Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I will continue talking about our staffing crisis in the health care system and specifically address a source of longstanding frustration amongst shift workers, the fact that many are being denied the full amount of leave that they're entitled to.

Physicians, nurses, and other practitioners are given a certain amount of leave under their collective agreements except that the health authority retains the ability to deny anyone's leave application due to operational requirements or regional procedure. Our health system does require a certain number of people on shift 24/7, but we are not unique in this. Surely, other health systems have come up with formulas to ensure frontline staff can take leave. Currently, a combination of chronic understaffing and also our policies and how they're applied make it virtually mathematically impossible for all of our shift workers to take all of their leave. In some cases, someone's application for leave sits undecided with approval pending for so long that even if it does get approved at the last minute, it's impossible for someone to plan a vacation anyways. Our veteran nurses are being pressured to forego their vacation so that younger nurses can take their days off so they don't mutiny. Many are expected to be available on their days off even if they're not being paid to be officially on call. At our territorial hospital emergency room, practitioners are even being denied sick leave when they're legitimately sick because there's no one to cover. We need to retain our employees and not rely primarily on locums and agency nurses. We know that it's more cost efficient, provides higher quality health care with more cultural safety. But why would a nurse or doctor choose to work as a contracted employee for the health authority when they could have more freedom as a locum or an agency nurse? A major reason is the employee benefits, including leave. But if we don't allow them to take that leave, then what's the point? It is one reason we're seeing more and more health care practitioners quit their jobs and either leave the territory or choose to work as locums. Our embattled health care shift workers need the Minister and the health authority to first acknowledge the problem and communicate a clear plan to solve it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.