Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess that when we throw percentages, I guess that could be a little bit deceiving, but what is the average salary of these specialists? Do we know what the average salary is? Thank you.

Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, the base salary itself ranges from about $237,000 at step one and at the third step the high would be a little less than $291,000, now that is the base salary. Thank you.

Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the base salary of $291,000 or $237,000 at step one, is this before the increase or is this after the increase?

Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, the amount I gave you for base salary was after the increases and, Mr. Chairman, it may be that the Member is thinking of the total package because this negotiated settlement included more than base pay. It included other allowances and compensation. Thank you.

Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Out of those other items that would come under that benefit package, is any of this money identified in here, did any of that money go towards over and above the base salary?

Mr. Handley.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, the negotiated settlement includes the base salary and the amount that we have here includes that. In addition to that, the doctors also, specialists, got a bonus, they got on-call allowances, they got continuing medical education provisions, northern allowance, retention bonus, there are a number of other pieces in here, Mr. Chairman. All of the compensation negotiated with the specialists is included in this amount of money here. Thank you.

Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I don't know if it is possible to get a breakdown of what the actual salaries are or if that is confidential information. If it is not I would certainly like to get it, but it seems like a fairly good salary for a specialist. I am wondering, Mr. Chairman, I know that specialists in the South have an awful lot of overhead in a lot of cases in their practice. What types of overheads do the specialists have in the Northwest Territories for them to practice here?

Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, the doctors who are on salary would not have overhead expenses, as would doctors on a clinical service agreement. All of these individuals who are on salary would basically have no overhead. Thank you.

Mr. Delorey:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I didn't get an answer to my first question about the salaries. If we do have a breakdown of the salaries that are being paid to specialists now, and the other thing I would like to put on the record is when are we scheduled or due to start negotiating with these same specialists again?

Mr. Minister, I believe there are two questions here.

Mr. Chairman, I don't think there is any difficulty in giving the salary ranges by pay range, as well as the detail on the bonus so it would be based on the ranges. This wouldn't be individual doctor's packages, but I don't see a problem in giving that. The current agreement that has just recently been negotiated ends on March 31, 2004, and I expect that we will begin negotiating with the specialists again for their new contract within the next couple of months, January, February, somewhere in there. Thank you.

Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Along the same line of questioning, how do I become a specialist?

---Laughter

Now the Minister is using a number of different areas. He has talked about pay ranges and so on and stated that that didn't include the bonuses and so on. Looking at these initial figures, when you just take out the number of specialists being 13 and divide it by the amount there, the salary ranges you gave from $237,000 to $291,000, we are almost just taking up this price. So is the Minister stating that an equivalent amount is in bonuses, from what the salary ranges would be or is that retro pay in there? Could we get that information?

Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, a couple of things. First of all, there is a fairly healthy benefit package as well as the salary. So the average total compensation if you take everything including one-time signing bonuses, when you take that all together it amounts to about $435,000 per physician. I might also point out, Mr. Chairman, that this amount of money in here is for more than just the 13 because it does include all money for all of the positions we have in the budget.

Mr. Roland.