Thank you, Mr. Braden. General comments. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. General comments. The first thing is with respect to something that this government has promised a lot, which is to guarantee jobs for some of the people who come out of Aurora College. I don't want to mention any other program other than the Nursing Program at this time, Mr. Chairman. This is an issue that came up with Health and Social Services and there have been lots of questions about that. I think there is room for this government to do a better job of working the transition between those grads that are trained in our facilities into their jobs.

Mr. Chairman, I do know that it is now possible for the government to follow up... I think this government has made a promise back in 2000 that under the Maximizing Northern Employment policy that as long as our residents go and get their secondary education at Aurora College, they will be guaranteed a job. I'm not sure if this government promised that, but that is the basic principle we work on. I understand if five, six, seven years down the road that the government... and I do understand that that concept applies to a job in the Territories, not at Stanton Hospital; I understand that. But I'm not sure if we're doing enough planning to make sure that we make as many jobs as possible available. For example, at the Stanton Hospital, the last go-round, there were 14 grads coming out of there and there were not anywhere near enough jobs to offer those new grads. It could have been possible for these nurses to be trained at this facility because even if we wanted to be able to have these nurses be placed elsewhere in the smaller communities, I think all nurses coming out of school could benefit from working in a bigger hospital setting where they work with other doctors and nurses and other health care professionals so that they feel comfortable and feel like they're trained before they could move out to other regional centres.

I just have a note from someone, for example, where they were a slew of new hirings at the hospital just before these new grads were coming out. I have no idea what kind of coordination there is between the Health or whatever department, whatever the receiving department is, of the new grads coming out of the college. I do understand that we have such complex jurisdictions that, you know, the hospital is a separate jurisdiction, we have Department of Health, we have the Department of Education, and then we have the Yellowknife health board and we have Aurora College board. I mean there are lots of players that need to work together. I think when a government makes a promise like that, I think we have to follow up with an implementation plan that looks at the total picture and there's got to be somebody who could foresee the years down the road and do a plan that addresses the promise made. I think, in trying to address and listen to the nurses that come and talk to us, I don't think that's been done.

I do understand that there's been lots of changeover in the management of not only the senior management of the hospital over that five or six years, but there's been lots of players coming and going, and even just at the immediate supervisor level, like nurses in charge or management of nurse...I'm not pointing a finger at any one person, but I really believe that there has been lack of planning, lack of foresight, and lack of comprehensiveness on how we're going to best use the resources that we have coming out of the college. The government as a whole has invested a lot of money to get this Nursing Program done up here and I think that we have fallen short in terms of living up to that promise.

Another one that I just want to mention is, I went to a reception about three weeks ago, it was before session, where Aurora College was celebrating this new program that will be at the college that involves the simulator of underground mining. It's a very expensive program and it came about because there was a huge investment by all three diamond companies in equal amounts, as well as federal funding. It was a very good reception and it was a really good thing. The program is a software program, really neat, but very expensive, and we're going to have that program set up.

At that meeting, somebody mentioned to me that with the limited resources we have for education, and we do spend a lot of money on this department and it's just been pointed out today that the Department of ECE is, for the first time, moving ahead of Health and Social Services in its budget. I guess that's a good thing because we want to spend more money educating than...Anyway, I won't go there, but it's a huge department and yet somebody

mentioned that there is so much educating going on at different parts of government. We have Aurora College; we have education programs in MACA, in community government; we have education happening in human resources; we have...I understand why all this, and I don't know where else they're doing teaching but I think there's quite a few training pockets going on in the department. I think, ideally, what I would like to see, and what a lot of people would like to see, is all or most of post-secondary education being delivered out of Aurora College and allowing Aurora College to grow eventually into a university or university equivalent, or one that would do both. Because institutions like that have to grow and that could only happen...I mean, I think it's a good thing for it to grow. I certainly support that and that could only happen if...(inaudible)...for education and training happens in that institution and not have all the government resources spread out.

I don't know if this just happened by happenstance, different Ministers set up different programs because they got funding from somewhere, or it was a government initiative and these programs are allowed to grow, or it was just never really looked at to be in the same place. I don't know what it is. I agree with the principle of having separate campuses. Obviously we want to have a vibrant and healthy program going on in Inuvik and Yellowknife and Fort Smith, but I see a lot of training dollars going out of the government, as well. For some speciality expert ideas, I think it's a good thing to use private sector and some speciality services, but in the long run, if we look at how we have been spending our training money and education money that government is spending for the last 10 years, I think we've really dispersed it so thin that we have really hurt our chances of Aurora College even being stronger and having a lot more presence than it does now. I don't mean this in any negative way to Aurora College. They do a lot of good delivery of training, but I think there's a lot more that could be done, or would be able to do if the government...For one reason or another, I don't know if it's a result of a master plan or something, but I don't think we are maximizing that intensity that we could get from having most, if not all, training coming out of that college.

