Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, I will double check on the figure of 13 to make sure that that is accurate, but there are more positions than the 13 because this money is for all the positions Health had in their budget and some of those at the time would have been vacant and they anticipated, of course, that they would be filled. The exact status of that today, I don't have numbers on that, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know that when this was being discussed, as Mr. Delorey stated the controversy around it, but I would like to know, we've talked about the increases as necessary to help attract doctors to the North. Can the Minister inform us if in fact we have gotten any new specialists in the Northwest Territories since this agreement was signed?

Mr. Chairman, I don't know the detail about how many doctors have been hired recently. The Minister of Health and Social Services just left the room temporarily and I was going to refer it to him. Mr. Chairman, I don't know if we can come back to that question when he is back in the room, but I don't have that detail here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I too have questions, but more directly in the area of health. Without having the Minister here, is there a possibility of standing down this section until the Minister is here? I was going to ask questions around a similar line of questioning but I also have questions about the five mental health worker positions, two in Inuvik, one in the Dogrib region, one in the Deh Cho and one in Yellowknife. I was going to ask the question about the two in the Inuvik region. I have received a letter from the Minister that those positions were supposed to be advertised. I am just wondering, did they have any idea of where those positions are going to be located? Is it going to be in Inuvik itself or will it be in the communities?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, one of those positions is in Inuvik, and the other one is in Holman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I too have a lot of concerns about the $2.567 million in regard to the specialists' payout, which as we can see it is over $400,000, rough calculation, per specialist, but yet we continue to see people being medevaced from Inuvik to Edmonton and bypassing Yellowknife altogether, and that is where the majority of the specialists are. I'd like to ask the Minister, have you done a rough estimate, have we seen a decrease in medevac travel using southern facilities versus using the Stanton Hospital?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, I'll refer that to the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We don't have that specific information. We do track our medevac travel, we have a number of vacancies in the specialists department, but I don't have that level of detail.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Do we have any idea if we have seen a decrease in medevacs to Edmonton since we settled with the specialists to the tune of $2.5 million?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, during the period of the latter part of the negotiations, there was some movement of patients to Edmonton because of the uncertainty. Since that time that issue has rectified itself. We do track and I can commit to getting information that will show the number of medevac travel that we have from Inuvik to Yellowknife, Yellowknife to the South, but I don't have that at my fingertips. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd just like to ask the Minister if he also has tracked the level of service. Have we seen an improvement in service or a decline in service in regard to the specialists who are dealing with them? Have we seen a shortage of waiting less for people who want that service? So have we seen an improvement in service considering we made a major cash contribution to settle this thing? I'd like to know have we seen any improvements in the service?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there were three new positions added last winter to the overall complement of specialists, but this particular negotiation was to better compensate them for the work they are now doing. There has been no huge volume increase tied into this agreement so we are paying them for the work that they have been doing in a very competitive market and this was the negotiated settlement. Thank you.