Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last week I held a constituency meeting for the residents of Frame Lake and earlier this week all the Members from Yellowknife held a joint constituency meeting for all of our constituents. One of the common themes that came out when we heard from all of our constituents at both of these meetings was the shortage of health care workers and the impact that shortage has on our access to health care services.

Mr. Speaker, I keep hearing that the problem is not about salaries. I hear that from the Minister and from officials. They have suggested in fact to the press, I know to Members we got a copy of the package, that a nurse only needs 7 percent more in salary to move from Calgary to Yellowknife to maintain the same standard of living. Apparently they used a computer program to prove this.

Mr. Speaker, as a business man I find this very hard to believe, no matter what a computer program says, that you can move to Yellowknife and have the same standard of living for only 7 percent more than in Calgary. I know that Stats Canada certainly says that our cost of living is way more than 7 percent higher than Edmonton or Calgary. In fact, it is close to three or four times the cost of living in Edmonton or Calgary.

Mr. Speaker, rather than campaigning to convince us that we pay nurses competitively already, I think we should look for ways to deal with the lack of money that we have to put into the health care system. I think money is really part of the problem. That is driven home when we see an article also in the paper that says we can find nurses to work here on contract and they get paid the same salary as the nurses who live here. Unlike the resident nurses, they get free accommodation. They get free travel, north and south.

You know, housing and travel are two of the most expensive components of the higher cost of living in the North. We have to get serious about dealing with this problem. We are going to have to find some more money. I want to hear that the Minister is working with his colleagues on Cabinet to identify new sources of money. We are going to have to have a discussion, if we have no new money, about reallocation perhaps. Where are we going to find that money from within? I do not think it is going to be in Health and Social Services, it is probably going to have to come from some other place. So let's start that discussion. Let's get it moving.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.