Those are my two comments and I would be interested in the Minister's feedback on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

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.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Next, Mr. Villeneuve.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the Minister and his staff for meeting with us today to go over the ECE's main estimates. Just a couple of points on his opening remarks. Again, I would just like to say that I'm glad to see that there's a lot of new money going into a lot of old issues with Education, Culture and Employment. It's good to see they're meeting these head on with a lot of new initiatives that they're coming out with. A lot of these old issues have been ongoing for some time and I'm sure a lot of students out there and families would be happy with these main estimates that have come out. It's good to see that there's more money in childcare all the way around and the childcare subsidies for students, which has always been a real barrier to a lot of education being thrown out the door, a lot of education dollars going to waste because students are just not completing courses or just can't cope with childcare costs and childcare in general in Fort Smith, or in Yellowknife or in Inuvik. Hopefully these subsidies will alleviate that for a lot of potential students out there.

Just to touch on one of the points that my friend Ms. Lee was talking about, the summer students issue, not just in relation to nurses but to summer students in general. I received a lot of letters, e-mails and phone calls from summer students who have been residents of the NWT all their lives and are in post-secondary education in the South, and a few of them have completed their post-secondary education and have sent out numerous applications to government agencies all over the place and have never received replies, or have never received any meaningful employment for the summer or just employment in general. I just wanted to make the Minister aware of that.

Great to see the Aboriginal Language and Culture Instructor Program being a full-time course now. It's been a long debated issue whether it was viable or not and I'm glad that will help enhance and make the aboriginal languages in the NWT a little more exposed, I guess, for NWT residents and for people that want to pursue instructor certification on that level to teach their own language to their own people. I think that's a really good initiative and something that's way overdue and I just really have to commend the department for pushing forward on that one.

Just a point on the Aurora College in Fort Smith, Inuvik and Yellowknife, I just got some feedback from community

members and organizations on why we just don't use those facilities all year round to their maximum potential use. I know in the summer you wouldn't have to heat them at all, a lot of them. Very minimal amounts of power would be used during the summer months, which a lot of, I think, training programs and a lot of summer student courses probably could be carried out in these facilities. I've visited them in the summertime and they are huge facilities and there are one or two staff members there, but basically they're all empty for about two or three months of the year. I think that we should utilize these facilities to either provide NGOs with training facilities or provide community organizations with the authority to request a classroom for two or three months to hold workshops and whatnot, on a user-pay perhaps. I just think that they should be put to 100 percent use all year round.

Other than that, all the educational facilities across the NWT, the 65 that he did mention in his opening statement, I have to agree with the Minister that they are nearing the end of their operational life. There are a lot of them where, I think, we are putting more money into upgrades and minor renovations and I know that a lot of them are going to be up on the priority list of capital projects, many of which will probably be going into, I'm not sure if the Education capital projects are going to be going into the capital investment plans for communities, that they're going to be responsible for to some degree. Maybe the Minister could edify me on that.

Overall, I'm happy with education being a high priority of this government, given the highly technical and professional jobs that are here in the NWT now. Even though we do have to look back and re-instil the importance of trades in our economy and in our small communities, I think the ECE has definitely taken up that challenge by reinstating the trades access programs and the trades programs in high schools. I don't even know how they left the schools in the first place, but that's not to be argued because to get them back, I think it's great. That's just one class that was one of my favourite classes in high school, in junior high, so I really look forward to getting a lot of good Grade 12 students moving on to trades programs after this gets off the ground. I really have to, again, commend the department for taking on a lot of these long-outstanding issues of education and income support and everything like that. With that, I'll just complete my statement. If the Minister would like to respond, he can. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for his comments. In terms of the question about the summer use of the college facilities, those facilities are available for rent by NGOs or other groups, so the facilities themselves are available. If there's a demand for courses, the college would be in a position, then, to offer those courses in the summer. It really does depend on whether or not there's a significant demand. Typically for the academic offerings of the college, though, the demand is highest in the fall session and the winter session, so that's when we usually see most of the course work offered.

