Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the last few months, the GNWT introduced a policy where across the board, with very few exceptions, the GNWT employees cannot bank any more than 75 hours of overtime. Not only that, once an employee has reached that in any fiscal year, they cannot refill it again. Mr. Speaker, this means that most of your overtime, above and beyond that, is paid out in cash. This is a problem, Mr. Speaker, because, believe it or not, money is not everything to our people. They want to have the choice of being able to take the time off instead of getting cash, but the shortage of workers sometimes does not make it possible, Mr. Speaker. For all the positions in the GNWT that are required to perform clawback and travel duty, the bulk of which are in the health care field, this policy has been detrimental to the morale of these employees, Mr. Speaker. The fact that some sections of the Stanton Territorial Hospital, for example, are allowed to bank more than this is a problem as well.

Mr. Speaker, I have been receiving correspondence from the workers who say they feel that they work so hard and they do many hours of overtime and are on call, some by choice and some not by choice. These extra hours of work are necessary because there is a shortage of allied health care workers everywhere and the patients deserve access to health care services in the Territories 24/7. It is our public right, they say. But as a result of these restrictions, they feel penalized for providing the quality care northern patients deserve. The loss of the ability to refill their

overtime banked means they have lost their freedom to choose when and how their time in lieu is taken. Until the GNWT takes responsibility of this serious retention and recruitment issue and provides the money necessary to fill those vacant intermediate positions in hospitals and in all health care offices and facilities in the territory, Mr. Speaker, this seriously affects the health care services in the North. I would like to take this moment to ask the government to revisit this issue and scrap this policy that is demoralizing all of the health care workers who are working tirelessly because of the shortage of labour and the importance of the health care services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.