With the project that's going forward now, there are going to be various training aspects and that's what we need to identify. I want to push this forward expeditiously with potential partners that are there in the Beaufort-Delta and, based on their needs, develop plans of action pertaining to training. That's an area that I'm committing to with my department, working with the regional representatives, and also industry and Aboriginal organizations. We need to plan now.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd just like to ask the Minister if he will work with the Minister of Transportation to ensure that we can find a way around the process, I guess you could say, for the basic driver's licence. Right now, when a person gets their learners they have to wait one full year to actually get their licence, and I don't believe that we can wait one full year for our residents to follow that process. We need to speed it up. Will they work on that?

I agree that these types of training should be pushed forward in advance. I will be working with the Department of Transportation on this particular piece of work where we've done that in the past in other communities, whether it be a Class 1, Class 2 or Class 3, and even Class 5. There are certain individuals that want to take this training. I will commit to the Member that we're going to put that forward, and then based on the communities' needs, if that is the interest, then we'll definitely fulfil that.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to follow up on the Minister's statement earlier today on the update on the Protected Areas Strategy from the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources and see if I can seek some more clarity. He did state we will continue to support the completion of working group reports and the extension of interim land withdrawals for candidate areas, which I really appreciate. He also says we will continue to advance the establishment of core representative areas within each eco-region, which makes sense.

My question is: Are any of the five areas currently scheduled for consideration as national wildlife areas included in these representative areas, and as national wildlife areas being contemplated, will they be put on hold for some unscheduled amount of time until the northern tools materialize or what's the plan for those? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The ones that are most advanced, of course, are the Edehzhie and there are the other candidate areas mainly in the Deh Cho. The work is being done, as I outlined in my statement to the House, and we intend to keep moving. We do have northern tools that exist and we're prepared to be more proactive in actually looking at using them and not just talking about using them. We will continue to have discussions with the federal government about the federal designation as well. As I indicated in the House yesterday, I have to have discussions with Minister Kent to that effect. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I also would like to know exactly what are these new and existing northern tools that we hear referred to explicitly. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as I've indicated, I believe yesterday, as well, we have the ability in the North to set up parks conservation areas, critical habitat, wildlife habitat. As we move to devolution and we take over with all the enhanced responsibilities, there may be other types of tools that will come up and make a certain amount of sense as we lay out work that's going to be within the Land Use and Sustainability Framework and regional land use plans.

Thanks to the Minister. Some time ago committee commented on the NWT Land Use and Sustainability Framework but it seems to have disappeared into the quagmire. Will the Minister be bringing this forward for consideration by committee before it's finalized? Mahsi.

This is a critical piece of work. It has a history that dates back to the previous Assembly. We have been working on it diligently. As the Member's indicated, they see some of the work. Yes, as we move forward to the next stages we will be, as per protocols, working closely with committee in the proper sequence to make sure that they have their input at the front end of this process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question is: What will our role be in land use planning, actual land use planning on the ground under the new auspices of devolution? Mahsi.

We will look to have a key role at the table. The federal role won't be as visible. We need to have our thinking clear, which is why we're working hard on the Land Use and Sustainability Framework as well as all the other subsidiary and interrelated strategies that we're working on. We're going to be at the table and we're going to be much more proactive because we're going to have the authority, plus, with our thinking much clearer coming from the Land Use and Sustainability Framework, we'll be able to hopefully move these processes with more alacrity. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Recently we had transferred the territorial physician recruitment, developed a Territorial Physician Recruitment Strategy that's developed to improve recruitment to the Territories. We hadn't contemplated luring doctors with cash, but rather improving the system and how we attract them back to the Territories. We have a fairly healthy compensation package for doctors that wish to work in the Territories and we are seeing some success. Recently, since we've developed this recruitment strategy, we have some doctors in Inuvik, Fort Smith and now the first one in Hay River. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I do understand in terms of discussions that standing committee has had with the Minister of Health and Social Services and his department on these compensation packages, but what the Government of Saskatchewan is doing is very unique in terms of the cash amount that they are giving to physicians that recently graduated, and they're actually going even retroactive for ones that qualify and it is a pretty substantial amount.

Is the Minister contacting, perhaps, some of his federal counterparts in terms of how to address this kind of situation? One jurisdiction is often some type of mechanism to get doctors into the rural communities when they would be taken out from other jurisdictions. Is he speaking with his federal counterparts to address this issue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I haven't specifically talked to other Ministers. We all have the different types of issues in recruiting doctors. There are doctor shortages everywhere. It's just that our percentage of our population that don't have immediate access to doctors is probably higher than most, maybe not as high as Nunavut but higher than most places. We develop various strategies. We have a website. We have bursaries. We have 22 medical students from NWT now out in school that we are tracking. Like I indicated, we offer a good compensation package. We also offer residency to any doctors that wish to come here to gain some experience and practice. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, seeing as this press release just came out yesterday from the Government of Saskatchewan, I ask Members, especially the Standing Committee on Social Program members to take a look at it because it is going to possibly have an effect on the positions in our recruiting strategies for the Northwest Territories where we have a shortage of physicians.

Should we start to see that has an impact on the Northwest Territories, what is the Minister of Health willing to do to address this issue, working with possibly the Government of Saskatchewan or the Government of Canada? Can he make a commitment to trade some discussion or some type of strategy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, in Saskatchewan they're trying to attract doctors to communities with less than 10,000 people. All of our communities, with the exception of Yellowknife, have less than 10,000 people. Again, our game is a little bit different but, of course, as we meet at the federal/provincial/territorial meetings, I would talk to the executive deputy minister and see if there would be some value in us having a discussion with a jurisdiction such as Saskatchewan, Manitoba, which also have remote communities, and Alberta to see if there is maybe something that can be gained from having the discussion. I will certainly do that. Thank you.

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