I’d like to thank the Minister for giving us another general update in terms of where things are at in terms of employment and unemployment rates.

My follow-up question to that is: What action is the Department of Education, Culture and Employment taking to address and taking measures to reduce unemployment in the communities?

I did touch on some of the programs that we are currently delivering. We work closely with the regional career development officers, and although we may not have them in all communities, those communities that are without it, we do contact through the regional representatives and they deliver various programs at the community level. I will provide the breakdown of various programs that are being delivered at the community level, whether it be the Deh Cho riding, as well, and then the current activities that are happening, whether it be the training that’s currently being delivered in the community.

I remember there was heavy equipment, I believe, delivered in Hay River and other places as well. We also work closely with the college to deliver specific training programs into the communities. I will be providing that detailed information to the Members.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the support mechanisms that we have in place for people that are unemployed is income support. I want to ask the Minister if he could provide, to this House, reassurances to the people that rely on income support, that the government will remain committed and steadfast to ensure that those services remain as is and that they will be available for people that are, unfortunately, unemployed and looking for opportunities.

I would like to thank the Member for that specific question, because it is an important one. With respect to the income security framework, there are productive choices as well. But at the same time, we realize those individuals are looking for employment opportunities. At the same time, we provide those labour market agreements. A labour market agreement is reflecting on those individuals that don’t qualify for EI, so we provide training programs to those individuals.

Yes, I agree with the Member that we need to continue to provide those subsidies, the training programs that are productive choices, and also the Labour Market Agreement to the communities. And also…(inaudible)…community initiative as well. We will continue to provide those services to the communities.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate you letting me get back into the queue here regarding the questions on what I was talking about and the cost of borrowing money, or basically being one who is owed money in accounts receivable.

In my last question I was trying to ask the Minister of Finance was the fact what is the amount of money owed to us, which was a rolling average at that time back in June of this year from the Government of Nunavut, over 180 days.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, with his extensive financial background, we go 30, 60, 90, 120, 180 days. What the information I have tells me is that at this point we only have about $2,000 owing that’s older than 90 days, that everything else is less than that, which means we’ve brought the numbers down and they are being paid in a much more timely way, less than 90 days.

I would also offer to the Member, if it would allow us to have a more informed discussion collectively here, that we could provide a detailed aged listing of all the accounts currently.

I do appreciate the Minister’s offering. In fact, we’ve already had the offer within the backrooms of our offices. I’m trying to get this information out into the public, and the only way I can do that is when I’m asking forthright questions, and I’m asking the Minister to be forthright back.

I understand what the amount is today. But I think it’s because we’ve brought some light onto the subject a couple months ago and now we’re getting current, and I can’t say that number out loud, because that number’s not public yet, and that’s a hard thing for me to ask. I’m asking the question what that amount was less than a few months ago, in terms of what the rolling average was.

As the Minister indicated, this was close to about $3 million. We are financing $3 million on a rolling average and that has a cost to it. All I’m trying to do is to show savings in design in how we can set up this account with the Government of Nunavut so that we’re more current, on a more current basis and not to overly extend the so-called 180 days that appear consistently through the program.

Again, Mr. Speaker, my question is: What was the amount in June of this year owed to the Government of the Northwest Territories from the Government of Nunavut at over 180 days?

I appreciate the Member’s sharp concern and clear eye on the

public finances. I would point out that over time, given my time in this House, there was a time when that number was well over $8 million, and some of it seemed to be uncollectable. Now we’re talking about $2.93 million down to $2.39 million from June to currently, and most of it less than 90 days.

I don’t have that specific number that the Member asked me. I gave him the large number, the quantum number of $2.93 million as of June down to $2.39 million. I would have to commit to get the Member that other specific number that he has requested. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it is fairly obvious that that number doesn’t want to be surfaced here today. I will leave it at that, Mr. Speaker. I have no further questions.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to continue with my questioning on this superbug infection rate that arises in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what is he doing with his other Ministers to work on this in a comprehensive manner, Housing, MACA, Health, Education. What is the Minister doing to put together comprehensive information, preventative measures to deal with this situation? Mostly infants are affected. What is the Minister doing with his other colleagues to deal with this dangerous, infectious superbug?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department’s environmental health officers are visiting communities that are at most risk and working with local staff from those communities on how to address the issue. We haven’t done work with the other departments specifically on this as we try to address the issue of overcrowding or trying to address the issue of municipal services, if that is a factor at this time. We have not done that work. We are doing our work with the local health authorities and local health centres to see if we can address that issue in that way. Thank you.

The problem of Alberta attracts the community acquired MRSA disease, is this department tracking the community acquired… I know the Minister talked about the monitoring, but is he tracking it?

By knowing where the incidents are and monitoring this infection, we are in a sense, I guess, tracking. That is what is happening. We also are projecting to see if we can

predict what is happening and try to do some prevention work. We are continuing to examine the patterns and the causes of this infection through the NWT, by monitoring the cases that are being reported. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it is a pretty deadly disease here. It takes the young children, the infants. It can cause some serious infection in internal organs and up to the flesh eating disease. People have died from it.

In regard to the territory having only two oral antibiotics that work against the MRSA and doctors don’t want to over-prescribe them and allow the bacteria to build up resistance, why is that? What are we doing to prevent this over-prescription of antibiotics?

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated earlier, drug-resistant infections cost a tremendous amount to the health care system. I think that these are clinical decisions made by doctors and that is their decision, is to not over-prescribe a certain drug into the system due to the fact that the virus or infection may be able to build up an immunity to that drug, then that is something that the department will follow. These decisions are clinical and then we try to take the advice of clinicians. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Given the situation that we are in the Northwest Territories and the limit of resources we have to combat this superbug, would the Minister consider, with all the colleagues, to look at radical change in housing situations? It is like putting a bandage type of solution on, because the root of the issue and the root cause… What is the root cause of this superbug?

One of the contributing factors is overcrowding in homes and children. Is it something that we really need to take a hard look at the housing in our communities and look at the overcrowding? Can the Minister commit that he will have this discussion with the Cabinet on looking at the overcrowding in our small communities?

Mr. Speaker, we can take a look at the patterns of where the infections are occurring and correlate them to whether or not they are caused by overcrowding.

Overcrowding is probably the number one factor to the spread of this infection. I can talk to not only the Minister of the Housing Corporation but also other Cabinet colleagues on this issue to try to address that as soon as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Mr. Clerk.