MR. SPEAKER:
Further petitions?
The hon. the Leader of the
Opposition.
MS JONES:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I stand to present a petition
today on behalf of women in the Province who are calling
upon the government to reduce the age for breast
screening in Newfoundland and Labrador from age fifty to
age forty.
WHEREAS
breast cancer is the most common cancer among
Newfoundland and Labrador women, excluding non-melanoma
skin cancer, with approximately 370 women to be
diagnosed with breast cancer in Newfoundland and
Labrador this year; and
WHEREAS
we have one of the highest mortality rates from breast
cancer and breast cancer in young women tends to be more
aggressive; and
WHEREAS
the benchmark for Newfoundland and Labrador’s organized
breast screening program is age fifty; and
WHEREAS
women aged forty to forty-nine are not eligible to
participate in Newfoundland and Labrador’s organized
breast screening program, while women aged forty to
forty-nine are eligible in the provinces of British
Columbia, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island,
Northwest Territories, and the Yukon; and
WHEREAS
there is empirical evidence that routine mammography
screening of women in their forties can reduce mortality
from breast cancer by at least 24 per cent, but
Newfoundland and Labrador still does not allow women in
that age group to self refer into their breast screening
program;
WHEREUPON
the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call
upon the House of Assembly to urge government to allow
women aged forty to forty-nine to be eligible for breast
screening to begin at age forty and that all women be
able to self refer through Newfoundland and Labrador’s
screening programs.
Mr. Speaker, this is a really
important issue and it is an issue that has been
debated, discussed and researched across Canada for the
last number of years. In fact, Mr. Speaker, on a regular
basis more and more provinces in the country are falling
in-line with the new benchmarks for breast screening.
The latest has been the Province of Ontario, which
announced just in the last couple of weeks that they
would indeed reduce the age of breast screening in their
Province from age fifty to age thirty. They are even
taking it a step further.
Mr. Speaker, all of the reports
that I have read, and one of the latest reports was
published this past fall and it was published by a
renowned scientist out of the Toronto General Hospital
by the name of Dr. Yaffe. Dr. Yaffe specifically studied
breast screening and what reducing the mortality rates
of women who were screened early right across Canada,
and made specific recommendations to the Ontario
government.
Mr. Speaker, this is a critical
issue. This year, in our Province more than 370 women
will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Mr. Speaker, we
still have one of the highest mortality rates due to
breast cancer of any other province in the country. It
is unfair that the government not consider this openly,
they not look at what is being done in all of the other
jurisdictions of Canada and do, Mr. Speaker, what is in
the best interest of women in this particular Province.
Right now, the best interest of
women is to ensure that they have access to breast
screening. No woman, Mr. Speaker, should have to go to a
doctor and be turned away because there is no history of
breast cancer in their family, or because they did not
find something. It should be an option, it should be
part of our self-health program and this is what the
women in this Province are asking the government to do
at this time.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
