Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a few questions for the Minister this afternoon. The Minister has made reference to our desire as a government to train and retain and enhance the professional skills of northern nurses. It seems like although that is what we want to do, anybody who embarks on this seems to run into a lot of obstacles. I am speaking specifically to the attempt to train nurse practitioners to work in the communities.
It seems like the rules and the policies that are put in place around some of these things actually serve as a bit of a deterrent to anybody wanting to do it. The Nurse Practitioner Training Program is offered here in Yellowknife, it started in September 2004. The enhancement to this particular training program was that the nurses that were in training, who would already have a considerable amount of experience, would receive 100 percent of their salary while they are taking this additional training. But it was a long trail of negotiations for the people in order to iron out all of the hurdles and everything as they went along.
One of the issues that was an obstacle is the cost of setting up a second home while they are here taking this training in Yellowknife. I would like to ask the Minister, is he aware of cases where there are nurse practitioners who are here for a short term, who are actually provided accommodation at no cost, that are from outside of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.