Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. To the motion. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I will just be brief in offering my support to the motion. I would like to thank my colleagues Mr. Ramsay and Mrs. Groenewegen for putting this forward. I know that this motion speaks to the fact that we have an NWT-driven-based solution here to our health care professional shortage that we are experiencing here in the NWT. I think if we just started moving and put more focus on developing an NWT-based pool of locum health care professionals, that would be a really good start.

Just on the small community perspective on the use of locum health care professionals, Mr. Speaker, I don't think all small communities want a full-time permanent nurse that's going to live in the community for 20 years. I have definitely had the experience from one of my constituents where they felt they were just there too long and they just get into a routine kind of thing. I encourage this

government to rotate its human workforce, its human resources, from community to community. I think people always like to see new faces in their communities, not new faces for one month to the next going on forward, but I think that if people that you move around in these pools that are consistently busy in the community every two or three months, I think people would really find that acceptable and would be able to work with it.

So I just wanted to offer my insight into that side of it anyway and say a lot of the small communities do welcome new faces. I don't think going with an NWT-based pool of locum health care professionals...Having health professionals from outside the NWT is not a bad thing. Of course, people from the NWT trained in nursing would be the way to go. I don't think we can build that resource today or tomorrow, but maybe in the future. In the meantime, I think we have to work with what we've got. We are up against a lot of challenges as we go forward with health care in providing health care in the small, remote centres. With that, I offer my full support for this motion. I hope that the government will act in accordance with what we are requesting in the motion, that they start focussing on an NWT-based health care professional pool. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. (English not provided) Mr. Speaker, I, too, support this motion that is in front of us creating an incentive for the existing health professions in the Northwest Territories.

There are talks about the temp contracts that are coming from the South or wherever the place may be. At the same time, we have to treat our health professionals with respect and also pay them competitively as we pay the contractors who are coming out. That's not the first time we've heard that. We've heard it over and over. I think it's time we stepped to the plate and say we treat health professionals the way we should be treated.

I would just like to highlight that we are doing this for our existing staff right now and also for future potential staff for the health profession in our region.

I would just like to share a story. We have a first qualified nurse from the Tlicho region a first year back that graduated. She worked at Stanton and now she's gone back to university to continue furthering her education. We, as Tlicho, are very proud of her. Someday, Mr. Speaker, she'll come back to our region and possibly become a doctor. I think that's her dream. That's her vision and she wants to work for her people. She's out there getting educated and we are 100 percent behind her as the Tlicho leadership.

It's not only her, but there are others in post-secondary, whether it be Aurora College, Edmonton or elsewhere. They are getting educated. We must set incentives for them to return to our communities, to the Northwest Territories. Right now, as it stands, Mr. Speaker, with the high cost of living, no accommodation allowance, it's very hard to attract those individuals and we've heard it over and over in this House that we have to do something. I think this motion really calls for an action plan, for the government to do something today. If we don't, we are going to be standing here in February stressing that there is a crisis in the North. I foresee that coming, Mr. Speaker, not only in the health professions but other professions as well.

Even talking in my previous Member's statement, the community of Wekweeti, the small communities don't have nurses in the community. There are lay dispensers, but it's just not the same, Mr. Speaker. Those are the communities that we need to focus on as well.

I would just like to say that I fully support this motion. I just want to elaborate on how important it is to have our health professionals looked after well. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. To the motion. Honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am glad the Members share the concern we have about filling our positions and ensuring that our health centres and our hospitals are fully staffed and fully operational to meet the requirements that are there day by day to deal with the constituents and all that they come forward with from time to time and communities, sicknesses and families.

Mr. Speaker, I think we should, for the record, state that we have hundreds of nursing staff and the nursing profession working every day diligently putting in the hours, the overtime, come back and when they are on call or on time off, they fill positions. We are very appreciative of that type of dedication.

