Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have heard that there are some issues around nurse placement. The government still maintains its position that qualified grads will be offered a job in the Northwest Territories. I know that the Minister and senior staff of the Department of Health and Social Services recently, actually just a couple of weeks ago, held a reception for all nursing students at which they answered questions and agreed to follow up on questions that were raised at the reception. The commitment is still there to offer employment to graduate nurses. Nurses will be asked to identify their top three priorities for the positions that they're interested in and they have been made aware that they won't necessarily be offered a position in their community of choice because we have to use positions across the Northwest Territories.
We're doing what we can. The college follows up with graduates by telephone survey to find out what they're doing later on. I understand that in the 2005-06 class we've struggled a bit, though, because there are more than a dozen that we have not been able to track down because they moved on without giving us a forwarding address. While we try to follow up through the college to actually find out if there are issues, we haven't had a great success with that group.
I appreciate the Member's comments on the issue of using the college as the primary source of education in the Northwest Territories. I think, if Members have a look at the strategic plan of the college that was recently released, that you'll see that the college itself would like to be considered the primary delivery agent for post-secondary education in the Northwest Territories. I appreciate the Member's recommendations and we will see what we can do to work towards that. Thank you.