Mr. Chairman, I wanted to ask the Minister again, I know he's given some explanation to other Members here. It has to do with the front-line workers and the retention of front-line workers in our communities. There is the mental health worker, social worker, a real good nurse in our communities, even doctors in our region in the Sahtu. We are having a real hard time to retain them. It's mainly because of the housing issue. It's a big one and we have a hard time. I think it's been talked about so much that you ask what can we do to keep the nurses and the front-line workers in our communities and we keep saying this is the issue, but we keep getting back the same response from the government or from the health boards. I want to ask the Minister through his discussions with the other Cabinet Ministers, maybe the staff, we have an issue here. Last year we had the same discussion, what can we do to resolve this issue or look at a solution. I know there are other issues that are really sensitive that is going to be attached to this issue. A lot of people are going to be watching. That's a fundamental issue that keeps going back into our region. The mental health worker over Christmas couldn't stay because there were no houses. The mental health worker had to stay in a hotel. I have to see if, through this process here, there is a chance to shed some light to say we could possibly look at some issues to keep our workers in the small communities. Doctors, we need them. We need mental health workers, dentists and nurses. What can we do as the Department of Health?

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the issue of front-line workers and what we can do for them from within the Department of Health and Social Services is challenging because even though we are within the department, we are all within the UNW. Even the fact that if we had a separate union specific, we would all have to match the same sort of contract requirements that are in place. So coming up with another housing program specifically for employees is not within our grasp at this point.

I recall back in the 13th Assembly when that program was taken out between VTAs and the housing allowance program that touched us for about $32 million. I hesitate to guess what we would be touched for if we tried to put something back in place. That's where the northern allowance package was put in, was to deal with the higher cost of living in different communities around the Territories. For example, here in Yellowknife, it's just over $2,000. In Inuvik, it was just over $8,000. In the more remote communities, it's even higher. So that's the way of government to recognize the higher cost of living for all employees in the Territories, including the front-line positions. One of the areas for mental health and addictions workers is the training. What we are trying to do is increase the training that's available so they feel they are being supported by the department in the communities, as well as what we did over the years. For example, a lot of those positions were in the NGO part of our communities. We brought them within government and now they are consistent with our pay levels. So that's how we've dealt with that end of it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the comments made by the Minister are very accurate. The comments made are very true. This is an issue that is probably going to come up again next year. You don't find a solution to this issue here. The front-line workers, some of the mental health workers that we have in our communities are from outside of the community that have been brought into our smaller communities to work because the process of them recruiting them and training them, and the qualifications and all this stuff, I don't want to get into that right now. I want to get into how do we keep these really good workers in our communities?

Communities are putting out their own issues by having to stay in hotels. It's costing the communities or the health boards. So question again...That may be the $64 million question: How do we keep these professional health workers in our communities that could stay there? We need doctors in the Sahtu that could stay in homes, same as the nurses, the mental health workers, social workers. They had built a program through the NWT Housing Corporation called Market Housing. Can we do more of that? We have to look at something like build an apartment and let them all stay in an apartment. My golly, we have to have these people and make sure we keep on having these kinds of comments come up. So again, I appreciate the Minister's comments, but I need to see that this is an issue that has to be taken. I know he will take it seriously. I know the Minister and his staff will take it

seriously, but we need to look at this. Again, I am going to look at these front-line workers.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Member touched on an issue I was going to raise as well. In the past couple of budgets, we went through a process of the non-market housing initiative to deal with the professionals that come to our communities and try to find affordable housing in those communities.

We did establish that. It was a bit of a bumpy ride initially, but all of those units are now, if not the majority of them, all of them have been taken up. I would gladly raise that again to see if we should progress because it was done in two phases and now that's complete. We would have to look at if there is a will of this House to look at doing another level of that in trying to address that.

Part of the issue is affordable facilities in our communities. We still found that when we made those available, there was some reluctance to actually buy or purchase those units or lease those units, but I think as they became familiar with them, the uptake was better. We also found once we made those units available in communities, other community representatives or staff took up those available units as well. It was a success all the way around and we would have to continue working along that line in how can we address that, should we look at another level of that or another phase of that? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will ask another question to the Minister on the mentorship program. The Minister talked about the mentorship program. I wanted to ask for some clarity on the mentorship program for the community health representative. We talked about nurses' mentorship program, you talk about mentorship programs for other front-line workers, but this one here is very needed. I think it would help alleviate some of the pressure we receive because of the situation with our nurses coming in every so often. They sometimes have a hard time. People have a hard time with the health issues. So the mentorship program for the community health representatives, is that a program that has a lot of support from the department to really look at this and say these people, the CHRs can save a lot of headaches for the nurses and doctors and that they could be the link for consistent, professional health care? That could give health care to the people that could help the people. I want to ask the Minister that question. What type of support are the community health representatives receiving under this mentorship program, Mr. Chairman?

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have said it a number of times and we have heard it a number of times in this Assembly. There could always be more done to help the situation we are in. What we have started doing is enhancing our training program for community health representatives, as well, looking at bringing in from time to time the retired community health representatives to work with the new staff that's hired, as it is one of the initiatives. So we are looking at those areas to try to enhance some of the support that we do have out there. We do recognize there are areas that we can do some further improvement on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Next on the list, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Part of the allocation here, $11.9 million on page 6-23, is aimed at funding the administration function of authorities. Mr Chairman, I believe it was you who raised earlier in our discussion the realignment of the governance at the Stanton Hospital where the chairs of the regional health authorities, which have already been working together on other health policy issues, will also be assigned to look specifically at management at Stanton. One of the health authority chairs has been appointed to chair this advisory group, if I understand it correctly. As well, part of the administration has been shifted from the deputy minister who held the office of public administrator to this chair.

