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.