In terms of the infrastructure that we have, we're not proposing that schools become part of the transfer under the New Deal to communities. This government will maintain the ownership of schools in the Northwest Territories, so we will continue to advance the infrastructure through our capital plan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Villeneuve, anything more? Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Next I have Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Minster and his officials for appearing before us. There are a couple of general comments I'd like to make on his opening remarks. I'll save my questions or any feedback for when we get into detail. I do want to speak to the early childhood development and the Minister probably knows where I'm going with this already. I like the steps that you take and the money that you put in, but I still would like to see us go a step further and, as I've said before, incorporate early childhood learning centres into construction of new schools. I'm a big supporter of the trades and I think with all the activity that might be coming down here within the next few years, the more we can get our students into the skilled trades where they can take advantage of some of these opportunities I think is a big move. It's a proven fact that a lot of the kids up here that go to school, you get them into a sheltered environment or work in a trade or work with their hands and they seem to excel. They can be very good at that. We like working with our hands and I think that's a good move to start putting that back in the schools, because the students will benefit from it.

The inclusive schooling, increasing it from 17 to 19 percent I think is another good move. So I've noticed an increase in some of the funding that we're putting into some of the programs. So you are starting to listen and meet the needs of the people. The aboriginal language, I think it's a huge step. I'm hoping to see a day in this Assembly when all aboriginal Members can speak their aboriginal language. I think that day will come and will place a big importance on the language again. So I'm glad to see that.

The advanced education and careers, I've always believed that the Northwest Territories has some of the best post-secondary education, education and funding in the country. I've seen it firsthand. I would like to see when we get to the student financial assistance part, the money be tailored to where they're going to school. If a student is going to school in, say, Inuvik as opposed to getting the same money maybe going to school in Edmonton, I would like to see that changed to where they are going to school.

The income support programs, having had the opportunity the last couple of weeks to speak with the Minister and the department on a constituent and having them come through the way they did, I think spoke volumes as to one of the reasons I thought the Income Support Program was designed in the first place: to help people that are going through a difficult time and trying to get back on their feet where they won't have to be so dependent on the Income Support Program. I think that was a huge move on the part of the department to come through on that one and it was much appreciated. It does show them that they will be helped if they need it and if they get back on their own two feet and are able to pull their own weight and start contributing, then they will do that. I thought that was a huge move on the department's behalf and it's much appreciated.

Money going into the Home Heating Subsidy Program for seniors, I've had the opportunity in the past to access some of this money for some seniors back home and it's much appreciated because these are the people that have been around for a while and they didn't have the opportunities for the education and the training that's available today. So a lot of them are low income and do need subsidies once in a while. Most people want to be independent, but there's times when they need some help and it appears in the dealings I've had, the department has come through and helped these folks. That too, again, is much appreciated.

Nothing is perfect, but I see progress being made. The income security part, I have seen people trying to become a little more independent and I really encourage people to become independent and not be so dependent on all the income support programs that are out there. I think that's starting to happen.

So I see some good things happening with the department and there's a few things that need to be worked on, but for the most part I'm fairly pleased that $286 million is going into the education budget and I think that's sending a good message out there that education is a priority and the people have to take advantage of it because with the development that may be coming down, they will need more skilled workers and I want to see our people being those skilled workers. I always tell kids that I have a chance to talk to, do you want to be the one doing the shovelling, or telling them where to shovel? I think by putting the emphasis on education, that puts the ball in their court and they will have to take advantage because the opportunities are there, there's funding there and I continue to say we have one of the better post-secondary education funding programs in the country. I've used it; I've gone to school with students from the South that couldn't believe the generosity of our government and the money that they paid us. They pay us to basically go to school. I think everyone out there should take advantage of it because it will pay off in the long run and I think the investment that the Department of Education is putting into the future of the Northwest Territories I think will pay off in the long run.

So, Mr. Chair, those are my general comments. I'm not expecting any feedback from the Minister. I will probably have questions as we get into detail and I'll save it until then. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. I've got Mr. Lafferty next.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair...(English not provided).

