All those abstaining, please stand.

All those opposed, please stand.

Question has been called. The Member from Yellowknife North has asked for a recorded vote. All those in favour, please stand.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. To the principle of the bill.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And before I forget, I will be requesting a recorded vote.

Thanks to my colleagues for all of the thoughtful comments provided today. And I just wanted to respond to a few or clear up some misconceptions.

First, I would never claim that this is a comprehensive solution to either all of our healthcare staffing issues or workplace safety issues. And I've been very clear from the beginning that this is not a comprehensive solution to the problems with the Public Service Act. What is quite remarkable here is that either of those things are even being suggested as necessary before a bill could be deemed ready to pass second reading.

This process so far has been remarkable for a lot of different reasons, but one that sticks out is the kind of bar that is being applied to this bill that I haven't seen applied to any other bills, whether it's a government bill or a Private Member's bill. Somehow for this bill to be worthy of even discussing, that it must help all potential stakeholders, that it must be proved beyond all reasonable doubt that all nurses are participating and have completely declared their support before we even begin public engagement and deliberations, that somehow we have to show that a comprehensive public engagement process has already been conducted before we begin the public engagement. And the idea that in order to send it forward, we would first need to ensure there's a mechanism that ensures all nurses will be participating in committee deliberations.

I mean, first, I compare that to the status quo of what exists now. Are we currently doing anything to verify that all nurses are currently fully participating in UNW deliberations or processes? Are we ensuring that all nurses are fully participating in any of the surveys or staff engagement being done by the government or the health authority or that they're fully participating in all workplace decisions? And, certainly, we've never hesitated to move forward with other committee engagement or processes based on the worry that every single person within a given group or profession wouldn't have the chance to, you know, be witnesses or present to committee or have their sort of will be expressed in the deliberations. And I just wanted to clarify too that, I mean, I'm not even remotely taking on the role of a union leader myself or of a labour relations board.

I am not the judge, and that's why I didn't write myself into this bill as the arbitrator of what nurses are allowed to do. The point of the bill is to provide a mechanism where nurses can have a vote amongst themselves to choose who they want their bargaining agent to be through an independent mechanism, not me, or any legislator. It would be the NWT Supreme Court that would be verifying that the vote was free and fair and reflected the will of the employees, of the nurses. And I proposed this because no other option currently exists. The status quo is to not have that option.

And I also certainly -- I wanted to point out that, I mean, no one claimed that this survey by the college and association of nurses was a mandate for changing the Act. It was a survey, and I think it shows significant support and interest that gives, at the bear minimum, a reason to give the bill a chance to move forward. I'm not trying to present it as a mandate to, you know, pass third reading and make this all happen tomorrow.

Just in closing, Mr. Speaker, I just want to remind everyone that a bill doesn't have to solve all of the problems and solve all the problems for everyone in order to be worthy and certainly not in order to be worthy of passing second reading, to just enter into that process of further consideration and public engagement. But I do thank all my colleagues for your time today, and I am hopeful and look forward to the further public debate and discussion that this will hopefully spark in the near future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Member from Yellowknife North, are you prepared to conclude the discussion? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. To the principle of the bill.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since entering this building, the 20th Assembly, I certainly made sure health care is on my mind, front of mind, all the time. As a matter of fact, many of the issues that I've been raising, well -- you know, as well as with my good colleague from Range Lake is many of the issues that affect the people here in our gallery today in support in it different ways, and certainly in support of the system to reflect and improve, Mr. Speaker. I want to caution people to assume that this bill is going to solve everything and I'm going to contextualize it like that first before I get into the next part of my comments.

This bill won't fix the folks, their management experience. This is not that type of bill. This bill won't look at pay or pay premiums, retention, agency locum nurses, and phasing out. This bill is just to establish potentially -- potentially, to establish its own unit.

Now to keep in mind that those things won't change tomorrow, those won't change if there was a third reading passing this today. Those are still the same problems we're working on and trying to highlight and deal with and raise continually as long as I can stand and echo how important those types of things are. So, Mr. Speaker, ensuring that I'm staying on topic, this bill doesn't address any of those problems. We can pretend they will, and we can hope they will, maybe we could even dream they will, but the fact is those will still be pillar issues, giant rocks we got to find a way around and get through and figure it out.

Mr. Speaker, this bill does commit a lot to the second, third, fourth, and fifth step that needs to be taken. It's easy to say we're going to create a unit. We could do that today. No problem. We could. But keep in mind that all the complementary services and investments of the structure of government that need to go, and I fear that a lot will need to be reset and relooked at. So I say that in the context of I want to say last week when the joint letter came out between the collaboration of the UNW and PSAC, I want to stress in some ways it might not be the silver bullet or answer they were looking for, but it was a groundbreaking moment of reflection. For months, several of us have been saying we almost need like a health care bargaining unit.

Now, I know there will be individual nurses both in the gallery and in the public who will say, no, we need nursing only. And I respect your passion. I really do. I'm not saying you shouldn't think that way. And I suspect we'll hear other folks will step forward and say they want the same thing, only us, only us. I mean, I don't know what's right. But I can assure you that I view it from a perspective of no healthcare professional left behind. Because I understand that the nurses in a negotiating point of view and even healthcare workers, if we're going to extend it just a little further, may not have the same issues as the tire guy at the shop down the road. And we're going to spend a lot of time on different issues, and maybe they're a little bit different than the corrections officers. Maybe they're a little different than, you know, other types of admin. So it makes sense to me that certain things come together a little easier and hence this may be the first -- I'll call it baby step to ask that question, to recognize maybe the current process, whether it feeds up through its established current way is right or wrong, I don't know, but I'm going to say is I've been saying for months that I think that the primary question is why do we have everyone spread around who is so different than each other.

So to bring it back tightly here to the motion, Mr. Speaker, a nursing-only piece does worry me deep down inside. Again, I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying the confusion worries me that we're going to leave a lot of people out that really should be working together. And for sake of not missing anyone, I'm not going to name any folks; you guys know the industries you work better with than I do. I'm a grateful customer of the service you provide, a grateful champion of the services you need and support you need, but I don't pretend to know your area or your area of work. And that would be a mistake.

Mr. Speaker, some of the issues that I worry about is -- I've laid it out there, and I know this issue was brought back in different forms in conversation in committees a while ago. And I don't want to get into those specifics because technically we can't, but what I'm going to say is it did seem like it was going forward. Perhaps, maybe not at the breakneck speed some would want, and I can appreciate that too. The enthusiasm behind it is we're having this conversation. And I think that's what's primarily key for me is conversation. And I think that -- I can't predict how third reading will go. I can't predict how community discussion will go. And I can appreciate I can predict the rallying force that will come forward and say, we want, we want, we want, through the committee process and on the road, and hence I can almost predict that for, you know -- what am I -- all the years of -- 14 years of service so far in this business. I can predict -- I can see quite an energetic enthusiasm showing up at the committee hearings.

But what I can say is this: I'm willing to take things on a leap of faith, and for that I will support the further conversation of this initiative. I cannot promise and nor do I want to promise that I will support third reading because I think that discussion needs to start. And that will start tomorrow as they say. But I will commit to supporting continuation of this conversation because I think it's important, and I think it'll add to the bigger picture of the overall health unit that I think is really the key to what we should be talking about. And as such, as I said, or if I've implied in a way or if I haven't made it clear enough, I will vote in favour at this time, and then the next vote will be based on the next months and months of discussion that we probably will have. So thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Monfwi. To the principle of the bill. Member from Yellowknife Centre.