Mr. Speaker, going back a little ways so some of the Members realize this is not an issue just for today, it has been affecting Canada and the Northwest Territories for a long time. When I was last Minister of Health and Social Services in 1999, we instituted a bonus system to try to recognize the nursing fraternity and the years of service they had in the Northwest Territories. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, when community health centres had to be shut down because we didn't have enough nurses, there was a lot of negative feedback from Members that we need those facilities open. So the government-of-the-day tried to find where we could get more nurses from. The opportunity came through someone who had the very good idea -- obviously it's working and it's working to their benefit -- of creating agency nurses. The agency does very well by those because they fill in the short term. Yes, unfortunately, the government and health authorities have relied on that filling portion very heavily. It's cost more money, as the Ministers of Health and Social Services have had to come back to this forum requesting supplementary appropriations and more money to fill the gaps.

Mr. Speaker, we should recognize as well that the Government of the Northwest Territories overall, along with the Department of Health and Social Services, has stepped up to the plate on quite a number of occasions to try to ensure that we are dealing with a nursing shortage in the Northwest Territories.

First, Mr. Speaker, our Student Financial Assistance Program, the best in Canada, the nurses who go through that program and work in the Northwest Territories will have those loans written off for the years of service they work here in the Northwest Territories. That's one of the

pluses we should be expounding on a little more. As well, regarding our bursary program, that's another area that the Government of the Northwest Territories has stepped up to the plate to try to deal with the nursing issue that we face here in the Northwest Territories. The Graduate Nurse Placement Program is something that we work with the nurses who go through our system and we offer the jobs immediately once they have passed their test here in the Northwest Territories.

As well, Mr. Speaker, looking even further in how we go the next step in dealing with the contract nurses or agency nurses. That is something I want to follow up on a little more, but before I get into that I heard comments about hiring nurses and telling them to come and tell them to come and work for them in the dark in 40 below and we will pay you less. Mr. Speaker, just for the record, a nurse at pay level 14 in the Northwest Territories at the starting of the grid is ranked number one in Canada. The maximum level is 16.7 percent higher. That's adjusted to the cost of living. At pay range 15, starting salary is 5.3 percent higher. At our maximum grid, 9.3 percent higher.

So, Mr. Speaker, as the Government of the Northwest Territories we are trying to deal with these issues. We are also faced with some constraints that we have to deal with and I hope Members will work with as we try to deal with this motion, and that is the fact that we have, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, many Members who have been here for awhile and realize that the government had to pay out huge dollars, millions of dollars in pay equity because of a challenge that was faced across the board and that has affected how we pay our employees in the Government of the Northwest Territories. That's an environment we have to work with.

Mr. Speaker, in wanting to see action, hopefully as we go through this, we will have the Members' support as we take the next steps. For example, working with the department already in this area, we want to look to apply a Nurse Agency Relief Program as it was designed. So we will have our own nurse pool in the Northwest Territories.

---Applause

We will be able to fill the communities. That is something we are going to start doing and implement the way it was designed. Develop an emergency response team so where communities are short or there's a shortage, we can send a team out to a community that will help deal with the issues. Develop a GNWT nursing agency, again a poll that we can step forward with and have a group of nurses travel to communities and provide the level of service that our residents expect from their health care system. As well, as we have heard on a number of occasions, when we put nursing staff in a facility and they have to fill and work beside a nurse of another specialty, that can create its own problems. So we are looking at re-describing nursing positions that fill a multi-purpose unit and adjusting that area which would help alleviate that.

As well, more in the small communities, we have to maximize the Community Health Nurse Development Program. That's where we take community health nurses and under-fill them to provide more training, so they can do the job in the community. That's another way we are going to be stepping up to the plate and doing that.

So I hope as we implement this, there is some recognition that as the Government of the Northwest Territories, we have stepped up to the plate when it comes to some of the salary issues, when it comes to the graduation program. We no longer continue to search. We continue to search for the nursing fraternity when they come out of colleges in the South, but we went one step up in the Northwest Territories. We, with the college and Education, Culture and Employment and the Department of Health and Social Services, brought the program to the Northwest Territories and then started our own through the Aurora College system Nursing Program and they get their degrees here in the Northwest Territories and we offer them a job when they come out the door.

