Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the continuing challenges facing the recruitment and retention of the health care professionals in the North and in particular, the nursing staff at the Stanton Territorial Hospital. During this budget session, Mr. Speaker, this Assembly has already approved an additional $8.3 million and we will be asked to approve more money under the supplementary appropriations bill later on today. What concerns me is that all of this additional money may not translate into an increased number of positions at the hospital. I must say, Mr. Speaker, it is highly frustrating when, as an MLA, you push hard to get more money to a certain program area and see no visible benefits.

Mr. Speaker, the information I have is that there continues to be a real deficiency in the retention area of the government's recruitment and retention strategy. In fact, the health care professionals have dubbed the latest strategy from the government as the "recruitment" strategy because it lacks the element of retention. Mr. Speaker, we should feel alarmed about this because logic would dictate that, without a meaningful retention effort, any recruitment effort will be fruitless. This is affecting all areas of staffing at Stanton, whether they be doctors, nurses, physio and occupational therapists, X-ray and other imaging technicians or lab technicians.

Mr. Speaker, in the case of the nursing staff, the government's guarantee of jobs for new nursing grads coming out of the school have been a mixed blessing in practice. No one can argue that this is a good thing for those new grads and I appreciate that we will benefit as a society from having northern nurses in our midst. What the government has failed to do thus far is to recognize fully and compensate appropriately the experienced nurses who are already there. Unless the government takes care of retaining the experienced nurses with proper compensation and benefits, we will not be able to rely on them to train and mentor the new grads.

I don't believe, Mr. Speaker, that it is fair and it is not right for the government to expect the experienced nurses to continue to fill overtime shifts and mentor and train the new grads without being properly compensated and recognized for that extra work. Their compensation, as it is, is not competitive in comparison to their counterparts in other jurisdictions. Mr. Speaker, I acknowledge that the government's objective of guaranteeing all nursing grads placement is laudable in theory, but it must come with the government's commitment to recognize the extra burden it is asking the experienced nurses to take on. Mr. Speaker, I would like unanimous consent to conclude my statement.