Thank you. I do not have the rule book in front of me but Members are reminded in their Members' statement, to address the statement to one item, not one community. Members' statement. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. Members' statements. Mr. Barnabas.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are some students who are here for a nursing training program and one of them is my constituent who is attending this nursing program. Mr. Speaker, some of these students have had to live off their own money in order to continue their training program and they have come across some problems. It has to do with lack of financial support. They have had to use their own money to buy food and pay for other expenses like child care. They have had some concerns regarding financial assistance.

One of them has approached me about her particular problem. Although they have requested more funding, they have been turned down. Using that as an example, Mr. Speaker, if a student has to pay for rent, they would have to pay over $300 in rent and it only leaves about $200 for food and other expenses. These are some of the problems that have been experienced by nursing students. At the appropriate time, Mr. Speaker, I will be asking the Minister of Education regarding this issue. I also would like to state that in support of the students, if they were to be assisted financially, they would have an easier time with their training program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (Translation ends)

Thank you. Members' statements. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to congratulate and applaud a local company who is doing their share to promote health in the north and that is Sutherland's Drugs, who stopped selling cigarettes earlier this fall. Mr. Speaker, Sutherland's felt that it was hypocritical for them to promote health as a drugstore and yet to be destroying health by selling cigarettes. The issue was why should they continue to sell cigarettes. Finally they decided that they should not. They decided they should be proactive.

Some of the factors they looked at in making this decision include that other drugstores have stopped selling them including Ring's Pharmacy in Hay River. Some provinces have actually instituted legislation against drugstores selling cigarettes. Also the mark up on cigarettes does not really cover the cost of selling them. In fact, they predict it will save them on their insurance costs because many break-ins today are by people in search of cheap cigarettes. Actually there is a local business that was just broken into for cigarettes and bars are often broken into for booze and cigarettes. Apparently, cigarettes are a hot item.

Mr. Speaker, the manager at Sutherland's Drugs has not noticed any direct detrimental effect because of the decision to stop selling cigarettes. In fact, they get a lot of positive comments and surprisingly most of the positive comments come from the people that used to buy cigarettes there. They claim they have not lost any customers from doing this and, in fact, it seems that people seem to shop there just as much as before, if not more often. Mr. Speaker, I would ask the Members here to join me in applauding Sutherland's Drugs for their move to stop selling cigarettes. Thank you.

--Applause

Members' statements. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on Monday Minister Dent announced an extra $2 million in training funds for health and social services workers in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Mr. Speaker, that was indeed a good announcement. With the training dollars announced the Minister indicated that the nursing access year would be operated in Nunavut and the NWT this January. This follows the suspension of the same program earlier when available NUHRDS funding was not in place and the participants had to quit the program after the first year. Mr. Speaker, with the many concerns heard and raised in this House about the nursing shortages and retention of same, indeed this extra $2 million will help us with the problems over our medical professionals with the ground work to train staff locally and retain such staff.

Mr. Speaker, later today I will ask the appropriate Minister, Mr. Dent, for some more information on Monday's announcement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Members' statements. Again, I want to correct my reminder to Mr. Krutko. under Members' statements it does say that you cannot exceed two and a half minutes but also you have confine yourself to one matter not one item. It does not say what the matters can be, so I do not think I should have said that it is not restricted to one community. I just wanted to correct myself. Item 4, returns to oral questions, Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return

to an oral question asked by Mr. Henry on November 4, 1998, in respect to agency nurses employment status.

On November 4, 1998 the Member asked the question regarding the employment arrangement for agency nurses.

Agency nurses are used across the Northwest Territories, generally to provide temporary relief services. They are not employees of the Government of the Northwest Territories.

When agency nurses are required, the board contacts an agency, which in turn supplies the required number of nurses. The board then signs a contract with the agency. It is the agency which is paid for the service. The nurse remains an employee of the agency at all times. Thank you.

Thank you. Returns to oral questions. Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you. Returns to oral questions. Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to an oral question asked by Mr. O'Brien on November 9, 1998, on behalf of the Honourable Jim Antoine, Minister of Public Works and Services.

The position of Regional Electrical Inspector in the Keewatin is not vacant. The employee in that position is on extended leave, and his return date is uncertain. In his absence the duties of the inspector are being covered from headquarters. A headquarters inspector is scheduled to be in Rankin Inlet and Arviat during the last week of November.

Public Works and Services has not received any complaints about the current handling of inspections. If the Member for Kivallivik is aware of any specific problems, I would be happy to look into them and take appropriate measures. Thank you.

Thank you. Returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have the pleasure today of recognizing three individuals in the gallery, all very busy people on the division file. Mr. Joe Kunuk is the Deputy Minister of the Executive for the Nunavut government, he is among other things the former mayor of Iqaluit and president of the Nunatsiaq Liberal Party. Mr. Rick Bargery is our Assistant Deputy Minister of Division, and also Mr. John Quirke is the Clerk designate for the Nunavut Legislative Assembly.

--Applause

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, oral questions Mr. Ootes.

The Premier, Mr. Morin.

Thank you. It is a pleasure to be back, Mr. Speaker. It is a reminder to remind them of the utmost importance of keeping secretive their duties, especially while they are dealing with peoples' financial stuff. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Ootes.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. They do have special training programs for this thing. Thank you.