Thank you, Mr. Chair. And the member mentioned that it's a fundamental issue. We're talking about public safety. At the bare minimum, the government needs to provide a safe and secure environment for people. When we don't have confidence that we'll have physicians in our communities, that a medivac will arrive, people don't feel safe. We're not fulfilling our duties. And so I agree that changes need to be made. We are -- I've said before I believe the government is stretched too thin. We're trying to do too many things, and I see that in the health care sector as well. We'll often take money from the federal government for health for their pet project that they want to implement, and then once that money runs out we'll just keep funding those positions, that program. We need to take a critical look at what we're delivering and what we want to deliver and what we want to focus on and then we actually need to focus on that. We can't continue to just add more health care positions when we don't have the staff to fill the positions that we have now. We create a new position. We're poaching staff from somewhere else within the health care sector. So what we're doing is not working. There's questions about the governing structure. I think those questions are happening across Canada. There's discussions happening nationally about health authorities versus other ways of doing things, and we see what's happening in Alberta, and I think we owe it to our residents to engage in those discussions here as well. We need to ensure that there is accountability and that when a Member in a region brings forward a concern, there's someone to answer for that concern. And I'm not sure right now if the structure we have in place really gives us that opportunity. So as I've said, fundamental issue, and very -- something that the next Cabinet really needs to dig down into, and I think I've heard consensus from everyone who's answered so far that that's the case. Thank you.
R.J. Simpson on Questions by Members
On December 7th, 2023. See this statement in context.
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