Thank you, Mr. Roland. Members' statements. Returns to oral questions. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. I would like to welcome anybody that is in the gallery today viewing our proceedings. It is always a pleasure to have people watching the proceedings in the House here. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. It gets back to my Member's statement earlier today where I questioned how the Government of the Northwest Territories is recruiting nurses to work specifically at Stanton hospital. How many locum nurses is the territory bringing in to work in our hospitals? The second part to that question is, at what cost, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we bring in locum nurses on an as-required basis with the various authorities in the different facilities. I can indicate to the Member that the largest amount or use of locum nurses is in the Inuvik region, followed by the Sahtu. We do pay a very stiff premium. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I didn't hear the Minister mention how many nurses are we talking and at what price. I want a specific price from the Minister on what it is costing the government to bring in locum nurses here in the Northwest Territories. I also want to know if the Minister has a strategy to try to mitigate the amount of money that we are spending on bringing nurses into this territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we spend in the neighbourhood of $1 million a year on agency nurses. We do have plans to mitigate that. We have invested millions of dollars in the Northern Nursing Program at the Aurora College. We have been in a state of transition for the last 18 months. This coming spring, we anticipate, are planning, and are very glad to see about 24 nurse graduates that are going to be graduating with their four-year degree and nursing certification that we are going to be making job offers to. As well, we are looking seriously at ways to set up permanent float pools in Yellowknife, the Inuvik region and possibly the Sahtu where we would have nurses whose job it is to go and cover off and rotate through with the employees of the various authorities, but that would be in the North where we wouldn't have to pay that very dear fee that we feed to the agencies right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would be interested in knowing if that $1 million went directly to the agency, or if it actually included the wages that were paid to these nurses. That would be an interesting thing to find out. I think that $1 million probably went directly to the agency. I would like to finally ask the Minister, does he see a correlation between the amalgamation of human resources and the inability in his health care system to get nurses on the ground and working here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In fact, we anticipate, and we are starting to see, an improvement in our HR services now that we are consolidating, being more efficient and coordinating our efforts. The problems with nurses have long preceded the fact that we have consolidated HR. We continue to struggle nationally and internationally with a shortage of nurses. We have spent millions, as I have said, beefing up and coming up with a very good nursing program in the Northwest Territories. As well, we are also going to be developing an improved program for licensed practical nurses which will allow them to improve their scope of practice and bring in the two-year certificate program where they will be able to provide more support on the floor, two nurses in homecare and dialysis on the wards to help us offset and take off some of the pressures that are currently there on the nurses. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Honourable Charles Dent, Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment. Many parents send their children off to school in the Northwest Territories everyday hoping and praying that if their child has an allergy to certain substances, that that child will not come into contact with that substance in their school day. Right now, it's difficult to offer those parents any assurances that their child will not be exposed to things that might be life threatening to them. I would like to ask the Minister of Education what his department has done to ensure that these children are protected in the school environment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am aware of the urgency of dealing with this situation, and the Member raised the issue with us last fall. Since that time, the assistant deputy minister has written to all superintendents, urging the superintendents to ensure that they have a clear policy developed to deal with issues around anaphylaxis and to make sure that there is a policy in place at all of our schools. So we don't have policies in place at this point, but schools have been asked to develop those now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Quite often when we lack policies or legislation in certain areas, we like to look at what is being done in other jurisdictions, so that we can borrow best practices from already established practices. I would like to ask the Minister if he is aware of what other jurisdictions in Canada do to respond to this growing issue of allergies. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not particularly aware of what all other jurisdictions do. I know the department has looked at what is done in some jurisdictions. I know that included with the letter that was sent out by the assistant deputy minister was a pamphlet that was provided by Health Canada around the issue of anaphylaxis and preparing policies. So we have been doing some research to find out from the federal government and other areas what is being done. We will continue to do that and watch for best practices. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One last question. Would the Minister be prepared to not only put in place a policy that would try to restrict the bringing of things that children are particularly allergic to into the schools, but also some type of a medical emergency response awareness within the school itself, because quite often these situations require immediate attention. It would not hurt for the educators to be aware of such responses. Would he go as far as to commit to doing that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to say that we would follow up on that recommendation. We already provide schools with some direction for emergency response in a whole range of situations. It is my intention to share that with Members of this Assembly, so you can see how we are doing that currently. We are looking at expanding it to include specific references to anaphylaxis and how to deal with those instances. Thank you.