Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The

honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

I’d like to, as well, welcome the

Wolfpack hockey team that are with us this afternoon. In particular I’ve got a couple of constituents, Mr. Evan McCauley and Ryan McCauley. Welcome. Also to the Corrections grads, welcome. I know I’ve got a constituent up there, Nathan Kogiak. Welcome to Nathan. As well, it’s nice to see Chief Sangris here in the audience as well. To everybody else, welcome to the Assembly. I don’t have any questions for Mr. Dent today. Thank you. ---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The

honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

I’d like to recognize Nicole

Bonnetrouge to the family, I mean, member now. I congratulate her on her training course. Also Nora Doig. I also recognize two leaders, Chief Sangris and Mrs. Betty Villebrun, and Mr. Hudson, to the Assembly. And also a former colleague, Mr. Charles Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. If we’ve missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the House. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings. Always nice to have an audience in here. Item 6,

acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like

to ask the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs in terms of the issues that I talked about earlier with the consultation issue we seem to have with the federal government and industry, especially Encana. I want to ask the Minister if he’s willing to meet with Chief Frank Andrew and the other Sahtu leaders in terms of a discussion on this crucial issue in terms of consultation with the federal government.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The

honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’ve committed to meet with aboriginal leaders across the Territories three times per year and then once with the regional leadership and the chiefs of the region. In this case, we are prepared to sit down and have a discussion around consultation. It is also an area of work that we at Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations have been working on.

In terms of meeting with the

aboriginal leaders, I asked if the Premier, the Minister can commit to meet with Chief Frank Andrew of the Sahtu Tribal Council and some other leaders in the Sahtu to discuss with him some pretty tough, sensitive issues around the federal government’s moral obligation to consult with aboriginal owners, especially when they went through a trapper’s cabin and they damaged some traps on that line. Would the Premier or Minister commit to meeting with the grand chief to have some discussions on how they can get the federal government to understand the term “consultation”?

As I had stated, we are

prepared to work with Chief Andrew to have that discussion. It would fit well with the work we’re trying to do on consultation as well. Yes, we’d be prepared to arrange a suitable time.

Can the Minister also look at

providing the leadership in terms of this government’s definition of what they mean in terms of consultation? I know this is an issue that is quite sensitive. It angers a lot of people in my community in terms of the federal government’s attitude in the way they came right onto Sahtu Dene-Metis land without talking to our people. Would the Minister commit to providing some of the GNWT’s terms of what they mean in terms of consultation?

Gladly we’d share the

work that we have done in that area of consultation. Again, at a mutual time that we can get together

and share the work that we have done. In our position, I think, this is an example that shows how we need to as Northerners gain control over what decisions are made in the North.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final

supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I

appreciate the assistance from the Minister. I’d ask if the Premier would, once he meets with the grand chief in the Sahtu, draft a strong letter to Prime Minister Harper regarding the federal government’s ignorance and attitude in terms of coming onto Sahtu Dene-Metis land without talking to the trappers, without talking to anybody in Tulita in terms of what they have done in the past winter. Can the Premier show his support to the people in the Sahtu region through this type of letter?

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The

honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The

Minister of Health and Social Services spoke yesterday on the new recruitment and retention website that was launched yesterday at a media briefing. At least half of it was. The practicenorth.ca website was developed, the Minister said, at a cost of $110,000, contains the most modern on-line marketing features for attracting applicants to our health care positions, however, I don’t see the promised other half of the health care staffing equation -- retention -- on the website. Could the Minister tell us the average length of service of a health care professional employed by the GNWT, perhaps by category of professionals, doctors, nurses, technicians, and perhaps compare that to the average for the GNWT as a whole?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The

honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That

would require some time to compile and collaborate, so I will undertake to get that information for the Member. I could tell the Member, though, that I have attended many long-term service awards ceremonies for Stanton and Yellowknife health authorities anyway, and we have anywhere...We have lots of health care professionals who have made the North their home; 20, even 30 years, of working. So we will have to see what the average is and the highs and lows,

perhaps. I mean, the shortest and longest years of service. Thank you.

I agree there are some long-

serving employees out there and we certainly appreciate them. They bring that experience to the job. But I sort of have the impression, as do others I know, that there’s quite a turnover in our health care professionals and retention is a huge part of that equation. It sort of becomes a catch and release program, if you will. You know, we attract them and they stay for a couple of years, advance their careers and on they go. What is on the website about retention and if it’s not there, other than a pin every few years, what is the Minister planning, or what’s in place to actually help retain these employees, these valuable employees? Thank you.

The information I have is that,

on average, our public service has about eight years. Health and Social Services has average service years of about 10 years. Obviously, I need a breakdown of health care professionals. I think the Member is interested in, probably, social workers, nurses and physicians. I’ve just had a meeting with physicians, who are specialists, who have spent 18, 20 years practicing here. So I think it’s really hard to generalize. I do take the Member’s point that this website is supposed to be recruitment and retention, and I will undertake to get the Member more information. I think, in terms of the innovation and the creativity of this idea, it is a good thing that we have launched yesterday. Thank you.

I appreciate those comments

from the Minister. I know a lot of people that tell me that every time they go to see a physician -- which may not be frequently, but it might be a couple times a year -- it’s a new physician. I’m sure the Minister is familiar with that situation. This is, to me, an opportunity and with that information in hand, I suspect that we could actually develop programs directed towards retaining the categories that need that sort of program. When can we expect that the Minister will focus that attention and start actually retaining some of these highly qualified and great people that we do attract? Thank you.

That might be, perhaps, the

perception out there, but I think we are lucky to have lots of doctors, nurses and social workers that we have in the North. Mr. Speaker, I know there are challenges in some of our regional centres where we don’t have permanent doctors anymore. There are lots of parts of the country where it is really hard to, anymore, have a family doctor. Not everybody can now say that I have a family doctor and he or she has been my family doctor for 10, 20 years. I know some Yellowknifers have that, but that is becoming more and more rare.

I think the way to retain our doctors and nurses is a lot of things beyond having a nice website. A website is one thing, but having a competitive package, creating a very good working environment and making people feel that they are welcome and that they are supported. That is always the short-term, mid-term and long-term strategy in retaining our staff, and I believe we are doing that. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final

supplementary, Mr. Bromley.