Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Now, the Department of Health and Social Services has made a significant commitment in the past to employ northern nursing and other allied health professional students every summer. To this end, they have implemented a Related Experience Program to help the authorities hire these students. Last year the authorities across the Northwest Territories employed 45 students who fell into this category: two in the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority; 13 in Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority; 12 at Stanton; six in the Beau-Del Authority; six in Fort Smith Health and Social Services Authority; five in the Deh Cho; and one in the Sahtu. This year the numbers don’t seem to be what they were last year, Mr. Speaker. We have heard from nursing students that they haven’t been having any luck, or at least limited luck obtaining related experience employment.
Mr. Speaker, my question for the Minister is: does the Related Experience Program still exist and will the Minister commit to working with the authorities in the Northwest Territories to ensure that at least 45 -- preferably more -- students who qualify for the Relevant Experience Program are hired again this summer? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will commit to meet with the deputy before the end of session tomorrow to get a better understanding of the numbers on a comparative basis and be able to speak more fully to that to the Member. Thank you.
I thank the Minister for that and look forward to receiving that information from him.
The second question I’d have is: inside the Department of Health and Social Services, last summer it looks like they hired 10 summer students and this year, again, the numbers don’t seem to be what they were last year. It’s already almost the third week in May. I’d like to ask the Minister how many summer students have been hired within the Department of Health and Social Services. Thank you.
Thank you. My list tells me there was seven that have been hired for this year, keeping in mind that every authority and the department, every department of government has been asked to manage their dollars in the most efficient way possible and it reflects some of those pressures, but seven is on the list I have here. Thank you.
Thank you. I’d like to ask the Minister, the Department of Health and Social Services hired 10 summer students last summer. I’d like to ask the Minister, is the department committed to again hiring 10 summer students this summer. Thank you.
Thank you. We’re committed, as is ENR, to hiring all the students we can with the resources we have available. I can’t commit specifically to the number 10, but I can commit to that fact. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and again I thank the Minister for that. I’d like to ask the Minister when the Department of Health and Social Services began planning for the requirement for summer students where they fit inside the department, when did that planning start?
Thank you. There’s a common planning process. The Minister of HR laid it out. It’s tied to our business planning process, the funds that are going to be available, the means to look at this particular piece of work that’s done in addition to all the other program demands and getting the information out so that students are encouraged to in fact file and put their names on the system. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
