Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in this House on previous occasions I have raised the issue of a recruitment and retention plan and the need for the department to focus more on the retention aspect of that program. I rise once again to speak about that issue.
In the last number of months, Mr. Speaker, I have had experience with four different health and social service professionals and their trials and tribulations in terms of training and trying to get funding to go to school. If the way they are being treated is any indication, then we are not doing enough in the area of the retention side of this program.
We do not seem to be willing to make a true commitment to supporting ongoing education. When students apply, the program is so complicated and has so many pots of money, they are forced to go to many different places trying to get money rather than having a convenient, one-window approach. When we do send them away on a practicuum, they are expected to look for other pots of money from outside of government or we will nickel and dime them over issues like travel and meals, which government employees take for granted. When they do get their education, once again we are less than supportive. We insist that they need two to three years experience to be hired. If they do not have that, we offer them a mentorship. Unfortunately, the mentorship is at a wage that is so low and for such an extended period of time, most people cannot afford to do that. After that, we seem to be offering terms or keeping them on tender hooks waiting for a permanent job offer.
We are also I do not believe doing a good enough job working with northern students who have gone south to school. Only as recently as today, I have received a message from one of those students saying she is being swamped with offers to stay down south. She was rejected for assistance last year, and she was going to try one more time this year, but very clearly if the government was not interested, she would not be out of work. If this in fact happens, Mr. Speaker, it would be a failure. It would be unfortunate and it would be to our detriment. I mean not only from the North, but in this case to the people of Fort Smith. Lots of time and money has been spent encouraging people to train, to become educated, to become nurses, and to have them leave for other jurisdictions would be the greatest failure of all. So I hope that the department will in fact take the steps necessary to improve in this area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.