Mr. Chair, I'd just like to highlight what I've said in my language, particularly on the Head Start Program that was initiated back 10 years. We just celebrated a 10-year anniversary just last week or so and we had successful graduates out of the program. They'll soon become teachers in the small communities. At the same time, Mr. Chair, there's uncertainty on federal funding. At the same time, this jurisdiction is in the Northwest Territories. You know, similar to what happened with literacy cuts we didn't expect that to come, but it came and we dealt with it through our government system. I think we seriously need to consider that as well on this Aboriginal Head Start Program that's in limbo right now. We, as a government, need to seriously look into that. Depending on the federal funds we always stated, but we need to go beyond that, we need to commit ourselves as GNWT to say if there's no funding in place from the feds, these are our options. I, for one, would like to see those options.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to touch on the inclusive schooling, the 17 to 19 percent and also 20 percent in 2008-09. We have stressed this over and over with the Minister and with the department, with the colleagues around the table here and the Social Programs. This is key in the small communities, especially with the behaviour problems at a school, whether they need specialized equipment or a rehab team coming in and an increase of teacher assistants or special needs assistants to assist with those teachers.

At the same time, Mr. Chair, along the same line, pupil/teacher ratio has been reduced. It's great news for the teachers in the Northwest Territories. That gives focus to the teachers on those students that are in class. At times there are 35 to 40 students per one teacher. That's a big extreme, Mr. Chair. So I commend the department looking into that as well.

Mr. Chair, I'll certainly be highlighting the Aboriginal Language and Culture Based Education Program in detail. So I'll save my questions for that, but if I could continue with the 175 literacy initiatives. I've already touched on that, the cut from the federal government, but now we're committed. It's great news for the Northwest Territories, as well, again, for the smaller communities. We've stressed over and over and we've heard it at the community level that there's a real demand for these particular literacy initiative at the community level.

We, around the table, have stressed that Aboriginal Language Cultural Instructor Program be delivered on a full-time basis so they could qualify for the SFA Program, SFA qualification. Now the department has listened to us on part of Ms. Lee's statement as the chair of Social Programs, the need for a full-time program and it's here before us. Again, great news on the department for that initiative.

Just moving on to the Income Security Program, I'd like to thank the department for the proposed meeting on February 22nd to come to my community of Behchoko to explain in detail the income security and Public Housing Rental Subsidy Program that is available to the community and the communities-at-large. This, along with the partnership of NWT Housing Corporation, will certainly remedy some situations in the community and help clarify outstanding issues.

Mr. Chair, if I can finalize my statement on this $586,000 increase to Home Heating Subsidy Program. There again, pre-budget consultation, we've heard over and over about the seniors' program, but this will certainly allow and assist seniors with the high cost of heating their own homes, which is great news for the seniors in the community. Also, the increase of $922,000 for increase in wages for housing and fuel costs. Those are the good news that are coming out, but in detail, I will certainly seek more clarification and ask more detailed questions. I'll wait until then. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Lafferty. Next on the list I've got Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a few general comments. I'd like to applaud the Department of ECE, I guess, for finally going above what Health and Social Services had before us. So I think education is very important amongst all our people in the Northwest Territories. I'd like to comment that it's good to see that under the Early Childhood Development Program that there's more money available coming out. I think it's a very important program, it's working very well. I know back in Tuktoyaktuk and also Ulukhaktok, I know that there are a lot of really good programs going there and I think we should continue to do that.

Mr. Chairman, I'd just like to make a quick comment in regard to the school programs in the communities. I think that we all know that in the smaller communities outside the big communities here that a lot of the communities lack trades, pre-employment trade programs because it's one thing that Yellowknife is very lucky to have the kimberlite program there in place and all these other places, Inuvik in the high school they have the welding shop and everything, but again, I think I've stressed it before that the small communities just lack these type of opportunities. It's good to know that the department has a mobile unit that goes to the communities, but that only happens in the wintertime when the ice road is open and you'd be lucky if you could stay in Tuktoyaktuk for a week or so just to offer some kind of a program. So I think it's really important that the smaller communities have the same opportunities as the larger centres because they're the ones that will be somewhere down the road trying to fill these jobs if the pipeline goes through or this other kind of stuff. So I think it's important that the department look into that to make sure that if they can offer a welding program in Tuk, fine. Let them have that opportunity.

I think I'd like to spend a bit of time here with regard to the Income Security Program. We all know it's a program that's required in most small communities because of the lack of employment availability, but I think that the department should really look into, you know, they call it productive choices as a program if people can have access to this, but again, there's just so many things that a small community just can't do in terms of productive choices. The Minister at one time said watching your young kids at home is a part of the program, but again, in the end I don't think when you talk about productive choices you're talking about choices where the people that are on income support can actually go out physically and be able to be independent somewhere down the road and if you lack any courses in the small communities, you're really limited. So I, for one, would like to see people somewhere down the road get out of income support, but like I say the small communities really don't have the necessary workforces in place because you're lacking so many jobs in the small communities. So we have to find other ways that we can assist these people because, you know, I respect the department for making this available to people that require the assistance, but again, at the same time, Mr. Chair, I think it's important that we branch out and get some of these younger people to find employment and then rely on income support as required, that's fine.

