Yes, it’s recent. It’s something that we’re attempting to do in order to help, for example, the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority to recruit physicians that can live in Hay River. Thank you.

In his previous comment, the Minister indicated that the compensation

package for resident physicians, locum physicians are very competitive, that money is not the issue, it is just trying to get the people to come and take up practice here in the North.

As we know, the practice of medicine has changed. It isn’t like it was in the old days when doctors were on call 24/7 in a small town. We recognize that and we respect that. Would the Department of Health and Social Services be willing to pay an organization such as a private, independent organization? They call them headhunters. When departments and corporations need specialized employees in their organizations, they will pay a fee to a headhunter to find, identify, locate and get people to move to where the jobs are. Is this something that the department would be willing to pay for? Thank you.

The issue of money was that it was not an issue of money in recruitment as opposed to salaries. When I referred to that, it was not an issue of money, it was an issue of getting people to come. I’m sure if we paid anybody enough money, they would come. But this is something that the department would consider. I would say that we would have to work with the various health authorities. One of the things that we are actually contemplating is trying to create one pool that can be shared by the entire Territories and an option to that could be going out to find recruiting people that do headhunting to find people and positions that are hard to recruit in locations where they’re hard to recruit in. Thank you.

I don’t think anybody can promote Hay River more or better than those of us who live there, call it home and really, really like it there. So I’d like to ask the Minister what role involvement could he conceive of that the community could become more involved, the MLAs could become more involved, that we would have some point of contact with the people who are trying recruit so it isn’t just a recruiting and kind of an abstract way, but to a specific community with a specific set of things going for it like a place like Hay River. Thank you.

I actually thought about that, having lived in Hay River myself many, many years. I actually thought, you know, it’s a really nice place to go. I don’t understand myself why we’re having difficulty recruiting doctors to live there.

One of the things that was apparent was that the doctors were looking at the education of their own kids and thinking that the opportunities for education were a lot greater in the larger centres. Also, investment into buying property was another issue, the fact that the doctors were not sure that they wanted to live in Hay River on a long-term basis, didn’t want to make investments and so on. However, I agree with the MLA, and with the other MLAs that Hay River is a beautiful place and if

there’s an opportunity for this department or Hay River Health and Social Services Authority to discuss this with other members, like, people who do promote Hay River as a great place to live, we’d be willing to do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Health. In the 16

th Assembly the Joe Greenland Centre was shut

down, the long-term care facility that was in the Mackenzie Delta riding. I’d just like to know what the plans are that the department has in this next four years for the people of the Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although I have not had a full opportunity to check into the long-term care and what they’re able to provide to people from other communities in the Beaufort-Delta at this time, my understanding is that there is a shortage of beds in Inuvik for people from other communities in the Beaufort-Delta to go there and that’s an issue that we are trying to address.

At this time I do not have an overall plan here with me on what we’re going to do with the people that are going from their homes or from senior citizens homes into long-term care.

At the moment we have an average or approximately 300 elders over the age of 60. I think within the next four years here we need to establish a facility either in Aklavik or Fort McPherson, which are the larger communities, to accommodate those elders who need long-term care.

As everyone in the House is aware, infrastructure money is short with the government at this time. We are doing health infrastructure. We are continuing to forge ahead with health infrastructure. We’re looking in areas where there is a need, an immediate need for long-term care. We’re looking right across the territory in all of the regions. Hopefully we’re building in the region where they’re looking, as an example, in the Sahtu to build a long-term facility. We’ll offload some of the pressure in Inuvik. We’re hoping that if that happens, there will be room for other people in Inuvik, and we’ll also be looking right at the Beaufort-Delta for the needs that are there as well.

I look forward to working with the Minister of Health within the next couple of years here to find a solution to the problem.

Thank you. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. With the fibre optic link on the horizon and education and social passing an issue in some of our smaller communities, I was wondering if the department had any initiatives that would bring e-learning into the communities, especially the ones that are sometimes hard to get into that would only have one or two high school students, and make it more cost-effective what they have on the horizon there for e-learning.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Member for that question. This particular area is of great interest for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. We’ve initiated e-learning within the Beaufort-Delta and the Department of Education between 2000 and 2005. We had just over 329 students enrolled successfully at that time. Due to budget constraints in 2010, we had to discontinue that particular program. The good news is that we are continuing with our discussion again, because we feel that this is a real need. Now we talk about the fibre optic broadband connectivity into the region and we feel that we need to explore this area. We’re very interested and we will be discussing this further with the Beaufort-Delta.

With students coming out of their communities attending regional centres, specifically in the Beaufort-Delta, their culture and tradition are sometimes lost. They don’t get a chance to practise it. I’d like to see or find out what the timeline is that the department will be looking into getting this e-learning set back up into the community. It did seem between 2000 and 2005 that they did reach a lot of the students. I’d just like to see what the timeline is to have that brought back into the Beaufort-Delta.

We did just recently initiate our discussion with Beaufort-Delta Education Council, talking about recreating the partnership that we had. We had a very successful partnership. We need to re-establish that as part of our distance education within that region. I’m sure this will trickle along with other regions as well. There’s been a lapse in financial aspect towards

this particular program, but we are re-addressing that issue and it is a huge opportunity for us that we need to continue discussing.

Being new to the government, I look forward to working with the Minister of ECE to further move this project forward and thank him for his time answering the questions. No further questions from this point on.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table to the following document, entitled “Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2012-2013.”

I wish to table the following two documents, entitled “Northwest Territories Species at Risk Committee 2010-2011 Annual Report” and “Conference of Management Authorities Species at Risk Annual Report 2010-2011.”

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Annual Report on the Activities of the Rental Office 2010-2011.”