Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to advise Members that I fully support this particular bill. I think it's striving to achieve one of the goals we are looking at, that of attempting to educate our own people in the north to provide the services that we need in the north. I know that once we have passed this bill, that eligibility for registration of RN designates would be allowed; particularly for the students currently enrolled in Arctic College.
Mr. Chairman, I just want to state though, for the record, that it is very unfortunate that lobbying on the students' part had to take place to get this bill in the House. It is unfortunate that, before the program was designed, this bill wasn't looked at to make sure it was completed. The students are already under a tremendous amount of pressure to be able to fulfil the requirements of this course, and I am aware that this added a lot of stress to the students. I received letters from different students indicating that they needed this piece of legislation, and I just don't think that students should have to absorb that type of stress with regard to trying to address and achieve some of the goals that they have set forth.
Having said that, it does reflect bad planning on the part of the government. However, we are fortunate in a consensus Legislative Assembly that we can bring forth this bill and address it. I don't think there is a Member in this House that doesn't support the concept of this bill, but I want to indicate that there's no doubt that this bill is a good bill. There have been comments that the timing is right for this bill because it's International Women's Day. I found those comments to be a little bit chauvinistic. This bill would apply to male nurses or male individuals, too, who are going to the college and attempting to acquire an RN designation. This bill will allow for all northerners to be able to become RNs.
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I want to indicate my full support for this particular bill. Thank you.
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