New Members are voted in for a reason and old Members leave or are voted out for other reasons. We have continuing Members in a bureaucracy to help us with continuity. The practice of early contracts to departing Ministers erodes the public’s main opportunity for input and policy change through an election every four years.

Mr. Speaker, I will be discussing further details of my concerns and subsequent statements in oral questions. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The H1N1 is sweeping across the Northwest Territories. The latest count says it has affected some 22 communities. Mr. Speaker, the concern I have is the affect it is going to have in small, remote communities where we don’t have health professions in those communities, such as Tsiigehtchic, Wrigley, Colville, Sachs and other communities that don’t have health care professionals on the ground.

I think it is critical to realize what we have seen in southern Canada, Manitoba, B.C. and other

provinces and the affect this has had on aboriginal communities. I don’t think we are immune to it in the Northwest Territories. If anything, the evidence is there that aboriginal communities are more resilient to this thing and, more importantly, need the assistance of government, the health professions and people on the ground.

Mr. Speaker, it is that time of year when it is basically freeze-up, in which these communities will be isolated for a period of time until the roads can be put in, where the airport is basically accessed. In the community of Tsiigehtchic, they don’t have an airport. Mr. Speaker, I think it is critical that this government clearly assures that the communities have the professions in those communities during this critical period.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to state again that the community of Tsiigehtchic does not have a health professional in the community by way of a nurse. I think it is critical that this government, if it has to bring in locums, bring them in. Mr. Speaker, I, for one, feel that we have to be proactive and not reactive and wait for someone to die before we do anything. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services at the appropriate time: what is this government doing to ensure that we have professionals on the ground to ensure that we can combat this epidemic and get the safeguard to the people in the small communities where we realize that they are most vulnerable during this period of time? Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the wishes of the elders from Sahtu to have on-the-land treatment programs in our region. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, in her program review of treatment programs within the department, is this

included within the mental health and addiction services goals?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Member for that question. As the Member knows, in our discussions in the community visit in Sahtu, we have talked about that. I have indicated that part of our review will include a lot more flexibility built in so that communities could come up with their own proposals and solutions that we can partner with. The Member was also there when the chief, Frank Andrew, thanked the department for the money that we provided for an on-the-land healing program at a camp, which name I can’t remember but it was off the river in Tulita. In fact, the Member, I believe, took part in that and he thought that was a very good program.

I believe we have approved about $30,000 to $40,000 for that. We already have programs that allow for that and the review of the Mental Health and Addictions Program is designed so that we could do more of that.

We are also working in Fort McPherson and Tuktoyaktuk in partnership with the Gwich’in Tribal Council and Inuvialuit Regional Council where they have agreed to work with us by providing more funding so that we could do community-based programs. We have had intense and detailed discussions with the Member as well as in the communities. I believe the Member knows that this is what I am interested in doing and that I would be pursuing it further. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, yes, the Minister is correct in terms of our visits in the Sahtu and our discussions with Chief Frank Andrew, the grand chief in the Sahtu. For the record, the Minister did allude to the programs, that they supported the Tulita Dene Band. It is the amount of $5,000, not $30,000 or $40,000 for an on-the-land healing program.

Mr. Speaker, I will ask the Minister in terms of within the life of this government, will the people in the Sahtu see an on-the-land treatment program similar to the one that they have with the Nats'ejee K'eh, in terms of the program, the staff, not the structures of it but the program that is put together to Nats'ejee K'eh?

Mr. Speaker, obviously, Nats’ejee K’eh is not an on-the-land program as the Member sees it. We provide about $2 million a year for Nats’ejee K’eh. It is an institutional-based treatment program.

I would like to thank the Member for correcting the amount of money that was given for that specific project. But while I was travelling with the Member,

the CEO of Sahtu had indicated that they are open and willing to approve proposals from the communities that speak to on-the-land healing programs, whether it is with elders or whether it is with youth or the community as a whole, or families, because we understand that healing has to come from the ground up and it has to involve all of the family members. We are already engaged in that and I fully support that sort of approach.

Now, the Mental Health Program, the way it is set up right now, it is PY; a person PY position based and not so program based. The review under Foundation for Change Action Plan is aimed at creating more flexibility there so that communities can make their own proposals and we can work in partnership with the communities and the local governments. Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker, the Nats’ejee Treatment Program runs about $2 million a year. That is the type of support that we would require, not that amount but that type of money in terms of having a really effective on-the-land treatment program. The Minister has alluded to programs that are run for a week or two and not for another couple of months. I am looking for some consistency in terms of on-the-land treatment programs in the Sahtu region. Again, would the Minister look at ways that we could partnership with this department in terms of having some effective programs in the Sahtu? Is the Minister willing to ensure that there are sufficient resources to ensure that the people in the Sahtu have strong on-the-land treatment programs?

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, we are doing that already. We will look to do more. I would be willing to hear from the local leadership in the Sahtu about what proposals they have in mind. I am always willing to listen to the Member about what proposals that he is working on with his leadership. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Speaker, again I would invite her to come to the Sahtu to listen to the leadership and have some specific discussions on this specific request, because this request has come also from the community of Colville Lake where one of the elders asked about this program. It doesn’t seem to get very far within our border, within this department, in terms of her request over the last six years. Would the Minister again be willing to come into the Sahtu and make a special visit on this specific issue?

Mr. Speaker, I am not aware of any proposals from Colville in the last six years. If the Member wants to give me that information on some of the proposals that communities have forwarded, I would be happy to look into the detail.

Once again, Mr. Speaker, I want to let the Member know -- and I have spoken to him in my office and in our community visits -- we have had very good meetings in all of his communities of Tulita, Deline, Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake. Definitely, we are interested in looking at expanding the more traditional way of doing healing programs in partnership with the communities. We are doing our Mental Health and Addictions Program precisely to create more room to be able to do those. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Human Resources. Last May/June during session I spoke to an issue about the hiring of summer students and the process that we use to hire summer students. It raised a surprising number of concerns from constituents from all of our ridings, I think. I followed up with some questions to the Minister expressing my concerns and he advised that the Department of Human Resources would be looking into the matter, would be doing a review of the process and of the hiring actions that we have used. I would like to ask the Minister, at this point, whether or not the report is indeed done and when might it be available. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very pleased to report that this past summer was one of our most successful ever for hiring summer students. We were able to hire 347 summer students, which is an increase of 65 summer students over the previous year. I think this is close to one of our highest numbers on record. We have completed the review of our hiring practices for summer students. I will be looking to release a report sometime during this session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for that update. I guess I would like to know, if the report is completed, whether or not there are any recommended actions within that report that he could tell us about. Thank you.

Despite our success in hiring this summer, we found that there are some areas that we can improve upon. We will be working much more closely with management in the different departments. We will start a lot earlier in terms of doing some training and making departmental managers aware on an annual basis

of the hiring procedures and practices for summer students. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks to the Minister. I guess if there were some suggestions for change or suggestions for actions, I wonder if the Minister could advise whether or not there is an intention to consult with the managers who actually do the summer student hiring and/or consult with the students who are actually hired, to determine whether or not the recommendations from the HR department are of as much value as the department thinks they are. Thank you.

We consult with our managers and also we do exit interviews with summer students. This year 115 summer students sat through an exit interview and I’m very pleased to say that 100 percent of the summer students reviewed indicated that the Government of the Northwest Territories is a very good place to work.