Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think the department has throughout the year maintained a conservative approach to its spending, realizing that the demands are great on the money it has. The money they have is very limited. The serious spending restraint was really put in place in late November-early December. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as quite evident today with the Department of Health, health and social issues in the Northwest Territories are very important. I wish I could stand here and say I do not have any concerns in the health and social services end of it, but unfortunately, I do have some concerns.

Hay River has been without a permanent doctor for about a year now. I know the budget that was delivered yesterday addressed health and social services and health care and extra money being put into it. I would like to read from a line in the budget that says: "We will invest $2.8 million to improve the primary care model by stabilizing the physicians workforce in Yellowknife."

From what I understand, Yellowknife has approximately 20 doctors out of 24. Hay River has no permanent doctors right now. I was wondering why Yellowknife would be addressed in the budget and not Hay River? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Finance Minister referred to the Yellowknife situation, which had required additional funding for taking the physicians from a fee-for-service to a contract basis, and also increasing the number of physicians here as well.

Also, the purchase of the clinics...this is something that has been done in other communities in previous years. The board in Hay River had been assisted in acquiring the clinic in Hay River in a previous fiscal year. That had also taken place in Inuvik previously.

I want to assure the Member the highlight on the Yellowknife situation does not indicate that Yellowknife is receiving a disproportionate share of health and social services funding. I want to also assure him that Hay River does have the ability and the financial resources to recruit physicians. That has not been because of a lack of physicians in Hay River. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for the past year, Hay River has been operating under locums. An article in the paper showed that in the Northwest Territories, there have been approximately 85 locums over the past year recruited in the health care end of it. I was wondering if the Minister has any idea of the cost of operating under that many locums compared to permanent doctors, the difference in cost?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, there are additional costs associated with bringing in locums. Quite often, when we can get them, we are very happy to get them. Sometimes they only come for short periods of time, so there are travel costs, accommodation costs, different things associated with having locums versus permanent physicians.

However, having said that, I think everyone recognizes that the locums were and are continuing to be a short-term solution to the physician shortage. Although it is not ideal, more than a cost concern is the continuity of service. What is lost in terms of patient care when there is not a continuity of service when you have permanent physicians? Although there may be costs associated, there are larger concerns about patient care when you have to see a different doctor each time you visit the clinics.

Although we have incurred additional costs from locums, we have been very happy to be able to get them, because the other alternative is not to have anyone. It comes down to a matter of trying now to focus our attention on the fact that we do have a good recruitment tool in the present contract we have. We need to standardize that contract across the North and continue to recruit the much-needed physicians.

We are pleased that the pressure on the Yellowknife system has been alleviated with the addition of physicians. Certainly our attention is now on Fort Smith and Hay River. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the biggest assets we have had, from what I hear, in the Northwest Territories for recruiting locums to come to the North and fill the gaps, has been Dr. Dahlke. I would like to recognize the efforts she has made to help the North in recruiting doctors. It is estimated that out of the 85 who came to the North, half of them were personally recruited by Dr. Dahlke.

She has announced that she is not going to be doing near as much in the Northwest Territories anymore, as well as Hay River. I was wondering what kind of problem that is going to create for the department. Is there a plan in place to replace the effort she was putting into recruiting? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at the present time, it is the boards who hire doctors. It is the boards who hire locums. The support that Dr. Dahlke provided in identifying people who were willing to come up North is now a function that will be undertaken by the recruitment and retention unit within the department. Where boards need assistance in identifying sources of locums and potential physicians who may be interested in coming to the North who have contacted us through various avenues, we will continue to provide that support to the boards.

Dr. Dahlke's specific function will be undertaken by the recruitment and retention unit in the department. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I understand that contracts for doctors are now being standardized across the Territory so that none of the boards have an advantage over one another. What I was wondering about, Mr. Speaker, if the Minister could inform the House, in the contracts the doctors are being offered as a standard contract, do the boards have any leeway as far as offering extra incentives to doctors to sign a bonus, such as housing or paid vacations? Any incentives outside of the contract that would attract doctors to come to one board or the other? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, CEOs and Health and Social Services boards are allowed to offer incentives to attract physicians to come to the North and to take up the contract that was being offered. There were signing bonuses that were allowed.

In communities such as Hay River and Fort Smith, which currently do not have permanent physicians, we are also trying to identify some way of recognizing the fact that if you come into a pool of doctors where you are number 23 in a pool of 26, the pressures on you are not the same as if you are number one coming into what will hopefully be a pool of five, for example. We are looking at a way we can possibly recognize the initial workload a doctor would incur in being the first or second into a community where there should be four or five or six positions. We are analyzing that right now in the department, to see if there is a way of also alleviating physicians' fears that they might be alone or a couple of them might be alone for a period of time when they first come to a community. Thank you.

Merci, Madam Groenewegen. Item 6, oral questions. Questions orales. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are addressed to the Minister responsible for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, to follow up on my colleague, Mr. Roland.

Mr. Speaker, the concern from my constituency is that the regions were given budgets. The managers and people delivering programs in the regions carefully allocated their money. They did their cash flows for the 12 months. What I understand, and I have been told from all corners of my constituency, is that headquarters was broke by September and has since been going out to the regions and basically raiding the regional budgets to help offset the overexpenditures in headquarters, thereby limiting the ability of the people in the regions to do their jobs and deliver the programs at the regional and community level.

I was wondering if the Minister could address and tell me how much was taken out of the Fort Smith regional budget for the South Slave to service and help offset expenditures in headquarters? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do not have that kind of detailed information with me, but I will be happy to get back to the Member with more detail on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister not taking the question as notice. Therefore, I would like to ask him as well, on behalf of my colleagues from the other regions, if we could be given that type of breakdown by region, so all of the MLAs on this side of the House can see how the money was spent in their regions. Also, if in fact headquarters was broke by September and have been offsetting that overexpenditure with regional money? Thank you.

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