As the Members may know, taking in the lottery funding into the governance of the Northwest Territories is a new endeavour that we're doing. It is basically to save the taxation that may come out if we leave it within an independent organization. So that will result in hopefully about $1 million in savings that we might have had to pay for taxation. So like I had said previously, we have promised that the Sport and Rec programming will receive the same amount of funding for this year, and probably more. Given that many of the organizations that we work with actually provide both sport and rec programming, the department will monitor future allocations and make necessary adjustments in the future.

I would like to, again, thank the Minister for her answer. The funding framework that I have received from various organizations, I've noticed that 80 per cent of the lotteries over $5.1 million will be allocated towards multi-sport games. In my opinion, this doesn't address needs for more inclusive and substantial sport and recreation physical activity programs. I firmly believe that we need to develop a more inclusive program for women, girls, and older adults. Will the Minister have her department re-look at this decision of putting the money back into new initiatives that look at these areas of concerns, plus maybe some arts and culture programs that can be offered by these organizations?

Yes. At this point, yes, we will be. We actually have already called a meeting of the five sports organizations, so we're going to sit down, we're going to talk about the overlap that there may be and gaps within services and to try to help them with their long-term planning and also the planning that we need to do within the MACA, Municipal and Community Affairs, itself. So, yes, I can commit to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

I'd like to thank the Minister for her answer. I believe these organizations are going to be very happy to hear that. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I spoke about the consultation process. I firmly believe the consultation process will improve this important area of our lives, and the residents of the NWT. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister make a commitment to do a thorough consultation process in the developing of a new sport recreation and physical literacy and physical activity policy with the five partners and their members?

As stated previously, we've already called for the -- or we will be calling for the five partners to come together and work on issues that we're facing. So, yes, I will commit to having the department work with the sports and recreation organizations on the development of a wide sectorial policy in full consultation with the organizations.

Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Marci Cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, following up on my Member statement, I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell this House what the status of the recruitment of doctors in regional centers is today? Thank you.

Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, recognizing that it's somewhat fluid, I can give the Member a bit of an update of where we are today on physicians. In Fort Smith, there's 4.5 positions of which one is filled by a local physician. In Yellowknife, there's 29 family practitioners, 26 are filled by local physicians. In the Tlicho, there are two family practitioner positions. Two of them are filled, but those physicians happen to be located in Yellowknife and split their time between the Tlicho and Yellowknife. The Sahtu, there are two family practitioner positions. They're both vacant at this time. In the Beaufort Delta, there's nine family practitioner positions established, three and a half of them are filled on a full-time basis by local practitioners. In the Deh Cho, there's three family practitioner positions. None of them are filled by local practitioners at this time. In Hay River, we have five family practitioners positions, two are filled by local practitioners at this time.

In a number of the cases, Mr. Speaker, we have regularly recurring physicians. For instance, in the Deh Cho we have a physician who isn’t permanently residing in the Deh Cho or at Fort Simpson but returns on a regular basis, so it's a repeat locum. We do utilize locums from time to time to address things like shortages, when some of our staff physicians go on holidays, take training development. So there's always a need for some level of locum physicians. Ultimately it's our goal to hire and fill all these positions, preferably in the regions where the positions happen to be located. But since we've moved to a territorial authority, we have the ability to have our physicians move around to provide backfill. I think the Member's statement was very clear and the direction he outlined in his statement is the exact direction that we're moving towards as we speak. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'd like to thank the Minister for that response and I'd like to ask the Minister if all of the specialist positions at Stanton are filled at this time?

Mr. Speaker, to date, or currently, there is 21 established specialty positions located in Stanton, 16 of those are filled by resident physicians. On top of that, we have a number of unfunded physician specialists who come in from time to time. There isn’t enough demand to justify a full-time specialty in some areas. So we have some locums who come up on a regular basis, as well as the 21 that we've established.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister if, aside from the Tlicho doctors, if there are other doctors that are splitting their time between Yellowknife and the regions.

Not at this time, Mr. Speaker. This is early in the life of the new territorial authority, but this is some work that actually started a number of years ago. I think the Member was actually Minister of Health and Social Services when we started exploring the possibility of territorial physician services. With the advent of a single authority, we have the ability to actually roll that out in a little bit more thorough manner. In the past we had a situation where we had one authority competing with another authority for physicians creating competition within the territory itself. Now, they're working together, and I can say the Territorial Medical Director has just recently been working with the Medical Director in the Beaufort Delta and together they're participating in a recruitment drive in Vancouver to promote rural physician services and try to gain and garner interest in the Northwest Territories as a place to come and practice. Whether you're in Yellowknife or in one of our more remote locations, Inuvik, Simpson, Norman Wells, examples.

Maybe the question will be obvious, but I'd like to just get in on the record. Has the Minister seen an improvement in recruitment as a result of a new direction that the department is taking with health transformation?

Mr. Speaker, we’ve really only moved to the single authority for the last couple of months. We need a bit more to time to assess, but I can say that the work that the Member started when he was a Minister to bring more of a territorial model together in allowing physicians in one region to have credentials in institutions like Stanton did actually help us to recruit some physicians and hire them in remote locations recognizing that they can also have some privileges in locations like Stanton. Working together as a system and having the doctors across the territorial system has helped. By moving to a single authority we believe we have more opportunities to continue to enhance that important work that was begun in the last Assembly.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The federal government is involved in a number of bilateral and multi-lateral trade agreements, and with that being said, they involve the Northwest Territories, they communicate with us in the provinces, and we have representatives, ITI has representatives, at the table with the federal government to engage on these processes and we will continue to do so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The response is appreciated and it's good to know that we have representatives at the table. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister describe the economic benefits his department believes can come our way through freer trade, and if he could provide specifics it would be appreciated?

These trades we believe will help benefit the Northwest Territories because we are such a small domestic market, and we are reliant on trade to advance growth opportunities in the Northwest Territories in sectors such as fisheries, forestry, manufacturing, the tourism industry and traditional harvesting in another big one. We believe that these free trade agreements will give us access to larger markets.

Thank you to the Minister for his response. Mr. Speaker, some folks are concerned that trade agreements can limit our ability to protect our local economies by removing protections. How does the Minister believe that would impact our ability to buy northern through programs like the Business Incentive Program?

It's my understanding that the threshold in most of these agreements is such a high level that in won't affect a business' policy or the manufacturer's policies.