Sandy Lee

I can accept what the Member is saying because that is basically what we are doing, which is continuing to work on setting up five committees within the resources we have and using our existing staff. We won’t be able to do honorarium and other things that we would like to do, but using our existing resources to do that. The Member is right; I’m not sure that the legislation requires that the community request it, but certainly we couldn’t get this started without having the interest and participation of community leaders and some focused energy on it. I would like to just ask Dana to give you...

It is consistent with the way the main estimate is presented. There is no money allocated for the children and family services committees. Our response to the recommendation from the committee was that we do appreciate the need for that. We would like to proceed with that but in order to do a proper job of it, we need to get the funding for that. We believe one of the main reasons these committees have not been successful in being established, even though, as the Member states, that these were provided for within the legislation, is because it’s not properly resourced. To be able to do that we...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t have anything to add to that. I don’t agree with him, but those are his comments.

That item also was requested by the Member in the standing committee and I responded to the standing committee on the same day, February 25th, that we will implement that within the upcoming 2011-12 fiscal year using our own resources. That would also include consulting with child protection workers and managers. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We do continue to work with Fort McPherson to set up that committee there and part of what I would like to see happen there is to have less children in care in McPherson. I agree with the Member that Fort McPherson has one of the highest number of children in care. So that is a long-term goal and we will continue to do that. I want to make that clear. We will continue to work on setting up more children and family services committees.

In the communication I had when I met with the committee on the recommendations of the CFSA review it was made clear to me that you...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me to my right Deputy Minister Paddy Meade. Further right is Mr. Derek Elkin, director of finance. To my left is Mr. Dana Heide, assistant deputy minister of operations.

No, $45,000.

Yes, I said yes, and I’ll say it again. I understand the challenge that the Member is pointing out is the fact that right now we block fund the program to Aurora College. Yes, I will commit to reviewing that separately on the merit of each program.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I clarified that in my letter to the committee and all the Members on February...actually, this morning. The five committees that we’re talking about in the business plan is to do it the way we’ve been doing it, which is to have no money in it. That’s not new. There have been no monies to set up children and family services committees. Okay? So we will continue to do that. But we have seen very poor results out of that.

I want to say, the CFSA standing committee report said that you would like us to get a lot more aggressive and have a more robust program. You want us...

Placing all of those nurse practitioner grads into our system would require partnership between the department and the government as an employer and the graduating students. I could tell you that we have a history of really good work in employing those nurse practitioners coming out of Aurora College. We have enough nurse practitioner positions within the whole Territory to employ every one of them if they wanted a job. It is difficult to always match nurse practitioners and other health care professionals who graduate from our education system into the exact positions and communities that...