Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to be able to report to you today that we have successfully negotiated an agreement with the Union of Northern Workers to provide a temporary market supplement to nurses.
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In our 1999-2000 budget, the Government of the Northwest Territories identified $3 million specifically for nurse recruitment and retention. This funding was made available because the government realized that the national and international shortage of nurses is seriously affecting our ability to attract and retain nurses and needed to be addressed directly.
A consultation process with stakeholders was established to decide the best way to use this additional money. This stakeholders group included representatives of the Union of Northern Workers, the NWT Registered Nurses Association, health and social services boards, the Financial Management Board Secretariat and the Department of Health and Social Services.
These stakeholders worked hard to reach an agreement on how best to distribute the nursing supplement. It is very much to their credit that we were able to reach an agreement in such a short time frame and I would like to congratulate them on their work. Having this agreement in place means that approximately 270 indeterminate nurses employed by health and social services boards and related agencies will be eligible to receive temporary market supplements into the year 2000. Full and part-time indeterminate nurses will begin receiving it within the next few weeks. Boards and agencies recruiting nurses will also begin offering their new hires the recruitment incentive this month.
Part of the funding will also be used to hire three full-time nurse mentors who will provide additional support and mentoring to nurses in the field. This additional professional support and salary supplement will certainly help make the Northwest Territories more competitive in recruiting new nurses.
Mr. Speaker, because of the increasing competition for nurses, the Government of the Northwest Territories has reviewed compensation levels for northern nurses. A study of nursing salaries across the country showed that general duty and community health nurses in the NWT receive the highest base salary of nurses in Canada. This does not take into account benefits offered by various jurisdictions. However, when we included benefits in our calculations and adjusted for the cost of living, we found that our compensation levels were still very competitive.
I have spoken before of the vital role that nurses play in the NWT health and social services system. Attracting and retaining competent nurses is critical to the viability of our health care system.
To address this, the department, in partnership with the boards and professional associations, has developed a recruitment and retention strategy designed to attract, and provide support to, health and social services workers. This strategy is being implemented and is starting to yield positive results. In May we were experiencing a vacancy rate among all nurses of 20 percent. Today, I am pleased to be able to report that this rate is down to 10 percent. However, our greatest difficulty still lies in attracting and retaining community health nurses and we will be continuing to focus special attention on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, financial compensation is only one part of the recruitment and retention picture. To retain our northern nurses, they must know they are valued members of the system and of the community. We can all play a role in retaining nurses by recognizing them, at every opportunity, for the valuable contribution they make in our communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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