Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. The government announced, some time ago, that they were going to put some money into a program for the recruitment and retention of health care practitioners in the Northwest Territories. I was wondering if the Minister could update the House on how these efforts are proceeding. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we, along with partners in the area of Health and Social Services, the boards, the Nursing Association, FMBS, and the union have been working on trying to develop a suitable plan for the amount of money that was forwarded to us by this government in the area of recruitment and retention. We are at the point where all the parties have gone back to their principles to see if the plan they have worked out on distributing or how to come up with a suitable allocation of the $3 million over two years. I believe it is going very well. I have been told that the meetings have been very positive.

In fact, we have gone on to do a number of other things in the area of retention and recruitment, and that is to allow for nurses and social workers that area coming out of their, for example, the nursing program out of Yellowknife, to be able to do their practicum in the smaller communities. That has been working very positively. We have also a northern development program that has made good progress this summer in career promotion in trying to encourage high school students to take up working areas in nursing and social work. I think we have done quite well there, and hopefully in the very near future, we will be able to share the news with what plan we have come up with the $3 million over the two years that was given to this department by yourself. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, is the Minister aware of whether or not the situation with the staff of positions for health care workers has deteriorated any since this program was put in place? Are things remaining basically status quo, or are we continuing to lose health care workers to other jurisdictions? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that, in fact, we have been losing our professional people to other jurisdictions. Although the program we have started will show promising results, I believe it will take time in trying to deal with that now and the shortages we are facing has been very critical in some areas. I am sure you have been aware and heard the news of a number of communities going on emergency services only until they can come back up to being fully staffed. We are hoping, in the near future, that will happen in the communities that have announced their service reductions. We are working with the health boards to make sure that services are provided to residents as they are required. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker,

the Minister has mentioned that there has been an effort to encourage northern students to take up careers in the health care areas. He specifically referred to the nursing program. Would it be too soon to be able to find out whether or not the enrolment in the existing programs for training nurses has increased for this coming season? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not have that information available to me right now, but I will endeavour to get that from the department and pass it on to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for bringing this back to my attention. At this point in time, I am unable to supply the information to the Member. I am going to have to take the question as notice and get back to the Member with the information. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time today, I will be introducing a supplementary bill which will address some proposed changes to the budget for that project. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.