Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'll speak, as well, briefly to the emergency room, then I'll ask the deputy to maybe give a little more detail on the OR piece.

In regards to the emergency room in Stanton, what we have set out is a fairly, it is, by necessity, a comprehensive plan and it works back from the consolidation of the clinics, proposed consolidation of the clinics in the downtown core of Yellowknife, that will see significant improvement of service. There would be extended hours, people would be able to see a doctor almost within a day or two because we're going to deal with the issue of 15 percent cancellation rates, the fact that they can't do a lot of basic testing and procedures that clinics in any other jurisdiction can do without having to go to Stanton, which we anticipate, based on our research, will lessen some of the load on Stanton emergency. We will have enough resources in this process to do some necessary upgrades to Stanton emergency, as well, just to look at how it's structured and the flow and the use of nurse practitioners as point of first contact to do the initial assessment. So the emergency room improvements are going to be tied to that other process, which we're developing now as we speak, that will improve the services as a system and not just trying to look at the status quo at the emergency room, which would be a very expensive, but at the end of the day an unsustainable option of just trying to keep going and doing what we're doing. Madam Chair, with your indulgence, I'll ask the deputy to speak a bit more in depth, if he would, about both the OR as well as emergency, if he would care to add anything in case I missed anything. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Murray.

Thank you, Mr. Murray. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank Mr. Murray and the Minister for that. I'm going to have to get back on the list here, Madam Chair, but I'll ask the Minister this question. It's very hard to come to a number with the budget being presented the way it is on what exactly does the Department of Health and Social Services spend as a percentage on salaries and benefits and the administration of health services here in the Northwest Territories. The way it's set up here it's hard to tell because a lot of the money goes to the various authorities and there's not a lot in terms of compensation and benefits that's presented in the budget itself. I'm just wondering, do you have any kind of ballpark on what it is you spend on an ongoing basis for salaries and benefits, and has the Minister got that type of information?

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Some quick ballpark figures by Mr. St. Germaine indicates probably in the range of $110 million out of the 265 that we're asking for. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ramsay.

So just about half, then; almost half. Okay. Well, that's good. One of the other, well, I've got a few seconds here, I'm going to squeeze one more in. The other thing that the Minister mentioned in his opening comments to us was the $26 million for program delivery support and that was to include HR services such as recruitment and training. I just wanted to ask the Minister, with the start-up of the new HR department, I mean, it's CHRS now, but on April 1st it's going to revert into its own department of HR. I'm just wondering how the correlation

works between what you're trying to do with the health care system with recruitment and retention and what's going to end up being the new department of human resources. Do you work in conjunction with them, or do you work in isolation of them, or how exactly does that work?

I guess the other thing I would like to ask in part to that is when you're talking about recruitment and retention of health care professionals, do you actually have on staff, let's say, I know nurses have been a staffing issue for a number of years, but do you have, like, nurse on staff that would help you recruit and retain actual nurses, or is it just left to HR staff to deal with? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we work collaboratively with HR and we have a lot of the people that we had in our operation transferred over. They have recognized that we have a very large common that we're constantly staffing and they have people dedicated to that. As well, money that's reflected in this budget were actually funds, some of those funds were transferred to the HR shop that's been set up, but I'll ask the deputy minister, Madam Chair, with your indulgence to elaborate further on the detail. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Murray.

Thank you, Mr. Murray. Next on the list I have Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate having the Minister here before us with these opening comments. As the Minister knows, I don't sit on the Social Programs committee, so if these questions seem familiar, it's just for information, albeit out of the woodwork. But, Madam Chair, in the Minister's opening comments on page 5 he talked about the need to emphasize on prevention and encouraging people to eat right. Now it's no surprise the Minister has heard me bring up the concern of eating healthy in schools on a number occasions and I will continue to raise this point until, as far as I'm concerned, we see this going somewhere on this problem. I've stressed to the Minister that I would like to see us reach a point where we come up with a policy that helps work with the Department of Education to eliminate junk food machines out of our schools. When we talk about trying to get more participaction, more exercise into our kids and yet we're still allowing them to graze over those junk food machines. I commend some of the school boards that have taken the steps on their own in order to exercise their right to get rid of them. So would the Minister tell me where they are on the policy, if it's coming forward or his perspective on getting rid of the junk food machines out of our schools to ensure that our kids have a healthy atmosphere? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, Health and Social Services is working towards a timeline for April 1st where we wanted to make sure that the facilities that we fund and operate, the hospitals and various other facilities where dispensers and users of healthy food products that would not contribute to the very problems we're trying to cure, and we're working on that and we're going to be coming forward with an update on that in the not-too-distant future. That has been a direction that's been given. With all due respect to the Member's question, he would have to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to speak specifically to the issue of healthy eating in the schools. As the Member indicated, many school boards have taken the initiative to do that, but that is purely within the purview of the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have met with all of the chairs of the boards of education from across the Northwest Territories and we have agreed that this would be a way in which we should move. All of the boards are examining their policies and how they might ensure that people who are in the schools are encouraged to follow healthy eating practices.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to both Ministers. It's excellent news to see we're moving forward on this problem and to encourage people to eat healthy. Environment, I think, is a key component to making sure people eat healthy because I think people get accustomed to the fact that sometimes you can buy a can of pop a lot cheaper than a can of juice. So sometimes the wrong choices we're cornered into them and it's good to see that we're working on providing a healthy environment. So I'm very pleased to see that.

I guess my next question to the Minister, again, I don't sit on the Social Programs committee, but Stanton was supposed to bring forward their master plan by the spring of 2004, I think originally. It got pushed back and pushed back and I don't see anything here. As far as I'm concerned, at one time there must have been changes that were required. They identified something years ago and I'm worried that we're falling behind on its master plan on keeping Stanton totally up to date with the ability to provide services to the best of their ability, and that's emphasizing that something must have been identified to strike a master plan. So why are we so far behind on delivering this master plan and when can this House expect to see, and discuss, and debate a master plan of the future development to ensure that our Stanton facility is up to date as it is our territorial hospital? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm sure the fundamental fact that it impacted on the planning for both for Stanton, Hay River and Fort Smith was the fact to give recognition that we have to look at these facilities not as standalone operations, but as parts of a broader system. We did a facilities review, as well, to look at things that weren't contemplated as we looked at individual facilities. Those things being a number of acute care beds, the type of services provided by the various hospitals and health centres. That work has, for the most part, been completed. The money to upgrade and include Stanton is in the budget, as is the money for Hay River and Fort Smith. Once the facilities review was done, work has been proceeding with the planning. At the same time, the discussion we just had about the consolidated clinic has a direct impact on what would be finally decided in design in terms of the footprint at Stanton. It has to be adjusted accordingly. We anticipate that by this summer we will have the master plan done for Stanton and then we'll be moving forward. There's planning dollars in the budget, and over the next two or three years, there's a significant amount of construction that will be taking place as a result of all that work. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Hawkins.