Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, specifically in relation to the recruitment that Stanton is undertaking right now, the recruitment efforts, our indications are that if sufficient staff could be hired, the surgical unit will reopen on Monday, March 5th. All indications are that they are putting all of the effort that they can into identifying those nurses.

One of the recruitment tools that we have used for RNs in the past has been the temporary nursing market supplement. This was something that was put in place to address the shortages in the Northwest Territories. It was to ensure that the benefits are competitive with other jurisdictions across Canada.

The current two-year funding agreement expires March 31st, but the main estimates do include funding for one more year for this program. We feel that the shortages and the demand for nurses is still such that we need to continue that.

There are some UNW issues surrounding the extension of that supplement because there are some ramifications of having something like a market supplement in place for a number of years. We do agree that adequate compensation is critical to retaining staff, keeping pace with the recruiting efforts that are going on in other jurisdictions.

We are feeling that the Stanton board is doing everything that they can with the offer that they have available to make to nurses to recruit for those positions that would allow the reopening of the surgical unit. I do not have the most recent information on the results of those efforts, but we can certainly keep Members apprised of that. Thank you.