Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to speak today about some health care issues in the Northwest Territories, as well. The Minister provided us with a statement here today on an integrated model of health services and it is true that we are a small jurisdiction. Realistically we cannot expect to have every service in every community. I think we need to have a minimum standard of service available and that would include nurses at least in every community. But when you get into the different sizes of communities, there are different procedures and services that are available.

Stanton Territorial Hospital plays a very integral role to that integrated service and that network of services available to residents of the Northwest Territories and certainly to residents of my community of Hay River. Hay River would like to have permanent doctors, which we don't have right now. We have one permanent position; the rest we rely completely on locums. However, understanding the government does provide the funding for five permanent resident doctors for Hay River, we appreciate that, we could use more help in identifying permanent doctors. I think the department could be doing more, as was raised earlier in helping with the accreditation of foreign doctors, because I know there are doctors around the Northwest Territories, but we don't seem to have a process in Canada or the Northwest

Territories for accrediting these doctors who certainly are qualified to operate in their countries of origin.

Mr. Speaker, when the services at Stanton are diminished due to shortages of staff, it affects Hay River as well. It's much easier for my constituents to come here to receive specialized services than it is for them to go all the way to Edmonton. I think that we have the idea of a network. I think that we need to continue to be more creative in how we address staffing, the infrastructure, and filling the positions for the services that we have identified. I think that the plan is good, but there are shortfalls in terms of the human resources to meet those needs. Later today I will be talking more at length about how we can find creative ways of addressing the health challenges, particularly in the area of health care professionals in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause