Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to close off this debate. I am happy that I got to move it because I do get the final word on this. I just want to state for the record, and I know the Minister has been here the last two and a half weeks. He hasn't been the Minister of Health and Social Services for quite that long, but I think he understands and he has gotten the message we have tried to send to him. We are not against agency nurses. Where there is a need and a requirement, yes. What I think we have to keep in mind, Mr. Speaker, is the fact that we want our health care professionals here in the Northwest Territories treated equally, or treated fairly.
---Applause
You know, I think, Mr. Speaker, more than money, more than studies, more than anything, I think what our nurses and our health care professionals need here in the Northwest Territories is our full and undivided support; and, Mr. Speaker, right now, if you talk to a number of them, they don't feel like they're getting the support. That support, Mr. Speaker, has to start at the top, has to start with the Minister and it has to go and work its way down through the upper echelons of the Department of Health and Social Services and out at Stanton and in the health centres, so that the front-line workers feel like they're getting a level of support, and feel that people actually do care about them. I think that's what's missing, Mr. Speaker.
You know, we, as legislators...and I want every health care professional out there in this territory to know that we do care about them. I think this motion starts us on a course. The Minister seems like he's intent on looking at different options, on trying to keep the staff that we have here, keep them happy, show them we care, show them that we support them. To me, Mr. Speaker, that's what it's all about.
I know the Minister says we're doing what we can, but we've also done some things in the past, Mr. Speaker, that haven't helped, and I talked about it earlier: causation. Why are health care professionals feeling overworked and beat up? You know why they're feeling that way? Because of some decisions the government's made in the past, and I talked about the privatization of services,
especially at Stanton. It's had a devastating effect on the morale there over the years and it's getting worse.
The other cause that I would point to is the Hay Plan and the reclassification of positions. Absolutely, positively one of the worst decisions the government has ever made.
Mr. Speaker, with that, I want to once again thank my colleagues for supporting this motion, and I fully intend to work with the Minister and I wish him the best of luck with his new role as Minister of Health and Social Services, and want him to know that we support him on this side when he's trying to give the support and showing the health care professionals here in our territory that we care about them, that we respect them. I think that's what this is all about, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
---Applause