Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I wanted to reflect on some of the concerns that I have been hearing about the sustainability of our health care system. This is something certainly that the entire Legislature is aware of, aware of our concerns. The issues at Stanton have been highlighted in the media and certainly have been on the lips of most of our residents, Mr. Speaker.
We know that the Minister of Health has an operational review underway to determine exactly what is the problem at Stanton, are these systemic issues, are these issues that we are up against in competing for talent nationally and internationally, or are there other issues at play?
Mr. Speaker, I do not think any of us, and certainly any of our constituents, expected -- and I believe we had assurances from the Minister to this effect -- that all other activities would grind to a halt, and I hope that they have not. One thing is certain, Mr. Speaker, the ICU at Stanton is not open, and I am not certain that it is going to be open any time soon. Certainly my constituents have a grave concern about this. I think everybody in this room and residents of the Northwest Territories believe that we have to have a basic level of service available to all residents, and I believe that includes having a working and open ICU at Stanton.
Mr. Speaker, I also have some concerns about the operational review, and I will be honest and say that the Standing Committee on Social Programs also had some concerns specifically with the independence, or perceived possible lack of independence, of the make-up of the steering committee -- a couple of deputy ministers, a couple of trustees from the board and the secretary to the FMB. We were willing to put those concerns aside and wait to see what the recommendations of the operational review came up with and judge them for their own merits, Mr. Speaker, and I thought that the most prudent and fair thing to do was to give the benefit of the doubt to the department and to the review.
We note that one of the concerns and one of the things that was being analyzed was whether or not money was a real issue here. Were we underpaying our staff at Stanton, and indeed across the Northwest Territories? If we were, Mr. Speaker, then maybe the claim that we could add money to this problem and it would go away certainly made sense. This is one of the things that we know the review was set to have a look at, Mr. Speaker.
Over the past couple of years, if you look at the operational review parameters... Sorry, Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.