Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the area that we have available to families in the Territories, I can't say specifically between the ages of two and four but for families who have children that suffer from autism, we do have a number of programs that are available for families. For their care, we work with the local health authorities, the regional health authorities, and try to come up with the appropriate level of care. Many times it would require families going into a certain location in the community, because that's the best way we can deliver that service to as many clients as possible throughout a day. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given the difficulty that parents have getting an autistic child to speech therapy, wouldn't it make more sense that we look at home therapy and getting speech therapists to go to the home so that the child is not disturbed and they can go through their daily routine? Would that not make more sense, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are many things we do that would make more sense if we changed some of the programming. Is it something we can afford to do? Can we get enough people in place to provide an enhanced level of service? We've had a lot of difficulty between Education, Culture and Employment and ourselves at Health and Social Services to come up with a speech pathologist in communities, never mind even headquarters. So that becomes the difficulty, is how much service we can cover. If we could arrange a program, we try to do that on an individual basis if we can come up with the necessary level of service. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the doctors and the specialists out there that deal with autism would agree that the best thing for the child is to receive the therapy in the home so they're not disturbed from their daily routine. The other day I had an exchange, during Committee of the Whole, with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment with regard to the establishment of a day care facility, a specialized centre that would treat and provide the services necessary for autistic children. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if his department has ever given that any consideration? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not aware of any plans that have been put in place to build a facility that would deal with these areas. Just for the record, as well, as I say, there are a number of services provided to families that are in need of this assistance. In the most severe cases, it requires a southern referral. We also deal with, for example, occupational therapy, speech therapy and physical therapy, and if we can coordinate, again, with our services available in a community, we can set up a visitation that would cover a number of bases at one time. Again, it's not always the best issue when it comes to particular issues that we deal with clients. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, many times in this House I have raised the issue of the fair and equitable distribution of GNWT resources in terms of jobs, programs, services and the ability of this government to make decisions, where possible, to decentralize services so that the economic benefits would flow to communities in the regions. Mr. Speaker, the highly publicized issue of the suitability of the headquarters for the Workers' Compensation Board here in Yellowknife was in the news over the last year and, to my knowledge, has not been resolved. In terms of the question of the Minister's authority, or the Minister's role, I'd like to ask the Minister for WCB what ability he would have to bring to bear a change and possibility the decentralization of some functions or all functions of the headquarters of the Workers' Compensation Board to a community outside of Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsibility for the Workers' Compensation Board, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we know, the Workers' Compensation Board is a joint board which represents Nunavut and ourselves but, again, the services that they do provide are basically centralized out of Yellowknife and Iqaluit. They also have regional offices, or staff, in Rankin Inlet and Inuvik. Again, the request to have more people in different communities, it's in response to either an increase in development, oil and gas in one particular region or mining in another. I think that we have to be cognizant that where we need resource people is connected to where those activities are happening. Again, I know the Member raised this question before and I did put it forward to the chairman of the board to take another look at it to see exactly how we can ensure that when we put people in different areas, that we have some formula or some mechanism to do that. I did put the request in and they are looking at it.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister didn't exactly answer my question as to what influence he could bring to bear on where some or all of the functions of the Workers' Compensation headquarters could be located. The Minister indicated that the principle behind that would have to be related to activity in that region. How about decentralization because it's just a fair and good thing to do? Mr. Speaker the Workers' Compensation Board headquarters here in Yellowknife now employs about 100 people and it costs the operations of the WCB about a million dollars a year just in administration costs related to their location. I would like to ask the Minister if that overhead in administration is picked up by the stakeholders, the employers and the premiums and the rates that they are assessed. Are they the folks who have to pay for that $1 million per year to be located here in Yellowknife? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, that cost is borne by the workers and the employers who put into this fund. Again, the office is basically a statute of legislation which recognizes that the headquarters of the Workers' Compensation Board will be in Yellowknife. In order to change that, we will have to change the legislation in conjunction with Nunavut and ourselves. They are established through legislation at the present time. Thank you.

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

Oh, wow! That's really good news. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, because I think there's going to be a review of the Workers' Compensation Board legislation here in the works. I think that there could be an opportunity to perhaps lobby the Government of Nunavut, particularly the folks who end up having to pay the administration and overhead costs of the Workers' Compensation Board, the employers and employees, to look at options for operating at a much lower rate. I would like to ask the Minister if he would be amenable to considering that in his role responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we will be coming forward with the legislation that the Member mentioned, but we also are going to be having a briefing with the standing committee on, I believe it's the 5th of March. At that time, maybe this question could be put forward to the representatives of the Workers' Compensation Board and see exactly how we can deal with it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.