Does the committee want it read into the record or do you want copies of the information? Copies? Madam Minister, is there a possibility of getting copies of those for the Members of the committee?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We will undertake to make copies of those three items and circulate them to the Members.

Mr. Nitah.

Does the committee agree to take a break while copies are being made for the committee?

Okay. We will have the information copied and circulated to Members. With that, we will move on. We are dealing with directorate, corporate services, budget summary. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would just like a bit further clarification on an issue I raised yesterday with the Minister and that is this administrative problem between Education, Culture and Employment and the department in terms of accessing information with regard to SFA and northern graduates to try to do the work the department is doing with recruitment and retention.

The Minister indicated that they were working cooperatively with Education to resolve this issue. I would just like to ask the Minister if she could specify more directly what she means by "cooperatively" and when do they anticipate they will have this particular issue resolved? It has been on the table for quite some time now. Thank you.

The deputy minister, Ms. Ballantyne.

Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The issue, at least as it is referred to here in the information you gave us, refers back to the difficulty of accessing, in a relatively easy way, information with regard to student financial assistance of students who are in the system, when they are going to graduate and where they are. It ties into the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Has there been a way determined to resolve or work around this issue, other than trying to get everybody to sign some kind of prior consent?

I recollect, for example, when former Premier, Mr. Antoine, wanted to meet with all the students in Edmonton, he had difficulty getting a list of the students in Edmonton because of this access to information. That was the Premier of the Northwest Territories.

It always comes back to that access to information and SFA is locked away under confidentiality, even though we are all on the same side here on this issue. Could the Minister indicate if they have come up with a way or are they going to be able to target a way to resolve that particular roadblock? Thank you.

Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As Ms. Ballantyne indicated, this is something that is being looked at within the deputy ministers' committee and it does require a written consent by the students that are involved. As to the progress of producing such a mechanism, I will let Ms. Ballantyne elaborate on that further. Thank you.

General comments? Mr. Miltenberger.

I thought the Minister indicated that the deputy was going to elaborate on how this was going to move.

The deputy minister, Ms. Ballantyne.

Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Minister also indicated in terms of the reporting systems that only Yellowknife is on PeopleSoft. I was wondering if the Minister could indicate what systems are the other boards using? What other systems? Is there a common financial system as well that is being used? I know PeopleSoft is supposed to do double duty. If only Yellowknife has it, what do the other boards use and how does it tie into headquarters? Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. St. Germaine.

Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So how are the health boards or the finance people who do not have them able to access the government financial systems? How is that information transmitted? One of the concerns is that if there is a problem with the flow of information back and forth and if they are using different systems, that has always struck me as problematic for an organization like this with all those pieces. Could the Minister indicate how they do this?

I notice they have indicated that in terms of statistics on the human resources side, they are manually correlated at this point and sorted through. In fact, there are no statistics on affirmative action for nurses and social workers and physicians to be provided in the near future. They are manually collated, I understand. Could the Minister indicate if they have the same cumbersome relationship with the financial systems? Thank you.