Thank you, Mr. Chair. In this area, the areas of significant growth are as a result of the French language services, around $1.1 million, and there’s also some growth around the Information System Services Centre. A lot of those costs in the Information Services Centre, there are about $1.5 million of one-time costs and that’s actually built into the budget.

The other areas that the Member is talking about, we have provisions for the work that’s being done. A lot of the work that’s being done is being done by staff, which is covered by staff dollars. The other one-time costs, some of them may...

When it comes to additional time off and things like that, we are bound by the terms and conditions in the Collective Agreement. So we have to find ways to recruit as well as retain our professionals within the working environment that we have. But we are open to suggestions and recommendations from committee. I would say that if committee has some ideas, we did share the draft plan with them, they did provide us with some input, but it’s a living document and we’re open to suggestions from Members, from communities, from Aboriginal governments, anybody that can help us find ways to recruit...

I remember in the 16th Assembly there were a lot of questions around this, and at that time we didn’t have solid agreements with Nunavut on what the actual costs are being, but we do have solid reciprocal billing agreements with Nunavut which clearly articulate the cost of the services and which services there are costs associated with, and we do collect the money. There are some delays. For instance, Stanton is behind about five months at this time on billings, and this is often as a result of capacity within Stanton. Receivables at year end are for services in that year to Nunavut and some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right; we do continue to have issues with retaining mental health and addictions counsellors as well as counsellors throughout the system. It’s a difficult position to fill and it is a position that does come with a significant amount of burnout, given that the individuals are often working with very difficult situations. We are coming forward with a new Human Resource Strategy within the Department of Health and Social Services and we plan to release that later this month, so that will start to outline some of the work that we’re doing to recruit as well...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s already had its second reading and it’s in front of committee, is the Health Professions Act. The Health Professions Act will give us the ability to create regulations to basically licence health professionals like naturopaths in the Northwest Territories. We have four priorities in that area. Recognizing how increasingly popular naturopaths are, naturopaths are actually fourth on the list. I put on the list for something to be done with the other three immediately after the legislation passes.

It will take a while once the legislation passes and is concluded, but we...

As I indicated, we can report 77 percent to 89 percent and that’s based on the data that has been collected. Without real territory-wide electronic medical records, a real solid information system across the Northwest Territories, it does prove difficult to get 100 percent accurate information, which is why we’re moving in that direction so we can give the Members the exact totals.

I do believe, and I do feel, that our immunization rates are higher than this. We haven’t received, and I haven’t had any, strong pushback on vaccination. The early childhood programs are proving to be quite...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks to the Member for his comments. I too am very excited about the opening of the Hay River hospital. I know that the Members did have an opportunity to tour that facility last summer and got to see the size and the scope of that particular building and the amazing things that are going to be going on there, including midwifery, in Hay River. We will be able to support births. I believe we might even have some births anticipated for this month. That’s fantastic news that we’ve been able to make that progress.

I really appreciate the Member’s comments on the system...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, I had a conversation with the deputy minister and the chief public health officer just recently about that exact topic, and the public health officer did confirm to me that there are no cases of things like measles in the Northwest Territories.

We actually have a very high rate of immunizations here in the Northwest Territories. Obviously, we want to continue to immunize as much as possible, so I really appreciate this opportunity to speak to the Members as well as to the residents of the Northwest Territories and just reiterate a comment that the Member made...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I thank the Member for his comments. I’m not going to go into too much detail, just a couple points.

The Mental Health Act is a priority. We really wanted to get that done in the life of this government. But, as the Member said, it’s huge. It’s a big piece of legislation. It’s an incredibly important piece of legislation. In addition to all the other pieces of legislation that are happening here in the government and all the other work that is being done, I don’t believe we’re going to be able to get it done. I know we’re not going to be able to get it done in time to table...

Mr. Speaker, I do hear the Member, but that actually does contradict what we heard from the Aboriginal governments, which is they wanted to have the ownership of these programs; they wanted to be the leaders of these programs. We’re partners. We’re participants in helping ensure they have the resources they need.

We do recognize that there’s a real demand for these programs, and more so, which is why we’re working with the Aboriginal governments to pursue other funding partners so that we can hopefully expand the number of programs in the Northwest Territories. But given that these are...