Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The CEO of Stanton also accompanied the Social Programs committee when they went over to the Yukon, and as a result of that and discussions we've had in this House and commitments made, the staff and department have been working through the policy division at pulling together a paper that's going to identify ways that we can incorporate traditional medicine more effectively into the system we now have. By the end of next month we expect to have a paper ready that will give us a starting point for that discussion, which, of course, would be shared fully with the committee. There's been some initial discussion, as well, with elders and some other northerners trying to get their feedback as we pull together this paper. We're looking at other jurisdictions, not only the Yukon, but other jurisdictions as well. It's an issue that we're committed to following through on and we will have that critical first discussion paper out here hopefully by the end of next month. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have two more points. The second point I want to ask the Minister for general comments is the

nurses in our small communities. In the smaller communities we have agency nurses who are coming into our communities at a high cost to this government. I did ask the Minister at one time in terms of a plan in terms of when we're going to phase out these agency nurses, and there are some really good nurses who are staying in our communities a little longer than we anticipated. However, what is this department or how is this department ensuring that we take care of these nurses in terms of enticing them to stay a little longer in the community? People are getting along with them well. The problem with agency nurses is that they come in very quickly, stay about a month or so, then they're out. They don't develop this relationship with the people, and people are getting a little concerned because of constantly having to remind the nurses of their issues. There is not a consistent health care service in the communities. So I guess those two questions, Mr. Chairman. Is there a plan by this department and when is that plan going to be implemented, and when can we expect to see the agency nurses no longer being used in the Territories? What are we doing to ensure that the nurses that we do have in the communities are well looked after, are taken care of really well so they can stay longer? I know there's a nurse in Tulita who the people really like, and I think we want to keep her there for a long time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the long-term plan of the Government of the Northwest Territories is to train northern nurses and educate northern nurses, which is what we've been doing. We have had quite some success in that area. Although I do recognize that in the smaller communities getting nurses in and nurses to stay is somewhat more problematic. We are looking at restructuring our incentive programs, our bursary programs. We're looking at mentoring. We're looking at trying to get our own northern float pool of nurses, rather than relying on agency nurses from the South. Have a pool of northern nurses that we could use out of Yellowknife or out of Inuvik to go to the communities to cover off. We recognize that we are paying a very significant premium to the agencies for the use of the nurses, and that money is in the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars and could be far better used in other program areas if we could address that issue. So we have a long-term plan. We have northern nurses trained, and we're working with Inuvik to get them enough on-the-ground, practical experience that they can go out and, in fact, be on their own or work in smaller communities with not as much supervision. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I fully support the Minister's initiative in terms of getting a pool of northern nurses either in Yellowknife or in Inuvik or any other larger centre to work in our communities here. I think you're going in the right direction there. I'm fully supportive of that initiative.

Another one that I wanted to ask about is the smoking campaign. It's good to hear the numbers are going up. That campaign works because it got me. I want to see if we can do a similar program of that type with regard to the alcohol issue. It's an increase. I'm not much into building new facilities for any new treatment centres. We've got a lot of good existing facilities in the North and I believe that programs such as treatment centres or treatment programs can be done on the land, providing that there are good programs and well-trained workers. Because that's another issue that's quite a concern to people in looking at the stats on crime in the Northwest Territories and the high percentage of crimes that are contributed to the use of alcohol. I'd sure like to see the treatment centres go into the regions, if possible.

One more question, Mr. Chairman, and I'll be done. I want to ask the Minister if he has a cost in terms of having these agency nurses come into the North. What does it cost our government on a yearly basis? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to thank the Member for his comments about the no-smoking campaign and acknowledge his success, as well as the fact of the injury that he suffered as he attempted to take the message out to his young constituents above and beyond the call of duty. Mr. Chairman, there have been many good minds working on how to deal with alcohol, which is a different substance, clearly, than tobacco and it's one that is heavily advertised, for example, on TV with sporting events. If you want to go to parties and be with handsome men or beautiful women, if you have a bottle of beer in your hand, chances are you'll be there, be it Budweiser or any other kind of drink. So it's very difficult; it requires a different strategy. I'm very interested in trying to turn our attention to that because I agree that the ravages of alcohol and the collateral damage that alcohol causes far outweighs that of smoking, even though smoking kills more people directly. So we're looking at ways of trying to do that, but we don't have a campaign as effective yet as the one that's currently underway with the butthead campaign. We'd be very interested in thoughts and suggestions and recommendations of how we can better do that particular campaign to ensure that people either don't drink or they try to drink responsibly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. There is one question that Mr. Yakeleya raised, which was the cost of the agency nurses. Thank you. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize. We spent in the Inuvik region alone, I believe nearly $650,000 last year on fees for agency nurses. Thank you.

Thank you. General comments. Next I have Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple of questions for the Minister and I guess the first one I'd have is, since 1999 the Government of the Northwest Territories has increased base spending on social programming by over $200 million and that represents about 40 percent. Obviously, we've gone five years now since that funding level has been increased and yet I don't think we're really any further ahead in terms of the social ills we're faced with in this territory. I'm just wondering what the Minister's objectives here might be in the near future to try to ensure that the money, what

is available, is being spent in the right ways to maximize the net result. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we have to keep in mind that it has taken us many decades to get us into the situation we're in, and we've been investing significant amounts of money and planning in a longer term way for approximately five years, as the Member has indicated. Some of the issues are definitely long-term issues. Many of the things like our initiative with tobacco or our initiative to train northern nurses or social workers are long-term investments. The fact that we still spend a very relatively small amount -- on a comparative basis -- on prevention is a critical issue, if we accept the fact that a lot of the things that are driving our costs ultimately come down to individual responsibility. The responsible choice of drinking, smoking, diet and exercise, those things alone have a significant -- not only significant, I would say huge -- impact on our costs downstream. We have to recognize that there are lots of needs out there and there are no silver bullets. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do agree that it is going to take a lot more than money. Just letting people know what healthy lifestyles are and trying to get people to live healthy lifestyles, that just doesn't take up money that is for sure. I think it is something that we have to try to ingrain in our kids from an early age and something that should be done.

The next question I have for the Minister is based on the fact that I know there is an expenditure of $2.8 million for compensation and benefits for health care professionals, to try to maintain our competitive side of things. I am just wondering if he can break that down for me. Where is this money being spent and who is it being spent on? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the numbers the Member is referring to -- $2.7 million of that is towards physicians and $400,000 was to allied health professionals -- is a part of the re-evaluation and reclassification of the positions that resulted when there were complaints, grievances filed against their classification.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The $2.8 million, that goes back to the increase that we saw for physicians last year. I think it was a 38 percent increase. Is that amount part of the $2.8 million, or is this $2.8 million additional to the 38 percent increase that happened last year?

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, Mr. Chairman, the expenses towards the physicians resulted from the Collective Agreement that was reached with them. Thank you.