Thank you, Mr. Minister. Ms. Lee.

Now I almost feel like I should stop asking questions so he can go and make that phone call. He could get back to us with answers. I am wondering if it could be the case that this profession hasn't been given enough attention. It seems like in a booming economy not just in the North, but everywhere. Professionals are in high demand. Architects and auditors, I am told, are in high demand. So I wonder if the Minister is aware...What kind of thought has been given to this profession? Has there been any analysis done in terms of the compensation and package that are offered to this profession? I would think that this department observes so many social workers. You need them. Whether they are child welfare workers or income support workers, you need them to deliver your programs. If you find that there is not enough people taking up the jobs and they are not going to school, you will have to constantly bring them up from down south. I am sure they are in high demand down south as well. Has there been any thought given to how to attract these people to give them better compensation and make it more competitive? Has there been any work like that done within the department? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Lee. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the level of analysis the Member talks about I don't believe has taken place. I know we are on the road to another round of collective bargaining. I know one of the issues could be that what has attracted a lot of attention on the human resource side over the last number of years is the nurses, doctors and allied health professions. The social services side of the equation hasn't got a lot of similar attention or resources. The Member may be correct that that may be one of the factors that are going to be requiring us to reconsider and look at what was successful on the health side and possibly transferring some of those efforts to the social side. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Ms. Lee.

On that topic, I wonder if the Minister could commit to looking into this further with his officials as well as the Minister of Education, and get back to us through this committee or through the Social Programs committee on an action plan/strategy to improve this situation.

I would like to move onto another topic for the remainder of time I have and it has to do with facilities and programs for mental health. I have a case where a constituent's child who is quite young has developed or is in the process of being diagnosed as having mental health issues where he has to be down south to get the care he needs. Because he's under age and he's placed in a centre down south, his mother has to travel to Edmonton every weekend. I cannot imagine the kind of life that must take to do this. They have other children in Yellowknife and they don't want to move from here and, if at all possible, they want to have a situation where either one of the parents could go down on the weekend or the child

could come up here for a visit. I wonder what sort of services there are for somebody like that and is there coverage in terms of medical travel and accommodation. Does the Minister know of a facility in Edmonton or somewhere where this child could be taken care of on the weekend? I think one of the reasons why his parents have to go down is there isn't any service for him on the weekend. If this is too specific, maybe I should just talk to him in private. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sorry.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would agree with the Member that this is probably an issue best dealt with in the confidence of her office or mine and we could get the detail and we can check out what the situation is and what's possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. I have Mr. Yakeleya on the list and we will make a determination at that time what to do for the evening. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I just want to ask the Minister if he would explain a bit to me regarding allocating dollars into our regions for doctors. We are severely in need of doctors. The visits are too far apart and sometimes we don't get the doctors because of weather or other circumstances. I know the Sahtu has been allocated two doctors. If that could be something that the Minister can explain to me in terms of that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As the Member knows, about a year-and-a-half or so ago, there was money put in for doctors and nurses and there was funding for two doctors' positions for the Sahtu. The creation of the Sahtu board hasn't proceeded as expeditiously as we had initially planned. Those positions have been overseen out of Inuvik and the deputy tells me there are discussions underway to see if some locums could be hired to provide service more frequently out of Inuvik using those dollars that are there for the positions right now as we work towards a more permanent setup with the Sahtu Health Authority. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In terms of the transfers, I know there is a transfer of First Nations health dollars. I am not sure how it was distributed across Canada, but I wanted to ask what the Northwest Territories does with that money. I know it goes toward prevention into the communities. Did the Northwest Territories receive that type of funding that goes into the small communities in terms of First Nations health transfer dollars?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If the Member is talking about the $700 million that was just agreed to last September with the aboriginal health fund, if that's not it, there is money in our budget where there are dollars specifically set aside for medical services to Indian and Inuit people. There is also the arrangement we have with non-insured health benefits. As well, we currently have a funding arrangement with them for home care and there is wellness dollars as well, which is fairly significant. Some of it comes to us and some goes directly to aboriginal governments. Mr. Chairman, I can share this. I have a document here that lays out just the wellness funding alone and I would be happy to share this with the committee. It breaks out the programs and the money that was funded by Health Canada and the northern secretariat and those that are funded by us.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Yakeleya.

I appreciate that from the Minister. Mr. Chairman, I am interested in the National Home Care Program. I know the federal government announced $2 billion over five years. I want to know the portion that the territorial government got. I know there are some strings attached to that by that funding. I want to hear from the Minister in terms of the amount that was given to our government here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, that's about a $3.3 million fund, which we match and that flows to the communities for the provision of home and community care. It's part of this document that I will be sharing with the Members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I read an article I picked up at a doctor's office in terms of health care. I am interested because of the facilities that I was speaking to earlier in the House, the Deline old folks' home. I wonder about the home care programs that could be used in regions that don't have facilities and can't take care of its older people. The article says the older people are increasing and seniors are the fastest growing population in Canada. I want to make sure our seniors are taken care of. One day I hope I will be able to go into a nice facility that we are talking about today, and, of course, other Ministers and MLAs too.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the information on this program and others, when we did our business plans, we gave the committee our full business plan where that was included as well. We have the full main estimates documentation, but this is for home care and home support. It doesn't cover the area of long-term care and facilities. This is the home support workers. We have separate funding that we have that we use for long-term care for facilities that exist in Fort Simpson, Hay River, Inuvik, Yellowknife, Aklavik, those communities. Thank you.