Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister if there is anybody within the Department of Health and Social Services who acts as a trouble shooter or an ombudsman. We hear from people who are practicing in various fields of medicine or health care in the Northwest Territories who encounter problems. They probably could be answered and solved. There doesn't seem like there's a clear path of who they should talk to in these instances. Would the Minister consider there to be any merit to such a position or does one already exist? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not aware if a position exists within the department. We have a number of avenues of trying to address the issues that come up from time to time and there are issues that do come up, whether it's in the nursing field or in the physicians' field. Our communications side of the equation working with each authority and the senior management meetings are areas that we would look to having addressed the concerns that would come up through the system. That's an avenue as well. Along side with the authorities is the joint leadership committee of all health board chairs as well as the department as drawing on the concerns from all regions and trying to address them as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, sorry to say that in fact, yes, as the Member has stated, we've not met the targets that we initially put in place when we reviewed the program. However, we have made a number of adjustments that have helped us to lower the rates in the Northwest Territories. I think we have to as well accept that some positive steps have been taken and we've included a number of initiatives within the business plan of the Department of Health and Social Services to continue to try to bring that rate down. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm to me that the Fanning report, which reviewed the treatment of TB in the Northwest Territories, said the first and most important of the tenets for controlling TB is finding the symptomatic patients so that they can be cured and transmission stopped? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member's obviously done his research in getting to the actual quotes. In fact that is one of the parts of the report and in fact is one of the goals we have, is finding out where the source is from and trying to deal with that before things start to spread. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My next question leads to the community needs. Wekweeti only sees a public nurse once or twice a month, Mr. Speaker. I don't think this is enough to control TB in a community such as Wekweeti, a small community. When I look at jobs available on the GNWT website or job posting there are no positions being advertised for a public health nurse in this community particularly. So I would like to ask the Minister what is the Minister doing about the nursing shortage in Wekweeti. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first of all I guess just for the record and for those that would listen to the questions and the discussion and debate that happens here in the Legislative Assembly, so no fear is out there that we have a TB epidemic or anything of that nature, the fact is I know that we have an issue to deal with. We are taking necessary steps. That has been reduced. We are halfway to meeting our targets. We'd like to be further along that, but unfortunately not there yet, but we'll continue to work to improve that.

As for the nursing situation in the community, I'd have to go back to the department to see what the makeup of our nursing profession or allied health services are available in that community and get back to the Member on that one. Thank you.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just the Member's statement on Shaping our Future and action plan for 2006-2010, the Health and Social Services Action Plan, when the Minister indicated that the public health initiatives are working to expand the use of licensed practical nurses and nurse practitioners to address over-workload and improve client care. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister with that, what is the Minister prepared to do to ensure the health and well-being of the residents in small communities such as Wekweeti are looked after and monitored to control the TB in the community? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we've worked out and as I stated in the business plans, the department has put a number of initiatives in to try and address this matter of working to ensure that we have coverage in all our communities no matter how small or what size. I have to again get back to the department as to some of the necessary steps or the steps that may have been taken and get up to speed on that and gladly sit down with the Member and review those results. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I listened quite intently to the Minister of Health and Social Services' statement earlier today Shaping our Future and action plan, 2006-2010. I know the Department of Health and Social Services in the past has been labelled as the department of perpetual planning and they always seem to be studying or reviewing or getting a working group together, and oftentimes, Mr. Speaker, that's the answer that the Minister of Health gives Regular Members when we ask questions. I'd like to ask the Minister today, how it is possible that they can develop an action plan for the future when judging by comments I've heard from constituents and other health care professionals across the North that it would indicate to me that we have a staffing crisis on our hands? I'd like to ask the Minister how he can do that action plan in isolation of a plan to address the staffing issues. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, let's be clear; there are issues we have to deal with in Health and Social Services. There are issues around our nurse recruitment equation; the use of fill-ins or agency nurses. But we do not have a crisis on our hands and nothing is about to explode at this point. We have some major issues we need to deal with and we will deal with them. For example, Mr. Speaker, earlier in this session I committed to the chairperson of the Social Programs committee to work on an initiative that would see us doing some work in our facility here at Stanton to deal with some of those issues, to address them and move forward with a plan to make some changes if that's what's required. But we have worked across the North with our health authorities, with our professionals, in coming up with plans. At times one direction set makes a group of individuals or nurses or social workers or doctors happy and makes another group unhappy. We can go through a large list of things we've tried to do working with those in the field to come up with an adequate response to their concerns and we will continue to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.