Mr. Speaker, today I talked about the South Slave District Education Council, which had concerns over recent discussions of potential cutbacks and the need to reaffirm this government’s support. Will the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment honour the commitment to increase funding for special-needs support, trades and physical education instruction by reducing the PTR from 15:1 to 14:1 in the South Slave regional school?

Mahsi. Mr. Speaker, the G.N.W.T. is in the process of making a decision with respect to supporting the 16th Assembly’s

priorities and planning and the proposed budget that will be brought forward here in the spring.

Supporting the education of our youth is our top priority, Mr. Speaker. We do have a decision that is coming down on us that will involve the Members as well. We will be making a decision in terms of how we invest in our youth and also the schools at the community level. That will be one of our priorities that we continue to support. Mahsi.

I thank the Minister for that response. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to improving funding for small outlying communities so that these communities will have adequate opportunity to provide basic quality high school programming for properly preparing students for both functional grade level and Alberta achievement tests?

Mr. Speaker, one of the goals and priorities of our department is to support the programs that we have with the schools and with the community. Yes, we will continue to support those areas.

Reiterating that, one of the priorities of the government is to look after the youth — the children of our communities — so we will take those into consideration as well. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Speaker, there is potential for saving the result of the G.N.W.T. reduction in spending that could allow for re-profiling of important educational priorities such as literacy and numeracy.

Can the Minister confirm that there will be no G.N.W.T. funding cuts to South Slave schools?

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Member’s commitment in this particular area, as it is a high interest in the communities. We have already received correspondence from the communities saying that education should not be cut from the budget.

Those are decisions that still need to be made, and we will certainly take those into consideration — the concerns and the issues that were highlighted here. It is one of the priority areas for this 16th Assembly

government, so we will continue to push that forward as a priority item. Mahsi.

Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

A challenge for many smaller communities is teacher retention. Teacher turnover is high in small outlying communities, resulting in interrupted improvement efforts. Within the schools, the Decha school has frequently had no choice but to limit the recruitment efforts to teaching couples only due to a lack of housing.

Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to visiting my communities along with the superintendent of the South Slave district council to meet with me and the community to address the community’s ability to recruit and retain staff?

Mr. Speaker, certainly I am more than willing to visit the communities in the Member’s riding. We did make some arrangements to go to the communities sometime after session. I am committed to that.

The issue that he has highlighted — the recruitment process — is another area that we are focussing on as a department, working along with the NWT Housing Corporation, whether it be housing issues or the recruitment area. We are fully aware of it. In our department, one of our goals is to develop plans to deal with it. Mahsi.

Mr.

Speaker, I thank the

Member for the question.

Mr. Speaker, we are experiencing a very unusual situation, even within the environment of pressures we normally feel, in terms of shortages of health care professionals.

We are short of four doctors in Nunakput, and it’s because two of them…. Well, we normally have about eight, and we’re funded for nine. But we’re operating with about five, because two doctors have left to practise elsewhere and two are currently on leave.

So the Beaufort-Delta authority has made a choice of something that they’ve never done before, which is to not be able to have doctors visit the communities. We’re looking for locums to fill these positions as soon as possible. We’re hoping to have the full complement by the end of March.

Has the government considered talking to the N.W.T. Medical Association about getting their agreement on the increased pay and benefit package for those doctors who’d be willing to live in the communities outside Yellowknife?

Mr. Speaker, as the House is aware, there are currently negotiations going on between the doctors and the government, so I have to refrain from commenting on anything like that. But I could advise the Member, Mr. Speaker, this is not really…. This is an unusual circumstance, where we are operating with about half of the normal complement of doctors. It is a situation which we are working to fix.

In the general term and in the long term, the department continues to work to improve our packages and our working conditions and training opportunities and everything else to make this place an attractive place for health care professionals, including doctors in rural areas.

Is the Minister aware of any telehealth terminals in any communities — the health centres — that are not operational?

The telehealth program is in the process of being expanded. In Nunakput, we have services available, and in Inuvik, Ulukhaktok, and I believe we put a new one in Tuktoyaktuk. There’s a lot of services being rendered through the telehealth system. However, we hope to expand those services as well.

Final supplementary, Mr. Jacobson.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to the department getting the telehealth program up and running in the communities that are capable of doing it.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. I didn’t hear a question there.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to respond to comments in regard to water treatment contracts that are out there, because personally, I’ve been waiting two years to get a water treatment plant in Aklavik. We have health hazards in that community by way of high numbers of stomach cancer in that community. I think, as a government, we’re responsible to ensure the public health and well-being of our people are taken care of.

Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of MACA in regard to water treatment for Aklavik. It’s been well over two years. We were promised two years ago that we were going to get this plant in place. It’s still not there.

I’d like to ask the Minister: exactly why is it not on the ground, and exactly how soon can we get it into the community so we can deal with these health concerns in those communities?

The Member is right. There have been a number of challenges getting water taps put in, in a number — I think eight — of our communities. We looked at different ways to try to accommodate the communities by saving some costs or trying to have our projects fit within what we have in our budgets.

We wanted to look at a new process. And we’ve looked at a process which we refer to as the vertical integration of this project, which would include covering all aspects of delivering water plants, including the shipping, design, assembly, warranty and potentially even operating support.

It’s been a long process. We had initially wanted to come forward last year, but we didn’t get approval to do so. It has, first of all, gone through the request for qualifications and has been tendered out, or a request for proposals has gone out, and that process is ongoing. We hope to have that concluded, hopefully, with a positive conclusion. That will remain to be seen, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the hamlet of Aklavik and myself fully support the efforts of MACA in trying to deal with this problem. We know that it’s a cost issue, but again, we have health concerns in our communities. We need to address the water problems in these communities.

So again, I’d like to ask the Minister: do you have any time frames on when we can see construction beginning in these communities?

Mr. Speaker, I guess we have to give a two-part answer to that. If things don’t pan out the way we anticipated or if we don’t have a positive outcome in the final stages of our request for proposals, we may have to go back to the drawing board. But if everything goes well and it ends up that a contract is awarded, we’ll have that proceed this summer.

Mr. Speaker, the health of the people of Aklavik is at risk here. There are high cases of stomach cancer in that community. It’s been diagnosed through having to send a medical team in there to diagnose every resident of the community. And it’s fully directed towards the water problem. I think, as this government realizes, that should be a top priority of this government. For someone in this House to stand up and say, “Delay, evaluate, assess the program and then come back with reasons,” we can’t afford that.

So I’d like to ask the Premier, along with the Minister, that this project be put on top of the list in light of the health issues in that community. People can wait and have projects delayed in their ridings or communities — have at her — but not in mine.

I don’t think it’s fair for the Member to state that the stomach cancer is a direct

result of our water. Our water’s been tested. The H. pylori virus is of concern, of course, but the treatment through the current facility deals with that. The medical officer has indicated that it’s not related to the water or the water plants.

Mr. Speaker, we do take water and water quality very seriously, and it’s a high priority. We’re doing everything we can to move that forward as fast as we can.