I don't know if I could go so far as to call this a board for Stanton. It does bring some more, if you will, focussed input into how the facility is managed. I guess the specific area that I wanted to track in this discussion, Mr. Chairman, was what new degree of accountability is assumed by this advisory group now that was not in place before, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the increased role of accountability ultimately goes to the group, and it is all the health authority chairs across the territory that sit on the Joint Leadership Committee. We've transferred the public administrator portion to the chair of the Joint Leadership Committee. So ultimately there is a fair bit of a responsibility now that is transferred to there where it was held within the department. I felt at the time we reviewed this that, as I was saying earlier, ultimately the buck stops here. If I feel or the information is being provided that an authority is having some difficulty in something or not following some of our procedures or continuing to have problems, as Minister, I would have to step in. I felt that while we, as a department, had the strings of the public administrator portion, that the accountability would come under question. We would be part of the mix at all times, but ultimately having the hammer. If they made a decision we didn't like, then we would just overstep them. In this case, they have that authority to make the decision. We are still plugged in through the Joint Leadership Committee overall, but that is all issues across the territory dealing with all authorities. In a sense, they have the responsibility now as a board, as an authority would have, but we have not gone that full stage. Ultimately, in a sense, we are there having a territorial representative group sitting on the operations of the territorial facility. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Braden.

Okay. A couple of aspects of this; while recognizing that it is a territorial hospital, it is also Yellowknife's hospital. I think the community has missed to some degree, since the elimination of the actual Stanton board about four years ago now, has been an actual voice or office or person or process to use in terms

of saying how is our hospital being run. By "our," I mean Yellowknife as a community. So I guess this is where I am going, Mr. Chairman, when I ask about accountability. Who can my community go to when it comes to concerns, ideas or suggestions about how Stanton is administered from the point of view of my community hospital?

I think, Mr. Chairman, we are dealing with a perfect example of an issue here in the Legislature this afternoon, an issue regarding cleanliness and standards of housekeeping in the hospital. Not that it's not important, Mr. Chairman, but it does seem unusual that a matter of really such routine management should end up on the floor of the Legislature. It's an ideal thing for a board or a committee that has more direct responsibility to be accountable for. That's the kind of thing that I wanted to know. The next time an issue comes up about the way things are being handled at Stanton and I or my constituent go directly to this committee or to this new public administrator to get answers and accountability, is that what we have now, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, what's in place now would be just that. First and foremost, Yellowknife has the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority and the chairman of that authority sits on this council. So that's the first level.

Where issues come up with care in your community would be addressed through the local authority, which then would bring it to the Joint Leadership Committee who is now overseeing the operation of Stanton.

The chairperson of this facility also can deal with that. Issues can be brought to that table. The meetings will be held here and they are open to the public. So it's a public process as well. I will use Inuvik. Inuvik has the Inuvik Regional Health and Social Services Authority, but we have one representative on that group and each community has a representative. That's the way we function. It changed its setup a number of years ago as well, one dealing with the size of the facility. It went down to regional organizations at one time, but is back up to community reps on that authority.

Ultimately, issues here, within the community of Yellowknife specifically let's say, can be addressed through the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority and then ultimately it's brought to the Joint Leadership Committee that deals with the overall operation of Stanton.

I have to put this on the record, even though we have health authorities who are front-line in communities and regions, we will not get rid of the opportunity that Members of this House feel they need to address issues with the appropriate Minister. We have changed boards, we have structured boards back to full boards and whatever, but ultimately when an issue becomes enough of a thorn, it gets addressed by the Minister and we end up dealing with it in this forum. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Braden.

Yes, that indeed, as the Minister has just discussed, has for me been a real problem within our governance system. I think by leaving so much of the authority and accountability still vested in the Minister and in the Legislative Assembly, that the role and the authority of our appointed boards becomes quite limited. The real damage -- I'm sorry, that's not the right word -- the real impact is for the general public who don't know where to go when they want to get a problem solved.

Going and talking to a board or a committee and trying to get a street level answer, if you will, is a lot less onerous than coming into a political environment. I guess I am a real fan, a real advocate of decision-making and accountability disseminated to the level that is closest to the people it affects, but we are, for some reason, Mr. Chairman, still holding back on allowing our authorities to have that discretion and that authority. I think it's confusing and cumbersome for the public and the patients and people who use the system.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this is not unique to health authorities and the Department of Health and Social Services. We have elected boards through the district education councils, district education authorities and we still deal with bus service provided to communities or kindergarten or a lot of those factors even though elected...I don't know in our jurisdiction, as small as we are, if we will ever get out of the situation where because we are so accessible as Members in our communities, people can come and talk to us. They want us to represent their case. I know the practice for myself has been if an issue is around health, I will go deal with the regional body first in my community. If it's education, the same thing; deal with the district education council. Ultimately, if I don't like what I am getting, I will raise it with the Minister. That's what we find. In some cases, some people it's easier to address. We are in the environment and an issue is the hot button of the day comes up and we deal with it. I don't know if we will ever get away with that, but ultimately as I have taken the step or with the department, the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority has representation on the Joint Leadership Committee that deals with the management of Stanton. We are plugged into what is happening to make sure we are just plugged in. Ultimately if things go wrong, that's where I say as a Minister, along with every other Minister in their specific areas, retain the authority to step in if required to do so. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Ms. Lee.