Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, May 6th to 13th is International Nurses Week and at this time I would like to acknowledge nurses week and recognize the work and dedication of nurses around the world, across the country and here at home in our communities in the Northwest Territories. It seems that with each passing year, there is more and more pressure put our health care system and in the face of shortages in our different, varying medical professionals that are being experienced across the country, sometimes in the absence of a doctor, it is nurses that will take on additional responsibilities, especially in our small northern communities.
Nurses are involved in the whole spectrum of health care, home care, health promotion, public health, diabetes care, emergency care. Our nurses provide service in long-term care, acute care, dialysis management, psychiatric care, prenatal, obstetrics, telephone advice via our Tele-Care program. This is quite a list of responsibilities in a wide spectrum of health care services.
To give a sense of proportion of staff that are nurses, roughly one-third of the staff at the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority are nurses. They are professionals with a broad knowledge of care delivery and some go on to specialize in certain areas such as managing chronic diseases, dealing with infection control or becoming nurse practitioners.
In Hay River, we are very fortunate to have many long-term nurses and although there have been periodic vacant positions, I commend the hospital staff, the CEO Paul Vieria and the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority for their efforts in managing, scheduling and filling these vacant positions in order to provide the level of health care that we enjoy in Hay River.
In closing, I would like to congratulate our nurses and health care workers for their excellent service to the public and thank them for the contribution they make to ensuring the health and safety of the residents that they serve. Tonight, Mr. Speaker, we will have the pleasure of joining with our health care professionals in Hay River, along with Minister Roland, to honour them in a night that is specially set aside to show our appreciation for them.
Mr. Speaker, not to change the subject, but I was figuring out a way that I could work this into my Member's statement. I would like to recognize my two daughters-in-law who are involved in a different type of nursing for many, many hours lately and they will be celebrating their first Mother's Day this Sunday as mothers of my two new grandchildren, and I also wish Happy Mother's Day to all the women across the Northwest Territories who are fortunate enough to be mothers. Thank you.
---Applause