Recommendation 15 is the motion that is on the floor, Mr. Chairman. I call for the question.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, front line workers have identified a lack of training as one of the greatest problems they face in performing their duties. Additional training should be provided through conferences, workshops, distance learning, in-service training by visiting specialists and greater information sharing between workers. These activities would benefit the community by increasing the skills of front line workers and reducing the reliance on fly-in specialists.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As part of our project, we did a survey of front line workers to ask them what they saw as the biggest concerns in doing their job. We heard, overwhelmingly, that a lack of training and training opportunities, was one of the problems they saw. Some of the areas in which people told us they thought they needed more training included dealing with family violence, child sexual abuse, substance abuse, suicide and family...(Microphone turned off).

There are an awful lot of challenges to people in the field. We are not only talking about the challenges faced by social services workers. We are talking about the challenges faced by all front line workers, including community health representatives and people in the health field. Community health representatives clearly told us that they felt they should have better training in public health awareness and better ability to help and train people to understand how to prevent illness.

Nurses told us they thought they could benefit from training in fields of some of the specialists that were travelling through. They wanted to see increased opportunities for in-service training during the tours of specialists.

As well, people in the alcohol and drug field often mentioned to us that they thought there was a need to improve their abilities to deal with the problems they face in their communities. All in all, people said they wanted to receive more training so they could do a better job of dealing with the problems they face with their clients in the communities.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are talking about all the specialists that Mr. Gargan just mentioned. For instance, people who work in mental health counselling wanted to be able to have some time to work with psychiatrists who come into the communities to try to upgrade their skills. People in the communities told us that psychiatrists, for instance, don't visit the communities enough. They don't see enough of the professionals.

In terms of health centres, yes, we are talking about when doctors visit. For instance, when an obstetrician or gynaecologist visits the community, the people in the health centres told us they wanted an opportunity to gain from the knowledge that these health specialists may have in those areas, where they may be better able to serve the people in the community, because the obstetricians and gynaecologists aren't there all the time.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In response to Mr. Gargan's first question about who did the survey, the survey was commissioned by the Special Committee on Health and Social Services and coordinated through the Science Institute of the Northwest Territories. It was set up under the supervision of the Science Institute. Telephone and mail-out surveys were done in different segments. That report, along with the methodology, has been tabled in the House, Mr. Chairman, so it is available for all Members to have a look at.

In relation to whether a psychiatrist has been to Providence, I can only hope that Mr. Gargan is right and the people of Fort Providence have no need of psychiatric services. I'm afraid I can not answer on behalf of the Department of Health as to why they have chosen one community over another to send people to. One of the things our committee has said is, people should be entitled to similar services all across the territories. I would hope that people across the Northwest Territories are being treated in a similar manner. I should say we hope that they will be. However, we know that they are not, because we were told that they are not throughout our consultation process.

In fact, a lot of communities told us that they have not seen the specialist that they should see, either. The bottom line is in our report we say that we do need to get more counselling opportunities and more professional help into the communities. That's one of the things that we have identified as a problem and hope to ask the government to address through the adoption of our report.

Mr. Chairman, the name of the document is, The Front Line Workers Survey. I will hand Mr. Gargan a copy of it right now.