Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the area of nurse pay or bonus systems, the government has, in the past, worked with the union and internally to come up with a system. It was put in place. It was there for a short period, trying to encourage the nurses to stay in the North. As well, part of the bonus was to reward them for their years of service. That worked for a little while, but we found as well that, in some cases, as we no sooner made the payment to some of the individuals, they left the Northwest Territories. So it didn't quite work out how it was designed. We have tried to look at a number of other options to fill the gaps. Anything we would do in this area would require the involvement of the UNW as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the fact that you would have to go through the UNW, but I feel nurses are different. They could be on the same pay level as a carpenter, for example, and the work that they do, in my opinion, is a lot more important. Has the department ever been approached by health care professionals to negotiate their own contract? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, a number of times this issue has come up. In fact, the very first time was when we took over the delivery of health care from the federal government. That was the first time it came up. It has been reviewed a number of times. This time, not in looking at making our union or setting up another union process, we would still have to follow the same rules as we do when it comes to equal pay, pay equity and those issues as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would his department consider entering into separate contracts with each nurse that comes up here on a nurse-to-nurse basis? Is that possible? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware that, within the department and our hiring practices, we have tried to come up with some unique ideas or processes of coming up with nurses. Part of the problem is because there is such a large vacancy rate that occurred at one point, we had to come up with this idea. In fact, I believe before we, as we now term it "agency nurses," that was some of the practices that came in place with individuals. Of course, in a work environment, when you find that there is a large demand, there is also the other side of the equation that comes into play where they then do find themselves in a position of some authority in a sense of being able to deliver services for us and trying to fill a gap. We came up with this option of using agency nurses to fill a gap. Unfortunately, we found ourselves having to use that more and more. We are looking at another option of trying to move away from that, but it will take some work and some time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we well know that a lot of southern agency nurses come north to work. What I am afraid of here, and maybe it is an option, we may see a northern pool of agency nurses. Would that be an option for the department to negotiate with them as an agency pool of northern nurses? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess that is an option. If we were to lose our northern nurses and they formed an agency and then contracted the Government of the Northwest Territories, that is not something we would encourage. Ultimately, it comes back to the ability to find the dollars to do this. Hopefully, with some of our other plans in place, we will be able to start coming back to the way we have done it in the past where we hire north and keep our nurses in the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Oral questions. The honourable Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Housing, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have had several projects we have done in different communities where they put space heaters in seniors' homes to bring down the cost of energy and also ensure that they live comfortably but also realize that they also have a set income they have to work with. So we have done several projects like this in conjunction with band councils on behalf of their membership and we are open to that initiative. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think this would be a really good sign of support for these elders in terms of these independent homes. The Member from Hay River South talked about the types of initiatives that we could do in terms of having energy-efficient homes. Can the Minister commit to having his department look at an assessment in terms of what will it cost to bring in these space heater projects? I know the number of elders that may qualify for these space heaters for this winter. I know because the issue of helping them out would require more time in the next couple of days here. So I would ask the Minister to give that thought. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we do have several programs that are there, designed to assist seniors to be independent, to live in their homes as long as possible. We do have the seniors Home Repair Program. We have the Seniors' Maintenance Program. We have the Seniors' Independence Program. The heater that the Member's talking about is a space heater, which is roughly in the range of about $3,500. I think that it is what we find the clients have had installed in their house and they are very quiet, they do keep the home very comfortable and I think it's important that if this is the way that we can bring down the cost of the seniors heating their homes and also ensuring that they're able to take advantage of the seniors' fuel subsidy so they don't have to take money out of their pocket to heat themselves, that this is a good program. So I'd like to tell the Member that we are looking at taking this program forward, we are looking at consolidating our programs, and this is one of the areas that we would really like to see an improvement, especially having been involved with working with the Seniors' Society on this and this is one of the programs they very much would like to see implemented. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister's comments on to the cost of the space heaters. I'm asking the Minister, can he look at Colville Lake, Deline, Tulita, Fort Good Hope, even Norman Wells, in terms of saying we would look at these independent homeowners? Seniors are very proud and we would like to put in based on the amounts that we have, put in these pilot project space heaters in the communities to look at these elders and say yes, we are supporting you and we are supporting independent living. I'd like to see that type of commitment from this government. Thank you.