There's one other thing I'd like to touch on, Mr. Chair, just briefly and as we go through the main estimates, I'll probably have questions later but there's one other final thing I'd like to comment on, Mr. Chair. Even though we have Aurora College, Arctic College, these facilities down in Fort Smith, Inuvik, Yellowknife, I have spoken on this a number of times to the Members here. Why can't ECE consider that we have two big camps in Tuktoyaktuk that are really able to go...If we could use one of these camps, they can accommodate up to 200 people easily. They have classrooms in there. They have everything in there. If the department could consider using one of those camps as a training base for the Beaufort-Delta region, I think it will expand people having the opportunity for the trades that they need.

As I travelled to Sachs Harbour, Paulatuk, Ulukhaktok, although they don't mind going to Inuvik, they would rather go to a smaller community the size of Tuktoyaktuk for further training. That will take their minds off other things and they can concentrate on their schooling. The people in these small communities are looking for alternatives other than Inuvik. That's one consideration I think the department should consider. It's big enough to house our heavy equipment operators. At one time...(inaudible)....They offered a power engineering program. That was done in one year. We were able to get a power engineering ticket in one year, which was amazing in terms of the training involved.

You could offer welding. There is no shortage of alternatives that the department can look at. I think it's important, Mr. Chairman, that the smaller communities have to have this opportunity to be able to tie into training programs that the department should at least expand into.

In closing, Mr. Chairman, I think it's important that consideration should be given to the small communities. It's good to see that the department will rely heavily on education. I think it's important, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Next on the list for general comments I have Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do realize that I will have an opportunity to ask more detailed questions under detail, but I just want to take one more opportunity to follow up on the questions I had with the Minister on grad placement. I just want to make it clear, for the record, that I am only asking questions on the nursing grad placement, because I do have a family member from Aurora College who graduated and I don't want there to be any perception of conflict. So I just want to put that on the record.

My questions are very specific to the Stanton Hospital and the nursing grads. The Minister mentioned earlier that the department does do follow-up to see what comes out of these nurse grads and how they are placed. I think that's really important. I would like to ask the Minister if he could provide us with information as to what the department's knowledge is in terms of how successful we are in placing our grads. Just to put context to that, I want to tell the Minister about two examples I know and there are a lot of other issues that I am dealing with and I am sure other Members are dealing with in terms of recruitment and retention of health care professionals, nurses in particular. It's wide ranging. I understand once they are employed as nurses, it becomes a human resource issue and a health and social services issue.

This afternoon, I just want to concentrate on nursing grads. One nursing grad I know of, I think she's always just wanted to be a psychiatric nurse. I don't want us to get mixed up with people who want to be placed in

Yellowknife rather than wanting to go to communities. I am talking about whether or not the hospital or ECE is working closely enough with the hospital as an employer to try to accommodate as much as possible our grads. This lady graduated from nursing and I think they get placed on an internship program before they finally get placed. So she was a student nurse. When she was there, there were about two or three vacancies for psychiatric nurses. I understand if there are no positions there, a new nurse can't be expected to push somebody aside and get a job there, but there were vacancies there. Right after she started working there, she learned that at least two out of those three positions were given to somebody from down south. So there is legitimate concern for her whether or not the government is serious about placing our grads into these places if the hospital cannot even work out the vacancies so they can maximize placement of our own grads.

It turned out that by the end of the year, there were 14 students in the program at that time but there were only vacancies for six positions at the hospital. All I am trying to say is if they would have worked out the numbers coming out of the grad program and the vacancies available, they could have done a lot better than what they have been able to do, which is to put people in places...either not be able to provide a position at the hospital or put them in places where they don't feel they are trained to do or it doesn't meet their interest and such. What's happening is a lot of our northern trained nurses are leaving.

I know a couple who are both nurses and we have lost them. At some point, we are investing millions of dollars for this Nursing Program. We cannot afford to train all these nurses and then send them down south. We just can't afford to do that. I understand there is freedom of mobility and people have rights to choose wherever they want to work, but surely there is a lot more we can do to accommodate them as much as possible, at least if it requires...I don't mean five-year planning; I mean like three months, six-month planning.

