Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The way our system is set up, the authorities get the funding to provide services to the communities. They work as one entity and they distribute their resources in the best way possible. I understand and I have heard, and I have met with the community about the desire of the community to have a permanent nurse physically there all year round. The issues are the Beaufort-Delta Health Authority is stretched, not only in terms of dollars, but in terms of available nurses. They have the obligation for all of the Beaufort-Delta communities to spread their nursing resources around.

The second thing is our labour law requires that there needs to be at least two nurses and it would be difficult to have two nurses in a community of 170 people. I’m not talking financially, but just it would not be enough work for two nurses for 170 people unless the 170 people went to the health centre every second day.

I understand health care is very important. Health care includes doctor’s service, nursing service, community health rep, wellness worker, people who can take care of the elders, including home care workers, including people who talk to people about how to prevent diabetes, take care of diabetes, see if they have it, cancer prevention. There is a whole basket of health care services that our communities expect. Health care doesn’t mean having a physical health care professional necessarily sitting there because we feel healthy if we see a doctor sitting in our office or nurse. Maybe that’s how some people feel, but that’s not how we can continue to deliver health care services.

Just like the RCMP, we don’t have two RCMP stationed in Tsiigehtchic, but the government has made the move to hire extra resources in McPherson so they can increase patrols in Tsiigehtchic, which is a great advance. That’s what we are trying to do for the nursing coverage until such time as we have different ways to address that. I don’t know how else I can put into this, because nurses need to keep up with their skills as well. They need to be able to do the work that is necessary to do and all of the practice guidelines will say being a full-time nurse in a community of 170 people may not give them the kind of work that’s required to keep up with their credentials.

I just want to state again that I am committed to working to enhance health care services in our communities, but they come in different shapes and sizes. Thank you.