals work very hard to make quick decisions and necessary decisions and medical decisions on an ongoing basis. It is possible for patients to be weathered out of somewhere. It happens in the Territories once in a while. I mean, that’s the weather. Surely I’m not responsible for weather.

As I stated, we are looking at it, we’re reviewing it and looking at the possibility of including it.

I did not say we would not do that. I said we are reviewing the possibility of adding that. This issue came up within the last couple of months and we are reviewing to see if we could add that extra profession. Let me say that lack of regulation does not preclude the practitioners from practicing. There’s nothing that precludes them from practicing.

The writing of legislation to regulate a profession is a lot more complex than we think. Regulating a profession for engineers and architects took 10 years. Regulating a profession for nurse practitioners and midwives took many, many, many years. You would have to ask a lawyer and other professionals to see why that is so complex, but it is not just something that you do lightly. It’s not as expeditious and easy as we would like.

As I said to Members yesterday, we are working on an umbrella legislation that would be called Health and Social Services Profession Legislation. The groups that we have been working on to regulate are licensed practical nurses -- which we have a lot more of in the Territories -- psychologists, emergency medical service providers, and chiropractors. Those have been in the works and I said it’s possible to add naturopathic practitioners, but we have these other professions that are practicing in more numerous numbers that we are trying to regulate and they remain our priority.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I said that yesterday, and today I say it again, that we are reviewing the possibility of including that.

The naturopathic practitioners were met with the staff from the department. The department advised them, they had a meeting together and they explained to them about their power and ability to practice here.

I repeat once again that they’re allowed to practice here. There’s nothing that stops them from practicing naturopathic profession here. They were encouraged to keep their credentials from other jurisdictions because that allows them to practice here. I’m not sure what the issue is. They are allowed to practice here. We encourage them to do their work.

I believe I did a very good job in explaining that yesterday, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference to the Member. I said it

yesterday and I’ll say it again, there’s nothing absolutely that stops a naturopath or other therapist and professions from practicing in the Northwest Territories. They are absolutely welcome and able to practice. Thank you.