Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we do not have final numbers at this point because we do not have the information with us. We will have to undertake to get the information to whatever level is current right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I was wondering if I can receive a commitment on when that might be delivered to Members of the Legislative Assembly?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we could undertake to have that by the middle of next week.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Could the Minister tell us on the community social service workers whether we have a full contingency of social workers in all our communities?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the last time the information was gathered was in November. There was a 20 percent vacancy in the social worker positions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, could the Minister identify where those shortages are?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there were three vacant positions in Yellowknife, zero at Stanton, three vacancies in Inuvik, one vacancy in the Deh Cho, 1.5 vacancies in Fort Smith, three vacancies in the Dogrib, zero vacancy in Lutselk'e, zero vacancy in Deninu, and zero vacancy in Hay River.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the reason I ask is when you talk to a lot of the social workers, there is a lot of stress associated with that job. I know that there is a lot of turnover because of the changes we have made and also the reporting systems that are there. I am just wondering if there have been any attempts or plans to allow for more training, or allow for more time off, or give them leisure time so they are able to be more productive in their jobs.

What we are seeing is that without having a full core staff in these communities, one or two people are taking on the whole load where there should be three people. I think that is where we have to do more.

We have lost, especially in my region, a lot of senior employees within social services who had been there for several years, who left for personal reasons, had moved on, or retired from that field because of the increased workload from what they were previously used to, to what they are getting today.

I would like to ask the Minister what exactly is being done to assist the social workers to try to find ways to offset that workload and also to try to find new recruitments to fill in whenever possible so they can have stress leave or what not rather than having to burn themselves out?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I think probably the most obvious and immediate way that we have of relieving the stress on the social workers is to ensure that the positions are staffed up to the amount that are allocated for that region or community. Also, with the ten new social workers that we are hoping to hire, we hope that will spread the workload over more social workers and will relieve some of the stress on them and on the system.

I agree with the Member that when people start to be overworked, the potential for the numbers to diminish and the situation to deteriorate is compounded. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I raised this earlier, the whole area of ensuring that they have the resources to do their jobs. I mentioned in the conversation I had with regard to Aklavik is they have two computers but no printer. One computer is working and the other one is not, yet they are required to submit reports and they also have to document all the reports to the regional office. They seem to spend more time on paperwork than dealing with the clients. Have you looked at a way to ensure that they do have the equipment to do the jobs without having to deal with obsolete or second-hand equipment that is given to them from the regional centres?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we can undertake to follow up with the Aklavik nursing station to see what they are missing in terms of equipment, but the normal process is that we...I am sorry, it is the social workers who are short. Normally, the process is that we fund the boards, the boards then purchase and distribute the equipment to the various communities. So if there has been a breakdown there, we will attempt to identify where the problem is there. Thank you.

Another concern I raised was allowing them some human resource support staff. There are people there that are either working part-time who are usually at a secretary-receptionist position. For them to have good staff by having someone there for just a half-day position, the turnover is pretty high when people can get full employment and not just part-time employment.

That is something this government should look at to ensure that when we do have these positions, we should try to ensure that they are full positions and not just part-time and that they are there as more of a support service. I think that is what is going to be needed to take off this extra workload from the social workers. If anything, that is one area that can really help the social workers in our communities, to ensure that they do have other human resources around them that could take off that extra workload, especially on the reporting side and having to do all this documentation with regard to reports and that.

Is that something the department could possibly look at and see if there are revenues that could possibly go into that area to enhance that service, which is greatly needed in a lot of the communities?