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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are working, as part of a group led by the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, to deal with the oil and gas developments in the Mackenzie Valley. There are a number of thrusts underway. We are part of the Human Resource Development Strategy and we have developed an extensive program and outlined the potential jobs that will be there. We have outlined what the requirements are and I believe that will address some of the concerns that the Member is speaking of with regard to the need to bring our population into a position and position them to take advantage of the potential jobs that are going to be there down the line.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister give me a general idea of when will he have something in place, for the House and for the people in my riding, knowing that there is a program that is going to be in place, there are resources, that he will have to deliver these programs.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is an ongoing process. All of our departments are involved in part of the strategy to have development take place in anticipation of the oil and gas activity and the pipeline activity. As well, we have the Non-Renewable Resource Strategy, which identifies, I believe, 19 possible areas that need to be addressed, in order for our Territory to be ready and participate in this development that has taken place. So we are working on that on an ongoing basis.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question this morning is for the Minister of Health and Social Services regarding the shortage of doctors in Yellowknife. I have heard from a constituent, Mr. Speaker, who is concerned with the continuing pressure that is on the few doctors that are in Yellowknife. I would like to beg your indulgence in reading just a couple of lines from a message.

This person, who is a mother of two young children, says:

"On recent visits to our family doctor, while I have still received the outstanding care I appreciate, I have noticed that my doctor and others are just plain tired. They work unbelievably long hours, while still offering us their best. They are overworked. There are too many patients and not enough doctors."

And she goes on to talk about the delays in trying to schedule appointments with her doctors and with specialists.

My question, Mr. Speaker, is, can the Minister update the Assembly on progress by the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Board to restore the doctors ranks in Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am glad that the honourable Member for Great Slave has raised this issue because it is of very much concern to our department that we stabilize the situation here in Yellowknife.

I noted, from the Alberta Health Minister recently, that Alberta is looking for about 330 general practitioners. About 15 would probably solve all of our problems here in the North, particularly in Yellowknife.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is well known that there have been negotiations taking place between the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Board and the physicians here in Yellowknife to look at an alternative payment schedule, offering physicians options for how they would be paid and what kind of benefits they could receive.

These negotiations are still ongoing at this time, so I am not in a position to offer details. But we do hope to have something to take to the Financial Management Board shortly in terms of the investment that it will take to stabilize the situation with the physicians, who are here. The secondary part of that is, then we will have a competitive contract of which to recruit more positions.

That has been a difficulty in the past. Under the fee for service schedule, it was difficult to clearly define for physicians what they could expect, who might consider coming here. So we hope to have such a recruitment tool in hand and also an offer for Yellowknife physicians in the very near future.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the information and I also appreciate that as negotiations may be going on there is some information that is best kept behind closed doors for now, and I look forward to the progress.

We still have a situation where, especially in the emergency ward here in Yellowknife, Mr. Speaker, we are facing a very distinct lack of physicians. The number of doctors able to cover the needed spaces is not there. What assurances can the Minister offer that, at least, that very vital service will be covered for the next coming months? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we do reach a full complement of general practitioners here in Yellowknife, then the rotation for emergency shifts will become more bearable for the physicians.

In the interim, the department does have an agreement with the Alberta Medical Association for the provision of physicians who will provide locum services here in Yellowknife, to cover such things. It is not a long-term solution, but in the interim, we hope that that would help to cover the shortfall and certainly, again, we want to express that we understand the pressure that the physicians are under and we are doing our best to stabilize the situation and the working environment for them.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The work of the department along with the Health and Social Services Board is very critical in this area. The leadership demonstrated and the professionalism there is something that we are counting on. In other communities in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister advise us on the status of the number of physicians available there and, indeed, can all communities in the Northwest Territories count on a stable supply of physicians and medical care over the next couple of months? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the other communities which do have resident physicians, the negotiations for the transfer from a fee for service payment plan to a contract salary have been completed. However, we are experiencing difficulties with shortfalls. I know Hay River, for example, is also very actively attempting to recruit physicians for that community. What we want to do is equalize as much as we can the method by which physicians are paid, and this will avoid a competition between the various communities who have resident physicians to try and recruit from within the pool we have. We need to bring physicians in from outside.

It would be correct to say that we are experiencing a shortage in other communities as well, but hopefully this contract that is being negotiated now will serve as the tool that will cause southern physicians to look at northern communities including Yellowknife. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Finance. I was encouraged in going through his budget speech to hear that the government intends to put as much emphasis on oil and gas development and spin off business and industries as it has done in the diamond industry. It has done some good work there. Just to quote a passage "within our means, we are committed to continuing to provide similar support to Northern companies working in the oil and gas sectors."

I would like to applaud them for that, but I would also like to ask the Minister what kinds of industries and spin off businesses has the department identified as things that they might be looking to support. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I suppose that there are two areas that we have had interest expressed to us. One is in the business of providing oil and gas well maintenance services. There is a very active project going on at the Hay River Dene Reserve and I think that they are doing some great things and have some good people working on it. I expect that we have that one. I expect that we will see other companies coming forward wanting to get into that business.

Second, we have had some interest from companies who either own drilling rigs or are interested in drilling rigs. There are northern companies who want to do that. All of the industry has expressed concern over the shortage of equipment, camps and so on in the North, trucks and other equipment. So I expect that we will see more of that.

I anticipate over the next couple of years, as this speeds up, we will see a lot of interest by northern companies wanting to get involved and having a legitimate place to have a good viable business in this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Oil and gas well maintenance, drill rigs and things like this are great and I am glad to hear that. But I am wondering if any manufacturers in the North have expressed interest in getting in on pipeline development. It seems to me that there might be some opportunities available there. Thank you.