The other thing is I have been in contact with a number of student nurses who are really feeling like they are being discriminated against because they are from Aurora College. They continue to see new grads, new people just being hired from the South where they feel they can do the job. It's either they are ruled out because they don't have experience or they are not feeling supported in their mentorship program. I really feel ECE has a role to play in working with the GNWT as an employer or the hospital or any other places in the North to make sure that our grads are supported. For example, they are not placed where they want to be. They are placed where they don't feel that they could show their interest. Where they want to work on different shifts, they get told they have to work in one section over another without advance notice. When they call their mentors, I don't know if the mentors are under stress and they are not equipped to train the young nurses, I have no idea, but we definitely need to review this.

So I would like to ask the Minister if he could bring forward to us some kind of a review of the Nursing Grad Program for the last...I can't remember, Mr. Chairman, forgive me but I can't remember when this program started, but maybe for the last three graduating classes and see how many of them are in the North and what sort of programs do we have for them. While we can't make them stay, we do create an environment where it's likely for them to stay.

The third thing is I would like to know if we ask any questions in advance before they get into the Nursing Program what their intentions are, not only to stay in the North. Do we ask a straightforward question? Are you willing to stay in the North for a number of years as a nurse? If you are not able to find a job in Yellowknife or if we are not able to give you a job in Yellowknife, are you willing to go to the communities? They should know upfront. If we are going end up having these nurses move away, maybe we are better off to spend that money in providing packages for our existing nurses. It does cost a lot of money to train these nurses. I think it is important for us to look at how we can enhance this program because it is the cornerstone of how we are going to deal with health care professional issues. It's been flagged as such from this government for a number of years now. I think it's time that we do evaluate this. I would like to ask the Minister if he is willing to look at that and bring it back to us.

He mentioned earlier that a lot of nurses are not able to be found. We can't even ask questions. So we can assume that they have moved away. They will be in a category as having moved away. I would like to know how many nurses have moved away in the North and for those that we can get hold of, I would like to know if we can find out the reasons why they moved. I would like to know if there is an exit interview or any kind of follow-up to see what their concerns are. Could the Minister provide me with that? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. I will just mention to committee that we are still on general comments. Ms. Lee, your line of questioning is probably best reserved for page 8-27. There is nobody else on the list for general comments, so we will allow the question, but just to caution committee on that. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would agree with the Member that ECE has a role to play in ensuring that our educational programs are working as they should. I would be happy to discuss the situation with the Minister of Health and Social Services and talk about what we can do to ensure that people are aware that while the government has a policy of offering a job to all grads, they can't be guaranteed that they are going to get a position in the area that they are most interested in or in a location that they want to be in.

I think the Member makes a good point that we should make people know that going into the program and try to find a way to encourage people to look at other opportunities outside of Stanton. We know we have tremendous pressures in our small communities. That was one of the reasons we started this program, was to find northerners who would be comfortable in our smaller communities and want to move back to them.

So I would agree to follow up with the Minister of Health and Social Services and I would be happy to meet with the Standing Committee on Social Programs and review what our findings are. We should be able to give numbers on northern grads and how many are still in the North fairly easily. I know I saw that number tracked about a year ago and at that time, a majority were still working in the North. So I will see what we can do to update that

number and report that back to standing committee. I will leave it at that, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. We are on general comments.

Detail. Thank you, committee. We are on Education, Culture and Employment. We will defer the operations expenditure summary until the end and we will start the detail. On page 8-10, that is an information item, revenue summary. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Revenue summary, the department shows anticipated revenues this year of just under $3.5 million. That's down considerably from $7.8 million which is the revenue anticipated this year. Mr. Chairman, one of the detailed lines shows that, unlike the last two years, nothing is booked under the Canada/NWT Cooperation Agreement, previously $3.5 million that flowed under that line. Could the department give an explanation, please, of what is the Canada-NWT Co-op Agreement and why is there nothing in that pot this year, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I said in my opening comments, because we have not concluded the agreement with Canada, we can't include it in the main estimates. If you look at the 2006-2007 Main Estimates column, you will notice that last year the same thing happened and we had to bring in the amount of money that we do eventually sign off on with Canada as a supplementary. We are still in the process of negotiating that cooperation agreement. We believe that we will see the same amount of money this year or in subsequent years that we have this year. But until the deal is signed, we can't put it in the budget.