There are a couple of ways to deal with this, Mr. Speaker. I'm not an advocate of excessive red tape, but certainly the person who feels that the policy has been misapplied can appeal to our deputy minister standing committee on the BIP. If they don't feel that they get satisfaction there, it should be brought to my attention and I will go to the client department who is procuring the goods and ask them if their intention was to have local preference applied here and that they actually intend to use those goods locally. If they don't, we have to have a discussion with that client department about the application or misapplication of the BIP and I would certainly then endeavour to get back to the Member and to their constituent in that regard. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had indicated earlier, in response to some questioning regarding municipal elections, that we would be reviewing the act. The act has been in place for some time now. Aside from some minor revisions, I think the act has pretty well stayed the way it was drafted in 1988. A number of issues have come forward over the years from communities, including reducing election periods and looking at ways of encouraging voter participation and changing the eligibility provisions and a number of other things. Those things will be brought forward when we do the review. We're doing the research right now and that would include also trying to align the act with the NWT Elections Act. So we're looking at those things and trying to do analysis of the benefits. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that answer. Could the Minister as well just indicate what the timelines are for this paper? I recognize the questions on proxy votes. He indicated there was a paper coming forward, but he didn't think it would be done in time for this Assembly to act on. But could I just ask the Minister to confirm that again, please? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are doing the research right now. We are putting the discussion paper together and we are anticipating that this document will be available for discussion amongst the stakeholders in the new year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister of Health and Social Services and it's following up on the Member's statement that I made earlier. Mr. Speaker, I believe the Minister has been made aware of the concerns that have been brought to his attention and to my attention and some other colleagues in this House from the nursing grad class of 2007 at Aurora College. Some of the issues that I spoke about earlier comes from the latest meeting that the class had with the government Human Resources officials who, by stating some of the stuff that they did or not being very clear about where the government stood on making these new grads feel welcome into the very much needed human resource space of our health care system that they're feeling very distraught and demoralized. So I'd like to ask the Minister if he could use this opportunity to clarify whether he would be willing to revisit any of these policies. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had been made aware of concerns at a presentation to the potential graduation class for 2007 of our Nursing Program. To set the record straight of how we've implemented the policy, there's still a commitment by this government to hire all of our graduating nurses in the Northwest Territories and find suitable employment for them in one of our health authorities around the territory. So the commitment's there. We will continue to honour that commitment. It includes a number of things. One, for example, Mr. Speaker, when a graduation class is done their program, we offer immediate employment through either Stanton or one of our other health authorities, other facilities in the Territories, and that is done even though they don't receive their full licence. They operate under a temporary licence and still would be under the guidance of a supervisor at that point. It usually takes about three months and then they would fall under the regular category of our hiring practices. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm of course glad to hear that the GNWT wants to do all it can to hire these grads, but I think everyone would agree that next to the decision to get married a career that one chooses is as serious as that. Like marriages, it's not a one-way street. Only because government says we want to hire you all, that doesn't mean that the contract is done unless and until the contract arrangements are such that it's acceptable to those being hired. As they stand right now, Mr. Speaker, I don't think the government is going far enough to make these people want to work for the GNWT and not look elsewhere. Because knowing the environment, I mean, they have lots of choices to choose from. I would like to know why it is that the government is not willing to look at this policy of just paying them 90 percent. That's like nitpicking the 10 percent. The salary system is already graded, so why alienate them in that way and also why is there no difference between baccalaureate grads versus diplomas? I mean those are the little things, but big things that put a sour taste into these people's mouths. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what we've done in the Northwest Territories is to allow for immediate hiring of the graduating nurses, and they would only be able to operate under a temporary licence until they get their full licence, and that usually takes about three months. It's that interim period that it's 90 percent. Once they receive their full licence and are then able to operate in one of our hospitals without supervision, then it goes up to the 100 percent salary. So we've gone one step further, I believe, than other jurisdictions, and that's make the graduating class available for immediate hire. That's why it's stepped at that location.

When it comes to the difference between diploma and baccalaureate nursing in the field, to get your licence both groups have to write the same exam and that's why it's treated that way. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the issue of not giving nursing grads the choice of specialities, I think we're all aware of the fact that in any chosen field there are such vast areas of practice and specialties that not everyone has the same interests or they have certain interests that they want to pursue. Will the Minister revisit this and consider giving some options to nursing grads for at least the employers to consider and work out situations that are agreeable to both parties? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd be glad to sit down with the department in that area to see what can be done. Again, our commitment is to offer jobs available. Part of our situation is that once we intake a lot of the grads, although a lot of them would like to work in our larger facilities and centres, we have to have other resources to ensure that training can occur in some of these areas, and that is part of our goal as a government, as well as to ensure that we have nursing coverage throughout the territory, and that's one of the other considerations that has to come into this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the concerns also raised was the fact that these grads would be told that they would be screened out of any employment opportunities if they don't go with this plan and I wouldn't think that the Minister or this government would stand by that sort of statement and I would like to know if the Minister will make a commitment to see if that was in fact said and to correct the situation if that was the case. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.