There was mention of three positions under the THSSI funding for the two-year project. Are there any plans in place for all the good work, should this work be incomplete at the end of the two years and the THSSI funding running out, is there any plan of action to continue the work or is it just going to come to a halt? The work, especially with the shared services, I think that’s an important one. Was there any plan to look at how these positions can either continue on or how the work that these positions have been working on does continue?

Thank you, Ms. DeLancey. Moving on with questions I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask the Minister, and maybe it might be in another section of the business plans, on the principle of the Nurse Practitioner Program. I’m not too sure if it’s in here or fits in this section or later on on these positions that are within the department of within the health board, so we have some graduates this year.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. We’re going to go to Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All the nurse practitioner positions are within the authorities but we don’t have the information here on the amount of nurse practitioners who have graduated recently.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Would you be able to provide that information to the Member?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We can provide that information.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to the Minister’s information. Just on the principle again of the nurse practitioners, and the Minister can correct me if this is the place where I need to continue digging into this or just ask about it later on in the business plan, but I am asking the Minister on the principle in the policy of these active positions, if they’re working closely with the Sahtu Health Board or the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority, or any other authorities we have on these valuable positions and people that we have hired. Is there a policy in health that we will hire these nurse practitioners once they graduate from our training program?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Yes, we are in that same page or close to it, so I’ll allow that type of question. For that we’ll go to Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is going to be part of our review of modernizing the integrated service delivery model.

I’ll get to that area when we talk about the modernization of this act. I want to definitely see the nurse practitioners in there and how we can continue to support them in their efforts and make it easier for us, and I hope we can have some fruitful discussion when we get to that area. I’m just lending my support to those professions.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Page 8-10, Health and Social Services, department summary, information item, active position summary.

Page 8-11, Health and Social Services, department summary, information summary, active positions, health and social services authorities.

Page 8-13, Health and Social Services, activity summary, directorate, operations expenditure summary, $7.924 million. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to just follow up a little bit. I appreciated the information the Minister shared on planning for infrastructure improvements to Stanton Territorial Hospital. I am concerned, though. He started to talk about the next steps and then stopped short of that, but he did reference that the next step after the schematics would be to enter into the capital planning process. I believe there’s an understanding that that’s typically a five-year process which, of course, is alarming to a lot of people across the Northwest Territories. Has there been any discussion yet? Does the Minister feel this is already in the capital planning process? I mean, obviously, we’ve known that as soon as we got the planning done, we want to start hammering nails or look after the ventilation or whatever. Could I get some idea where we’re at on that specific front? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This year, in this budget, our plan is to spend $4 million to complete the remaining schematic planning and the initial occupational planning. We can’t go beyond that. We have to have approval of this House to go beyond that. We’re moving forward in this area and this is part of the process,

but I can’t anticipate what there’s going to be in the capital plan in future years.

The extensive communications and discussions in the House and in committee that we’ve had over the past five years have meant nothing in terms of carving a niche for planning infrastructure dollars on an expedited basis as opposed to another five-year process. Is that the Minister’s understanding? There have been no discussions in Cabinet about that? Thank you.

I think this is the final step of the planning, the program planning. I think the next step is to put money into the capital plan. This is the process for all the infrastructure that’s needed. It goes through a process when we first come up with the idea. I don’t think that the department or the government wants to see us spend $1.2 million on program planning, technical status evaluations, schematic planning, planning contingencies, and then put another $4 million in this year to complete the remaining schematic planning and occupancy planning if there isn’t an intention to seriously look at putting this into the infrastructure plan.

That’s a very good point the Minister makes. I have seen the government do strange things, but I would agree that’s a logical position to take. I’m with the Minister on that and I do want to agree with his earlier comment in response to our general comments that this is something that cannot wait. I’ll leave it at that. I know this is a capable Minister who’s going to nail down those capital dollars. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Moving on with questions, I have Ms. Bisaro.