Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are willing to consider alternative therapies that may be brought forward by health boards. There are issues around licensing. We have an obligation to also protect constituents in the North, ensuring that people who do provide services are well qualified to do so.

As far as expanding the types of services we would insure under the medical insurance program, this would require some research and consideration. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister made reference to training initiatives to introduce more nurse practitioners in our stable of medical caregivers. In some areas, as I referenced in my statement, other jurisdictions are offering added tuition to help develop their own workforce in this area. I am wondering whether this government has looked at, or is able to offer extended tuition in the especially demanding field of medical care giving? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect to tuitions, under the student financial assistance, which does not fall under my department, there is assistance to Northerners who would like to receive training in post-secondary institutions for careers in the medical and social field. We also have quite a long list of educational support programs over and above student financial assistance which would encourage, again, our own northern workers to expand their education. These would include things such as education leave, a professional development fund, a northern development fund and there are also medical bursaries, specifically targeted for medical students. So, there are a number of programs that can be accessed by Northerners. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

Order, please. I am just going to remind the Members that the question period is to get an answer to a question and preamble is to be minimized. You must respect the time we have for question period, Mr. Nitah, so a reasonable amount of preamble and a short question.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The question is directed to the honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of child care is certainly an important one and we know that from time to time there are difficulties being faced by day care centres throughout the Northwest Territories for financial reasons. In many cases, the day cares are supported community-wise or by organizations that are established. The government, on its part, has several programs in place. One is the Early Childhood Program which provides start-up and operating and maintenance funding. It is about $800,000 a year for that, and it is allocated, I believe, on a first come, first serve basis throughout the Territory.

We have, as well, the Healthy Children's Initiative of $1.8 million, Mr. Speaker, that is provided and, again, it is applied for by communities on the basis of their particular programs. Joint decisions on that are made in concert with Education, Culture and Employment, Health and Social Services in the regional area.

There are some programs in place, Mr. Speaker. I also want to remind the Member that we are working on an early childhood development plan for the North. All of these programs, of course, are very much money driven and the question becomes, can we access that money in some fashion or other? Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ootes. Supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Perhaps I could get clarification on the question. Was the question on capital funding for day care centres? Am I correct in that? Or is it single housing?

Thank you. I believe it was the first one, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. We do provide start-up funding, Mr. Speaker. We do not have a capital program to provide buildings in communities for day cares. That is just not in existence. The reason for that is the unavailability, at the moment, for capital funds. I do not think this government has ever set that. Previous governments never addressed this in that fashion. How they addressed it was to provide the funding for start-ups and ongoing operations, through the programs I mentioned earlier. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ootes. Supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of the day care programs that are operated are done so in concert with local people, the initiative of the local people, simply because of the lack of capital funding and operating funding. We are working on the Early Childhood Development Program but I cannot assure the Member that there is going to be adequate money in this government to address a building program for day cares. Not that we would not want to, but we do have to be realistic at the moment because I have pressures on ensuring we build schools and so forth. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ootes. Your final supplementary, Mr. Nitah.