Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The other issue I'll talk about is the amount of energy we have given to retention and recruitment of the nurses into our communities. Nurses used to stay in our communities for a long, long time; almost to the point where they became one of our community members. Today it seems like it's a revolving door; three months or six months and they're in and out. There is lots of money and lots of resources that go into retaining the nurses and recruiting them and keeping them in the community. Sometimes it's really hard on our old people, because they see a nurse for a short while then all of a sudden there's a new nurse and they have to explain their whole health history to the nurse, and it just goes on and on.

One of the things I know that we're looking at in our region is we have some people who worked in the community health field for a while, CHRs. We think the CHRs could give good mentorship programs in our communities. Some of the nurses that come into our communities need to get acquainted with the customs and the beliefs of the people and how the community works. So CHRs might be a good link between the people and the new nurses. The new nurse is under a lot of strain and maybe a lot of demand, and maybe doesn't quite understand the dynamics of the communities. It might take something differently, and they might interpret something totally out of context. The CHRs may be a good contact in terms of being mentors for new nurses coming into communities and working with the people. Right now we see that our nurses are kind of answering to the government, but really the nurses are there for the people, and CHRs might be a good contact between the nurses and the community. Making use of the CHRs in our communities might be something that could help us save some money in terms of dollars being poured into retention and recruitment of nurses. I think it's about the relationship in our community and our people. I wonder if the Minister would provide a brief comment to that idea, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the Member has identified what I see as one of the pivotal people and one of the pivotal professionals in the community is like a CHR. I know that in many cases they are the fixed point. As the nurses rotate in and out, the one person who is there that has the knowledge of the community, that has the knowledge of the health centre, the corporate knowledge as well as the cultural and community knowledge is the CHR. We also know that many of the CHRs haven't had adequate training over the years, that there used to be courses and there hasn't been for some time. It's something we've identified as an issue we would like to build into our business plan. As well, I met with the CHR association to talk to them about that. They also provide a valuable cross-cultural component in terms of indoctrinating and bringing the new members into the community and the nurses that may be through there. So they are a very valuable resource, in my opinion, and they provide a wide range of services oftentimes, in my opinion, far above and beyond what they were initially possibly trained for just because they are, in some cases, the only ones there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. This might be a good time to take a brief break. Thank you.

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Thank you. I will call Committee of the Whole back to order. We are on

page 6-13 on the Department of Health and Social Services, program delivery support, total operations expense, $31.789 million.

Mr. Ramsay.

Sorry, gentlemen and ladies. I have a few questions, Madam Chair. I just wanted to know a little bit more about the recruitment and retention. I know it's an important function that takes place, but I want to know how much of the recruitment and retention is allowed to take place by the authorities. Currently there is not a centralized recruitment and retention focal point in our government. We allow it to be farmed out to the various authorities. Is that correct?

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a coordinated and collaborative effort between the department and the authorities. We've collectively laid out how we want to do recruitment and retention; the focus, the different program areas, the dealing with the doctors involving the medical directors in recruitment and retention, working with the nursing association. So we have the players at the table. There is some done at the authority level, but a lot of it is coordinated through the joint senior management committee, which comprises with the senior officials in the department and the CEOs from the authorities.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Does the Minister see any difficulty in having so many people involved in the recruitment and retention of these health care professionals?

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The problem used to be that the department would recruit and would be at trade shows along with the different authorities competing with each other. Now we work collectively with the authorities and the department to coordinate our efforts to make sure that we are not duplicating, to make sure the process and procedures are there and we have the proper supports in terms of the retention side and that we've involved, as I indicated, the medical directors, we've worked with the medical association, as well as the nursing association. It's key to have the right people at the table and as long as it's coordinated, it's an effort that requires everyone to participate.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Does each authority have their own people dedicated to the recruitment and retention strategy that the Minister talks about? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Madam Chair, each authority has their own complement of human resource people and that is one of their functions. The one place that has one staff person dedicated to help with the recruitment of doctors is Stanton, just given the numbers. All the specialists are there, as well as a significant number of the general practitioners. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Being new to this Assembly and being new to this process, not being a Member of the Social Program committee, one of the observations that I would have as new coming in here, I think part of the problem with the Department of Health and Social Services and the escalating costs associated with carrying this out is there is too much delegation out to the various authorities and perhaps some duplication in delivery of services. I think we are spending far too much on administrative-type overhead and not putting enough of an emphasis on getting that money into frontline workers and into communities where it can really make an impact. Instead, we are spending it on administrative overhead and that's what I see at first glance at this budget, my first go around. Does the Minister see that as being a problem and as part of the escalating cost associated with carrying out his mandate? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.