Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Residents of our smallest communities know all too well about the struggles to staff our health centres. It is common for services to be unavailable when they are needed. Unplanned trips to Inuvik can be the result, as well as delays and care or treatment. In Fort McPherson recently, the health centre was only able to provide essential services for emergencies and urgent cases for a whole week. The news gets around the community, and it makes people reluctant to seek the care they need.

I am concerned about the safety of this system. Sometimes, the first symptoms of something serious may be minor. I do not like to see people discouraged to seek care. We have enough problems in our healthcare system without adding this to the list. I realize that the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority tries to keep these staff shortages to a minimum. There was a short service gap in Aklavik earlier this month that lasted just a day.

Mr. Speaker, I am concerned that our health system is not well enough prepared to keep our community health centres staffed properly. We should not see these service gaps, and I do not think most Canadians would consider this acceptable service. It may be a question of priority of where we send the nurses who we do hire. In my opinion, the priority should be staffing community health centres where there are no other options for seeking medical care. I'll have questions for the Minister later. Thank you.