Mr. Speaker, I am well aware of the environment in which the sole midwife is operating in the Yellowknife Health and Social Services. The authority makes sure that she doesn’t have a workload that is too much for one person to handle. She gets breaks. The doctors take over her duties. I believe that she gets the support she needs from the authority. When I say that I would like to see the expansion of this program, I am just trying to tell the Members of this House that we need to look at this as an NWT-wide program and that the need for midwifery services is even more acute in our communities and regional centres where we really are having a hard time even finding a permanent doctor, not to mention having an option of midwifery as a nicer and more alternative choice that mothers would like. We need to make sure that we look at our system across the board and make decisions accordingly when we are looking at priority. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for the Public Utilities Board, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was pleased that the Member referenced the Meet the North conference. It was, I guess, unofficially the start of our national marketing campaign for the Northwest Territories, where we’re marketing the North as not only a good place to visit and work but also an excellent place to live. We have a number of programs that we’ll be undertaking. We signed an agreement with the Canadian Tourism Commission where we will be working with our partners in Nunavut and the Yukon and the Canadian Tourism Commission to market the North. We have a marketing campaign that will be announced and will be working in conjunction with the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. We have a number of other announcements that we’ll be making in the next couple of weeks and months. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I think all of the work the Minister talks of is very good and it needs to happen. I mean, we need to be working with CTC, we need to be working with our partners in the Yukon and Nunavut in trying to show Canada and showcase the North to the rest of Canada.

What I’m talking about and what I believe is the key component here in trying to sell the Northwest Territories is people want to see people. I think we have to use the people that we have here, and many have come here from different parts of the country, different parts of the world, all have their own unique story. We need to start getting testimonials out there to people in southern Canada. Maybe they’ve lost their job at a factory, they’re looking for a change in their life, they’re looking for some new opportunities. That’s the target audience, Mr. Speaker, that I think the government really needs to be going after. I’d like to ask the Minister: How is the government going to work our people and the stories that our people can tell others...How is the government going to work that into this marketing campaign? Thank you.

You will see some promotional material appearing on TV very shortly, in a couple of weeks. Also, what he’s promoting, these testimonials, I think is a very good approach and we will look at factoring that into our promotional campaigns. Along with the Minister of Finance, we have taken some very conservative, concrete planning steps so that we are looking at working with the diamond mines to have them hire workers that work in the mines and live in the South to move north. We have just completed the questions that we will be using in a survey and we will be working with the diamond mines to find out what kinds of things people are looking for in making decisions on where they live. We’re also looking at the Immigrant Employee Program, to attract more people to come and live in the North. I think it’s an excellent idea to go and market ourselves in places like Ontario and other areas

where we’re seeing an out-migration of people. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister when the government might be able to share more of what their plans are for going forward for attracting people to live in the Northwest Territories. You know, I’d like to see what we’re going to do in terms of print media, the Internet, TV, radio, and whether or not we’re going to go out there and seek some proposals from some people who are in that field who can sell our people to the rest of the country. I’d like to ask the Minister when we might see something before committee. Thank you.

Our government, through its departments, is doing a number of different things in a number of different areas. We can commit to pulling all of these things together and providing that to committee so that we can have a coherent approach to all the things that we’re doing in this area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much there, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to follow up on my Member’s statement with regard to requesting the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to recognize the needs of the residents of Trout Lake and their desire to ensure that they get a larger school. I would like to ask the Minister -- I made this statement, I believe, in the winter session -- has the Minister’s office done any work to date with regard to the request by the Trout Lake residents? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, certainly there has been some work done within my department on the Trout Lake school. The issue has been brought forward to my attention by the Member. We have been compiling information and working towards part of the capital project. It’s still in the preliminary stages but we can certainly discuss it further, as well. Mahsi.

Definitely, I’m pleased to hear that some progress has been made, and especially in acknowledging and hearing from the community on the need for an expanded school because of the increasing number of children. I know the Minister provided me stats that showed low numbers, but I was in Trout Lake myself and the numbers are very high and they do need the extra space to provide adequate schooling and attention for the students there. Once again, can we begin the process of

ensuring that in the next capital planning project that there are some funds identified towards engineering or towards the planning of a new school for Trout Lake? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, part of the planning process will be compiling information from the community, the school, and what we have on hand within our department as well. We do have 11 students out of a capacity of 33. So we need to look at that as well. We need to look at the school and at the capacity level as well, the space in the school, because it is adjoining to other departments as well. Certainly, those are in the works and I think in order to proceed forward, as I stated, we need to compile this information from our department. Mahsi.

I’m glad to hear that the willingness is there by Education, Culture and Employment. I would like to see if we can get some movement perhaps this summer or by fall for some of the officials, somebody in the department to meet with the community of Trout Lake to, once again, at least begin the planning process of the exact needs that they have shared with me as well. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, certainly I’ve directed my department to go into the community and analyze the situation within the school there and bring back as much information as we can to work with and formulate a planning process. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. One of the biggest challenges from a small community requesting capital investment is, of course, a per capita basis and if the department is continuing to use this guideline and criteria then certainly it will be okay for the community of Trout Lake. But at the same time, our small and remote communities do need these services, demand these services, and I support to have a real good examination of this and work towards the building of a new school for Trout Lake. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, we’re listening to the Member and we’ll examine all avenues as we possibly can to move this forward. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I talked about the hiring of summer students. I want to ask the

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment in terms of the working arrangements with the federal government in terms of this agreement that they have in terms of administrating the funds, why is it that this requirement is only for EI recipients and not for other summer students? Is there anything that the Minister is doing in terms of seeing if he can make some changes to…(inaudible)...? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.