Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have been doing that. We have been bringing it to the federal Minister of DIAND's attention for many months now since the pipeline became a possibility. We will continue to do that and do everything that we can to make sure that the regulatory process is as streamlined as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the short term, the board relies very heavily on territorial and federal employees for expertise. In the short term, will the Minister ensure that his department make staff available and work with the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs to ensure that those staff are made available and not put it on to other projects? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, we have been doing that. Our staff work very closely with the Environmental Impact Review Board. They will continue to. They will participate in the meeting on November 21st that I referred to several days ago. Mind you, only as observers, as we do not have a formal role. We will continue to make our staff available to the best of our capacity. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Final supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we may not have a formal role, but the Minister has talked about the momentum that is building in this project. If we do not get some momentum building to make sure that this board is properly supported, the project could go nowhere.

One other area that I would like to ask the Minister to work on with the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs is with honorariums. Apparently, board members are paid $200 a day to chair and $275 per day for meetings. Mr. Speaker, the Inuvialuit Impact Review board pays twice as much. Will the Minister demand that DIAND increase the honorarium for people who work on this board?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly we are concerned that the board remain competitive and have as good a membership as any other board does. We will take that suggestion under advisement. Thank you.

Merci, Monsieur Handley. Item 6, oral questions. Mademoiselle Lee.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I did indicate that when we received the Child Welfare League review, I was very pleased with it and that it would serve as a very useful tool in determining the needs in the field in terms of child protection. I did table that document in the Assembly in June. Since then, the department has been working on an action plan to respond to the report's recommendations. Some of the current things that we are doing right now are workload analysis, developing a staffing strategy with the assistance of human resources and also looking at providing basic statutory training. So, yes, the Member is correct that personally I felt it was a very excellent report. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's personal opinion on it, but I wonder if the Minister could advise on her response as Minister. Mr. Speaker, I could advise you that I have met with one of the workers who has advised me that the workload in Yellowknife is becoming absolutely unbearable. I understand that they have about 180 cases in the City of Yellowknife alone, which amounts to the same number of cases that they have in Nunavut. Yellowknife is becoming a huge magnet community and because of the specialist services available and many other reasons, the workload is ending up in Yellowknife and the workers have expressed their frustration and their lack of ability to cater to the children in need and families in need. They are not able to do any counselling; all they can do is emergency intervention. Obviously, there is a need for direction here. I want to know if the Minister has any plan for that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department and the management of the Yellowknife board do recognize the seriousness of the concerns that are being expressed by the social workers and we do also recognize that there is quite a heavy workload there. We are taking steps to address the issue. There have been several meetings convened between the department, the Yellowknife board management and the social workers already. We would like the opportunity to implement some responses to those concerns and we look forward to doing that very shortly.

Thank you, Minister Groenewegen. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Mr. Speaker, I do not think I am hearing anything there in terms of any firm commitment for increasing the number of child welfare workers that will be in place. The report says we need as many as 22 new child welfare workers. I wonder if the Minister could advise as to whether or not she is thinking about increasing any number into the current resource pool. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, in response to the review, we are looking at various options. However, these are things that will be considered as part of the upcoming year's business plans and I would not be at liberty to expound with too much detail on what might be contained in that. As a temporary measure though, we are looking at bringing in a couple of extra social workers on a temporary basis and also one additional support staff person here in Yellowknife to help alleviate the problem in the short term. We are also asking one of the panel members that did the Child Welfare League review to come back here and take a specific look at the Yellowknife office to see what things might be done to, first of all, assess what might be some other contributing factors to the workload and then also to make some recommendations to us as to how we might solve the problem. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the steps that the Minister has taken thus far, but I wonder if the Minister could advise as to whether or not the report, in terms of responding to the report, where there has been anything found on whether there are some liability issues because of the fact that the child welfare workers have so much work that they are not able to do all the work that they are required to do, that they are only able to do the minimum required work. I wonder if there is any danger to not meeting up to the requirements under the law that they have to do to protect the children?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.