Floyd Roland Inuvik

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of detail accompanied with the answer that I could give the Member, but I know, just in the short of it, when we look at wages dollar for dollar, we were, in most jurisdictions or compared to most jurisdictions, doing quite well, but when you threw the benefits in, then we drop somewhat. It depends on the level of the nurse, how many years experience, if she is working at a community health centre or working at a regional hospital. There are a number of factors taken into that, but I can provide the Member with more of that information if he would like to do so at a later date. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Floyd Roland Inuvik

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the changes or the comparison that was done was based on wages and benefits. I do not believe the cost of living in different jurisdictions have come into that. Definitely, we agree that we need to be paying our nurses more and that is what we have done with the program or this market supplement. We see the shortage and we are already facing the difficulty of bringing new nurses into the Territories and we are trying to enhance more northern people to get involved in the nursing program so we know we have to be very competitive. Especially in light of cost of living and remoteness that many of our nurses work in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Floyd Roland Inuvik

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at the present time, I could not give you each nurse that we hired there, their ranking, years of history, work experience, and so on. But I believe that we have tried to recruit experienced nurses. Those that have less experience would not be put into, for example, community health stations, right off the start, we would like to have more experienced nurses in those centres. We know that there is much pressure put on those. That is one of the areas we are finding difficulties. Most of our vacancies that are occurring are in the smaller centres. So we are trying to attract the staff that has the professional expertise and adequate experience to work in those situations. As mentioned on numerous occasions here and other forums, that we are having difficulty attracting those.

That is why this government and all of us, as well as Members from the other side have worked together to try and come up with a competitive package that will attract nurses to the North. I think we have gone that step and we are trying to show we can support them as much as possible. But as well, in my Minister's statement, I suggested, and I state, and I think we should be clear on that, the wages are one portion of our Recruitment Retention Program. I think we all have duties, right from this level to the community level, to show the nurses, no matter if they are northern nurses or new nurses to the North, that we appreciate the work they do on behalf of us. Until we do that we are going to continue to find that we are going to have a hard time staffing these positions. A lot of times these nurses, whether they are from the north or from the south, have a fair bit of difficulty adjusting to working in the smaller centres and locations, and they need the support from the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.