Mr. Speaker, we are doing a job in trying to make a difference. We will continue to do that with the commitment and support of Members of this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Roland. I will allow the mover of the motion to close the debate. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to close off this debate. I am happy that I got to move it because I do get the final word on this. I just want to state for the record, and I know the Minister has been here the last two and a half weeks. He hasn't been the Minister of Health and Social Services for quite that long, but I think he understands and he has gotten the message we have tried to send to him. We are not against agency nurses. Where there is a need and a requirement, yes. What I think we have to keep in mind, Mr. Speaker, is the fact that we want our health care professionals here in the Northwest Territories treated equally, or treated fairly.

---Applause

You know, I think, Mr. Speaker, more than money, more than studies, more than anything, I think what our nurses and our health care professionals need here in the Northwest Territories is our full and undivided support; and, Mr. Speaker, right now, if you talk to a number of them, they don't feel like they're getting the support. That support, Mr. Speaker, has to start at the top, has to start with the Minister and it has to go and work its way down through the upper echelons of the Department of Health and Social Services and out at Stanton and in the health centres, so that the front-line workers feel like they're getting a level of support, and feel that people actually do care about them. I think that's what's missing, Mr. Speaker.

You know, we, as legislators...and I want every health care professional out there in this territory to know that we do care about them. I think this motion starts us on a course. The Minister seems like he's intent on looking at different options, on trying to keep the staff that we have here, keep them happy, show them we care, show them that we support them. To me, Mr. Speaker, that's what it's all about.

I know the Minister says we're doing what we can, but we've also done some things in the past, Mr. Speaker, that haven't helped, and I talked about it earlier: causation. Why are health care professionals feeling overworked and beat up? You know why they're feeling that way? Because of some decisions the government's made in the past, and I talked about the privatization of services,

especially at Stanton. It's had a devastating effect on the morale there over the years and it's getting worse.

The other cause that I would point to is the Hay Plan and the reclassification of positions. Absolutely, positively one of the worst decisions the government has ever made.

Mr. Speaker, with that, I want to once again thank my colleagues for supporting this motion, and I fully intend to work with the Minister and I wish him the best of luck with his new role as Minister of Health and Social Services, and want him to know that we support him on this side when he's trying to give the support and showing the health care professionals here in our territory that we care about them, that we respect them. I think that's what this is all about, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. To the motion.

Question is being called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

---Applause

Motions. The honourable Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Motion is on the floor. Motion is in order. To the motion.

Question is being called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Motions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on November 2, 2006, it shall be adjourned until Wednesday, February 7, 2007.

AND FURTHER, that any time prior to February 7, 2007, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and thereupon the House shall meet at the time stated in such notice and shall transact its business as it has been duly adjourned to that time.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Motion is on the floor. Motion is in order. To the motion.

Question is being called. All those in favour? Those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Motions. Honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. WHEREAS the Elections Act provides for the appointment of a Chief Electoral Officer who has the responsibility to exercise general direction and supervision over the administrative conduct of an election and enforce, on the part of all election officers, fairness, impartiality and compliance with the Elections Act and the Plebiscites Act;

AND WHEREAS the current Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. Glen McLean, has expressed his intention to retire from office on January 5, 2007;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that this Legislative Assembly, by virtue of section 3 of the Elections Act, recommends to the Commissioner the appointment of Ms. Saundra Arberry as Chief Electoral Officer for the Northwest Territories for a term of two years commencing January 6, 2007;

AND FURTHER, that the Legislative Assembly recommends to the Commissioner that the appointment of Mr. Glen McLean as Chief Electoral Officer be revoked effective January 6, 2007;

AND FURTHERMORE, that the Legislative Assembly hereby express its deep appreciation for the service of Mr. McLean to the House and all people of the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Motion is on the floor. Motion is in order. To the motion.

Question is being called. All those in favour? Opposed? Motion is carried.

---Carried

Motions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.