Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to take this opportunity today to speak about the issues pertaining to the Stanton Territorial Hospital. Mr. Speaker, over the years as an MLA for Range Lake, where the hospital is located, I have witnessed the facility coming under increasing pressure from limited resources, financial and otherwise. We are constantly hearing from the staff in various units and facets of the operation at the hospital, which we have been trying to work through by means of the latest human resources review at the hospital. I'm hoping that we will be able to identify the concerns through this review and address them as soon as possible.

Mr. Speaker, we have also been hearing about the hospital's cleanliness lately, and I've also received concerns about the big-name products being used at the cafeteria, pushing out the local and northern suppliers. Mr. Speaker, my family worked at the old hospital and the new hospital and the changes in service from lack of resources at the hospital is very concerning indeed.

Mr. Speaker, I believe the most critical issue has been the dissolution of the board and there being no attempt to replace it over the last three years. While I appreciate that the hospital is a public funded agency, that doesn't mean you shouldn't have an independent management voice of the public apart from the direct involvement from the department. Mr. Speaker, such a board would be able to set longer-term goals and vision for the hospital, work on the details of the master plan, and push it along with the partners, as well as addressing some of the human and financial resource issues that ends up so often on MLAs' desks and Ministers' desks.

Mr. Speaker, the hospital needs a medium for public voice and the concerns to be addressed directly at the hospital. I support the Minister's initiative to start with an advisory committee at the hospital. I hope that this will succeed and that we will be able to move toward a full advisory board made up of representations from all the Territories, because I do appreciate that it is a territorial hospital. But I do believe that such a board would go a long way in addressing some of the issues that we're talking about lately. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause