Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as I indicated in response to the concerns brought forward during the general comments, it is an area in which we are actively established now. It is an ongoing issue with us in continuing to enhance that group for the monitoring, evaluation and review. We recognize it is going to be key to the success of our boards as well as ourselves in being able to deliver effective health and social services programs to our residents throughout the Northwest Territories. I would like to say right now that I am sure we will be capable of meeting that need. We are hoping to have learned from the experiences where we may have fallen short over the past year and are actively and aggressively addressing that issue. I think it is there now and it is just a matter of us being vigilant and continuing to monitor. I guess one important aspect of this, Mr. Chairman, is boards, as well, have a responsibility to recognize some of their deficiencies and recognize when they need assistance and not be afraid to ask. It has always been a fine line when we seem to be stepping on their toes or invading their territories.

In the past, there has been an outcry for empowerment and stay out of our business, know how to do things best in our regions and our communities. It is a fine line but I think a lot of that, Mr. Chairman, can be resolved through our partnership agreements that we are in the process of finalizing with our boards. I think it is safe to say they recognize, as a result of some of the problems that have developed with other boards, that it could happen to them. They certainly have been in situations, I think, where they have required assistance and may be even hesitant to ask. Maybe we have been hesitant to intervene as aggressively as we should but certainly that will not be the case in the future, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, primarily in providing support, as I indicated, and monitoring and evaluation of their operations; doing some of the broader policy and planning for the legislative requirements that are necessary and some of the broader human resources like the recruitment and retention work that we are doing in partnership with the professional organizations and the boards right now; developing the standards and programs we expect them to carry out as they deliver programs; providing, I think, some of the population health; the intelligence monitoring, protection of public health issues across the territories, the environmental health; doing some of the capital planning requirements I think to assist the boards, some of the financial management; quite frankly not only being the funders but analyzing if we are getting effective programs as a result of the funding we provide and just generally some of the broader support mechanisms. Another one that comes to mind is the telemedicine in assisting them to develop that system that can benefit all the boards, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will ask Mr. Ramsden to reply to this one. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, the department has been working in a fairly focused way for the past six to nine months on a document that we refer to as a statement of core services. We have had a series of discussions with the boards around that area and we are within weeks of actually putting the document to bed, so to speak. What it speaks to are the range of services that we believe must be offered to residents whenever there is a need identified in the region. It starts in broad areas of screening and searching for disease or ailment. It talks to areas of developmental screening so that you can look to identify the needs of your young population and plan programming around that. It looks to identifying needs appeals that either are developmentally delayed or suffering from communicable or non-communicable disease. It speaks to areas of intervention or treatment in each broad age range from

preconception through infants, children, youth, young adults and seniors. It speaks to the broad range of social service programming in terms of counselling and family support and fostering. It speaks to obligations around provision of medically necessary support from either community health nurses or physicians. It covers the broad range of health and social service needs of the population. Thank you.

Certainly, Mr. Chairman, if the Member wants it, we can provide a copy to all Members. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, what the department is doing now, perhaps how I would describe it is a broader and more current version of what we inherited at the time of transfer and had been updated in some respects. The medical services branch, passed on to the department at the time that we took over responsibility for the delivery system, had a far reaching set of program and clinical standards in place. We support board activities in those areas. There is and has always been some concern around certain areas, the appropriateness of those standards. There has always been debate around the ability to deliver against those standards. Clearly, there is structure in the system today that we use and, obviously, it needs updating. This is what we have been working toward. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, there is a broad range of activity. I suppose firstly, to clarify my comments, we talk about board training. I will speak to the staff of the boards as opposed to trustee development or trustee training. If I look, for instance, to the issue around nurses in terms of awareness or developed appreciation on child welfare matters, what we are trying to do is ensure there is a team in every community and they understand how it works together and how it can improve the way it works. There needs to be a sharing of the issues that each particular profession works with so that we know how the various professions can work together. I can assure Members that we are not trying to make social workers out of nurses and nurses out of social workers, there is a tremendous amount of professional training for each, but there is also a lot of work we can do to get a better appreciation between. If I use the example of the new family law legislation in place, there is almost a year's worth of training needed before we believe the various care givers and committee members will understand fully how they can contribute to supporting children and families. There is a significant effort there. We spend significant resources in areas of the ANSIP programming, nurse mentorship, supporting the nursing program, all trying to invest in having staff feel more comfortable and contribute more to the people they serve. It is an area of extensive activity that we both see a need for more in and that we have always been actively engaged in. Thank you.