I’m certainly looking forward to going to Aklavik sometime, but I need to sit down with my colleagues and Mr. Bowden to see about talking to and arranging a meeting with the people in Aklavik and to sit down with the MLA in terms of coordinating the dates. I’m hoping to go to Aklavik and have this very important meeting sometime in the next couple of months. Of course, that means coordinating all our schedules to get into Aklavik.

Thank you, Mr.

Yakeleya. The

honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier this afternoon. The GNWT went out to RFP for a liquor retail contract in Hay River. The contract was awarded. The liquor store would move from the downtown to the industrial area, as per the contract. The development permit for the new location that was granted by the town was appealed. Opponents to the change of location, for various reasons that I won’t go into, appealed to the courts. This matter has been in limbo for more than a year. I’d like to ask the Premier, as the grantor of the contract for the liquor retail services in the Northwest Territories, if he is aware of this situation in Hay River.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I’m not sure if that issue is still before the courts. I’ll allow the Premier to answer. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That case has had some controversy in the community of Hay River when it comes to the community development permit process. An RFP was issued. The decision was made by the Government of the Northwest Territories. Since then, because of the

issues that have arisen there, it’s been extended. The existing operation contract has been extended, but we are coming to a point where we’re going to have to review other options that are available to us if there’s no settlement in that community.

It is an issue: a big issue. It can become a big issue in a small town. It seems that most of the angst is around the whole issue of the location of the liquor store. Again, as the grantor of the contract does the Premier feel that there is any influence he could bring to bear to resolve this too long outstanding issue?

Until I get a recent update as to what the state of the situation is in the community of Hay River, we’re being careful as to our involvement. The fact is that the Government of the Northwest Territories’ process has been on existing facilities and, as old contracts ended, on looking at new contracts for efficiencies. We have to look at a combined services retail storage facility, thereby saving some of the cost of having separate facilities. That’s the process we look at to continue. Our preference would be to continue with that path. The RFP proved a result, and we’re hoping that things will get concluded to finalize the deal.

Mr. Speaker, without going into the merits of the concerns that have been raised, I’d like to know: at what point does the Premier think it would be appropriate to step in, to at least discuss some way the government might be able to be involved to resolve this issue?

Again, having to be careful with all the interested parties out there, we have to first see where the situation sits within the community. At that point, the department would look at reviewing its next options. We are considering what options are available now and would be prepared to sit down with the Members for the community and look at what the next processes or steps may be.

Thank you, Mr.

Roland. Final

supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Again, I realize that those looking on from the outside might not consider this to be a big issue, but it has dragged on for a long time. It has caused division in the community. Again, not wanting to hold the contractor up but not wanting to discredit the concerns of those folks — just general townspeople who think it’s good to have a liquor retail store located in the downtown, where there are sidewalks and adequate parking and so on — could the Premier commit to attending a meeting, perhaps, with all the stakeholders and parties involved to see if there is a solution that the government could bring forward?

First of all, I will sit down with the department to get the latest update as to what’s happening and sit down with the Members as to

where things are and what options may be available to us. Then we’ll decide at that point what next steps we may be taking. If it’s a meeting of that nature, then we will take that into consideration. The first step is to get the latest update and sit down with the Members.

Thank you, Mr.

Roland. The

honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr.

Bromley. The

honourable

Minister responsible for Health and

Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a clear understanding within our health and social services system to follow the affirmative action plan and to train and hire as many northern employees and graduates as possible.

I probably don’t need to state that the role of nurses is particularly enhanced when they are from the community and bring the local and cultural understanding and sometimes even linguistic services to their work. Is this fully appreciated by our health managers, and what is being done to ensure that this appreciation shows itself in the hiring practices?

Absolutely, Mr. Speaker. Our health authorities are encouraged to hire Northerners.

In the situation to which the Member is referring, we had one of the biggest graduating nursing classes this year from Aurora College. Out of 15 grads, I think almost all of them were offered a northern placement. Ten of them have accepted their placements in the Territories, and seven were placed at Stanton Territorial Health Authority.

I understand that not everybody who wanted to work at Stanton was offered a job at Stanton. The constituent that the Member is referring to was placed in Hay River, and unfortunately that did not work for her personal circumstances.

Thanks to the Minister for those remarks. Why are we hiring locums from afar when we have local nurses available to do the job?

I think we are talking about two different things. I do acknowledge and want to say that we could do a better job at supporting and helping the new grads coming out of college. That’s one of the reasons why not all nurse grads can be placed in a setting: they do need support, and we need to make sure that experienced nurses and staff are able to be there to help them.

On the use of locum nurses, any nurse you talk to will tell you no nurse is the same as the nurse right next to her. Nurses come with different backgrounds and different qualifications, and we have to make sure that we have the right mix of nurses. When we hire a locum nurse when there is an existing new grad nurse in the Territories, it could be because the locum nurse provides a different background that the new grad doesn’t have. Obviously, we need to make sure the new grads get the training necessary to be fully skilled at the job they’re assigned to.

Thank you, Ms.

Lee. Final

supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the specific case I have in the back of my mind, the person had considerable experience: over a decade and a half in mental health and addictions. It seems to me it should be appropriate and should be easily slotted in. I’m wondering why we continue to hire even short-term locums from afar when we could be building the experience of our graduates here.

The Minister did acknowledge that more needs to be done. I’d like to hear exactly what is being done, then, to address that need.

First of all, we have reduced the use of locum nurses substantially. We have a larger pool of casual nurses registered with the nursing association who are available to work in the Territories. This is less costly than bringing in locums. I could provide the Member with the stats on that.

In the situation that the Member is talking about, particular to his constituent, I understand that she wanted to work in the psychiatric unit. That’s a very, very small unit, and it could be that the hospital was not able to accommodate that situation. I’d be happy to undertake seeing what other options were made available to her. I think that talking about locums and a new grad placement are separate things, and I’d be happy to look into that specific situation.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.