Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my statement today, I was pleased to hear that the government had signed a deal with the Alberta Medical Association on local replacements for doctors outside of Yellowknife. I think this is an important deal for the people of the Northwest Territories. It helps to ensure their health and safety, as well as providing doctors with opportunities to get extra training and to take vacations.
However, I noted, Mr. Speaker, this deal does nothing for the doctor shortage being experienced in Yellowknife. If a doctor in Yellowknife goes on holiday or decides to take extra training, his load has to be picked up by one of his or her already overworked colleagues.
Mr. Speaker, my question for the Minister is what can we expect the department to do? What is the department doing in the next few weeks, the next few months to deal with the doctor shortage in Yellowknife?