Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As a member of the Standing Committee on Legislation, we received the students from the program who appeared before the committee. What I saw in those young students was that they were very ambitious young people. They are eager to get ahead in life. They were so into the program that at one point, one of the ladies was almost emotional. I am told by people that as a politician, I should not get involved in emotional things, but sometimes, as a human being, I do get involved in emotions.
Mr. Chairman, according to my understanding, there are times when Canadian people, in order to get ahead in the professions they have chosen, have to go to other countries. I understand, way back when I was growing up, around the 1960s, some of the ambitious musicians to-be had to go the United States in order to be recognized. When I watched a documentary on TV, I thought maybe this doesn't happen any more. Then I learned that we don't have an act to recognize nursing students who may be qualified to be registered in this particular jurisdiction; it brought me back to the documentary that I watched a few years ago.
Mr. Chairman, I think that Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Nursing Profession Act, as my colleagues, Mr. Koe and Mrs. Marie-Jewell, have indicated, is a good bill. Although I am not a chairperson of the Standing Committee on Legislation, I would like to thank all the Members who support the bill. I think it's a good bill.
Many times, I asked the students who appeared before the Standing Committee on Legislation for anything that they wanted to tell us that they didn't like about the program. Each and every one of them said it was a good program. They liked it. They were very ambitious, as I indicated earlier. They wanted to learn. One student told us they wanted to be a nurse here in the Northwest Territories. They did not want to go to another jurisdiction to learn and be registered there. So I think I will support the bill. Thank you.