Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to speak to the nursing shortage issue at Stanton. In case there was any doubt left anywhere, it is critical to get our staff complement up to a full complement at Stanton.

A recent publication by the Journal of the American Medical Association, I think the report just came out yesterday, Mr. Speaker, spoke to the issue and studied the issue of over-worked nurses. Their findings indicated, Mr. Speaker, that for each additional post-surgery patient that a nurse has to take on, their increased chances of mortality are 7 percent greater.

I think, Mr. Speaker, this is a clear indication that we need to do something quickly about our staff shortage issue at Stanton. Last week, I spoke to it already in the House, Mr. Speaker, the GNWT came out in the local media indicating that we feel we have very competitive wages for nurses. And it would look the case, Mr. Speaker, when you look at entry-level nurses right out of school and we talk about minimum pay for nurses, we are high. I think we are second in the country when you adjust it for cost of living and for other bonuses, Mr. Speaker.

But if you look at the maximum rank, we find out that we are pretty middle of the road. We are about fifth in terms of other jurisdictions. Those are the nurses we are in critical shortage of. Clearly when we hear that the ICU is not reopened because we don't have the nurses with specific training and experience in order to re-open ICU, we know it's not just a matter of plugging nurses with lower levels of experience or lower skill levels in there, because I believe that there are no vacancies in those areas, Mr. Speaker.

So it is about addressing this critical shortage of experienced and skilled nurses, and we still continue to stand here, Mr. Speaker, as a government, and argue that, well, we are middle of the road. We consider that competitive. Mr. Speaker, it is not going to get it done. I would suggest that if the Minister and the department, and indeed, this government, cannot recognize that, we are truly going to be in dire straits for some time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause