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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are quite a number of categories under program delivery under recruitment and retention. I will just highlight some of them. There is a recruitment and retention steering committee that represents the department, boards, medical association, nurses association. There is a recruitment and retention unit within the department. There is a northern development program, which has programs such as a step bursary program. There are also career bursaries available. There is a professional development fund. There is funding for the recruitment of general practitioners, locum and long-term. There is a rural physician locum program. There is an advanced nursing skills education program. Temporary market supplement for nurses. There are nurse educator consultants. There are workshops that have been sponsored under this funding for workplace safety, health and well-being, and there is a website we have developed for recruitment. There is a foreign nursing recruitment program, which the Member has referred to. These are some of the categories that fall under our program for recruitment and retention. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do not think there has been a decision made on where the road to resources would go. That is with the Minister responsible for Transportation.

Any new roads, as the Member knows, are the responsibility of the federal government. Our government's responsibility is with existing roads. I think the comments he is referring to are referring to work that is proposed to go ahead in future years on Highway No. 3, No. 4 and so on. I will not go into detail on that, but if the Member wishes, he can refer to the capital acquisition section of the main estimates. It outlines the projected expenditures there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do not think you can call the Ingraham Trail the road to resources. The Ingraham Trail serves a recreation area and a number of people who live there permanently. I notice in looking back in the capital acquisitions in prior years, the government has spent almost $1.2 million. There is a projection this year to spend $494,000 there. It is proposed in future years to spend between $2.8 million to $3 million per year on Highway No. 4, which goes from the city out past Giant Mine and down to Tibbit Lake. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am really on the edge of getting into the Minister responsible for Transportation's responsibilities. All I will say is that money that is spent on that road is spent there to serve the traffic on that road. I have no idea, Mr. Speaker, where the road to resources might go. I do not think that decision has been made. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. I would like to remind Members not to ask hypothetical questions, or questions that border on the hypothetical. I do not know if the Minister is able to predict what the other governments are going to do. Please restrict your questions there. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the current Wildlife Act is very old. There has been a lot of change since that time, from an environmental perspective, a wildlife perspective, political change and so on. There are a number of purposes in the Wildlife Act.

One, and a primary one in my mind, is to update the Wildlife Act to accurately reflect this government's obligations and commitments to the land claims agreements, and also to recognize the rights those land claims agreements have. We also have self-government arrangements that are being negotiated right now. That has to be taken into consideration.

We have conservation measures that were developed years ago that may no longer be applicable. We have new demands and interest in wildlife harvesting, from a commercial perspective and from a traditional perspective. That has to be taken into consideration.

We have a lot more people living in the Northwest Territories than ever before. That has to be taken into consideration. Mr. Speaker, without getting into a lot of detail, there are a number of reasons for it. The primary one is to reflect our new political situation. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am somewhat disappointed not to hear conservation being the first priority, and politics listed as the first priority. Mr. Speaker, will this legislation specifically cover both habitat and species? In other words, will it apply to all plants and animals?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Before I ask the Minister to respond, I would like to recognize in the gallery a former colleague, former MLA, former Minister, former Speaker, Ms. Jeannie Marie-Jewell.

-- Applause

Welcome back. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just to be clear, the whole purpose of a Wildlife Act is conservation. How we do that is very dependent on our political system and governance and so on. I do not want to suggest that politics drives our Wildlife Act.

The Wildlife Act is being revised. At the same time, it will introduce legislation for species at risk. We have two main pieces of legislation coming forward at the same time.

The Wildlife Act will take into consideration all wildlife and habitat that is within our jurisdiction. Habitat includes plants, the earth, water and so on. Those and wildlife are very much interrelated. The primary focus is on wildlife and endangered species. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, much of the control of harvesting will now take place through bodies that are set in place through claims settlements and self government agreements. For those areas that are under this government's control, will the Minister agree that harvesting limits should be based on sound conservation principles only?