Thank you, Madam Chair, and the Premier is absolutely correct that it is too early to say what we are going to be doing at the polytechnic university, but one thing about universities is that they are willing to put on programming. If the government has money and it wants to fund a program that would help increase healthcare professionals, that is something the college would probably gladly do. Those are the kind of opportunities we will have going forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. One of the concerns I have with this one is: I recognize it is best practice to increase resident healthcare workers and that we should be training as many nurses and getting as many nurses as possible. Right now, the case is that we cannot find those nurses and that locums are really filling the gaps. One of the beautiful things about locums is they are brought up here and they can immediately jump into a position, or at least that is the goal.

My concern with this is that what we may see is that we want more resident people, so we are going to start getting rid of the nurses we are currently bringing up from down south. I am looking for a commitment that we are not going just simply start using fewer locums without actually having the nurses in place. I think this is a long-term goal to actually reach. I know the health authority has posted a deficit. They just came packed with another supplementary, and one of ways that you could maybe cut costs is: let's stop bringing up so many locums. However, I am afraid if we do that the situation is going to get worse, so I am looking for some sort of commitment that we don't stop bringing up nurses from down south until we have those positions filled.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a long-term goal. I think it would be very inappropriate for anyone to just discontinue what we have. The priority is to increase the number of resident healthcare professionals by at least 20 percent, yet the priority does not say about decrease the number and then increase. If we are providing services to our residents in the North as public servants, which we should be, and we already know we have a shortage, it would just be illogical for us to stop using locums until we have that filled. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, and I am glad to hear that. My other concern or one I would like to see with this is: I have raised a number of times some more flexible positions, some more part-time positions. I have a number of constituents who are retired nurses. They are not willing to go out for a full-time nursing position, but they would gladly come back at casual or part-time. I think that is another one of those things is that we really have to do whatever we can to retain people, and that may involve being a little flexible in our hours or creating some different positions. I am wondering if that is part of that in any of these items here, looking at some kind of alternative ways, whether it be part-time or casual, to make sure we can retain anyone who is willing to work here.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Madam Premier.

Thank you. I will start by saying we do want qualified people in our healthcare professions, so I just want to clarify that. Our number one "How we will do it," if we say we are going to work with employees and partners to
identify the factors contributing to retention challenges and we don't take those ideas into consideration, then again we are hypocrites and we should not even be doing this action. Part of that, if we are going to engage them, is listening to what they say. That, I will commit to. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

All right. Are there any further questions on "Increase the number of resident healthcare professionals by at least 20 percent"? Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to echo what my colleague the MLA from Yellowknife North just said in terms of being able to hire retired nurses. I, too, have spoken to a lot of retired nurses who have literally walked out the door and then been told that, if they want to be able to work casual shifts here and there when we are desperate for nurses, that they would do that. Then they have been told that they have to come in and compete in an interview process, and they are just not prepared to do that when they have literally walked out the door. There are people in town who have expressed to me that they are definitely willing to come and do shifts here and there to relieve some nurses who are at the hospital, and so we just have to make that a little bit more doable for them. That is one thing. My question, though, is about staff surveys. When we did our Stanton debriefing, we did hear about staff surveys taking place that were specific to our relationship with our P3 contractor, but I am wondering if these staff surveys are more for staff satisfaction about working conditions and workplace culture. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Madam Premier.

Absolutely. This is not about how do you like the new hospital, or how do you like the contractor providing food services. This is about how do we keep you and how do we get new people? If you are doing a good survey, you have both closed questions that are very, this is what I want to know, how much time do you want to work sort of thing, and open questions that say: what are some ideas that you would give me? We have to be open to both. This survey will incorporate both some closed questions and some open questions so that we can get all the feedback as appropriate. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Confidentiality is a huge issue. I can't say where they go. The Minister might have an idea, but I know that, when I did the housing survey and I went right across the Northwest Territories and asked people, I was worried about people being penalized and being evicted from their homes. I actually picked out a person within the department who I felt I could trust, and that poor person, I made all those surveys go through that person. The Minister does have that authority to decide that, if she so wishes. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. No. I think that is really important. I think one step farther might even be to be able to remove people's names completely because we do live in a very small territory that gets smaller and smaller by the day, and we all get to know one another. If we want people to be 100 percent honest, then we need to make sure that their personal relationships on their work floors are protected in that process. That would be my one recommendation there. Thank you. No further questions.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Any good survey only has information, identifying information, on what is necessary. If we don't need to know your name, if there is no implementation on how we retain and recruit people, then why would I ask it? If we don't need to know what community, then why would I ask it? However, there are times where you might need to know what community, because the issues might not be the same across the whole of the Northwest Territories. Good surveys are only asking the data that they need. Thank you, Madam Chair.