Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, I too want to acknowledge the champion of health care we have here, my good colleague from the Range Lake riding. I know that I share his passion, and that was kind of why what started with the town hall meeting we had this summer which is to hear the voices of the everyday family, the everyday person, struggling with health care challenges. And I reiterate what I said before a few days ago, not at length, but I want to point out that the building was busting at the seams. We were probably borderline on the fire marshal's load capacity of the building. No one counted, by the way, just to make sure. But the truth be told is we'd never seen such a turnout in Yellowknife at any type of meeting like this. It was amazing. And they were respectful, and they were helpful, and they were telling their stories, their journeys, Mr. Speaker.
But, Mr. Speaker, the challenge, of course, is this, is that what's next? And even people ask me, you know, and my good colleague Mr. Testart, what's next? We tell you these stories, we tell you these concerns and pains, we need something to change. You know, people would describe it the proverbial the train is coming off the track, is it too late? I don't think it's too late. As a matter of fact, I think we don't have -- we couldn't have a better opportunity than now because we're in that point, like we have to collectively start pulling together. So as they say, with tragedy sometimes comes this great opportunity. And here it is, we could turn this around.
Now, again, another example of -- in the sense of a description is, I mean, when things have gotten this way, it wasn't overnight, you know. No one's suggesting chaos and disorder. But what we're suggesting is the fact that it's true, as my other colleague had mentioned, you know, doctors and nurses will tell us they are getting tired of providing advice, skills, professionals who have decades of knowledge, on how to do things better, could make the very difference.
So what is a performance audit, Mr. Speaker? To be crystal clear, both to the Minister, the government, and certainly the media, it's not a witch hunt. It's not in any form. And it shouldn't be contrived or construed in any way it is. It's simply asking are we getting value for money? Is there a better way to do this? Are we doing the things that we should be doing? Can we do them better? That's what it's about. It's about trying to find a path through these challenges. It will be overwhelming. But the auditor general office is free. They have the talent, the skills, the abilities. They have the vision to pull it all together on a song sheet and start focusing on a direction so we can all be singing on the same sheet working towards a better outcome, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we need to show our teams, our teams of professionals, be it administrators, be it support workers at the hospital, be it doctors, you know, nurse practitioners, everyone, that we care so much we're going to go through the system and make sure.
The great thing about the auditor general's office, Mr. Speaker, is they're unfetterred. We'll point them in a direction and say, we want you to find the best way of what's happening here. They don't show up with a prewritten decision on how we're -- and then say, this is how we're going to get there. In other words, they won't determine the outcome until they see where it takes them. And to them, they -- out of very few people, they don't -- not a lot of people have that skill. And the fact that it's outside, it will be them.
Now, I remember -- I'm getting old, so now I'm starting to say I remember, and -- but I remember, we used to have a great hospital administrator, Dennis Cleaver. He was great, he could -- being the best of people, whether it was doctors, admin people knew -- he knew them, they knew him, and he really understood. That's why I was trying to raise the other day -- and to be frank, changing the head of the system it doesn't do anything. We have to get into the morale, into the functions, into the systems. That's why we need, as I said, a Jane Phillipot type who understands the DNA of how everything comes together like a great conductor. And they'll say things like well, I see that it's working, they're doing the best but it's actually not working to an outcome that actually is effective. And hence that's the type of conversation only these types of experts can have.
Mr. Speaker, as this is a motion, as we know, an important motion, and I feel like this is going to be the health care Assembly. We're just going to keep rallying on health care until we not only see change, if not better, we feel change. But I worry about the risk about how much money and we can no longer afford to keep doing things the same way as we do them.
Now, I know, again, this is a motion, and I recognize it is a suggestion to the Assembly, and I don't know what Cabinet's going to do. As a matter of fact -- I mean, I don't know if anybody on this side knows what they're going to do. But I'll -- I won't be the first in the sense of just today, but I'll certainly be the first at least this afternoon and say I hope Cabinet is willing to have a free vote on this particular issue. Because this isn't just fixing my riding, my colleague's riding, my regional ridings. This is affecting everybody's ridings. And I would hope that they would want to be partners in this solution by having that little bit of a thumbprint on this motion by saying I supported it, and I was part of the path to a reinvigored health care system, a renewed health care system, that helps all. Because if we keep going the same way we do, Mr. Speaker -- and I'm going to try to wrap it up here -- you know, we will see cuts that we don't want to have, we will see change that we're forced to make, we will see departments -- not just health, but the ripple effect of this, having to make choices no one wants to make. I don't want to hear the fact that we can't afford a doctor in oncology because we don't have any more money anymore. I don't want to hear those stories. I want to hear that we can provide desperately needed services in the regions. I don't want to hear about the unavailability or the unaffordable of birthing units in Inuvik. This is our chance to be part of that solution before we say it's too late.
So, Mr. Speaker, again, a big fan of Steven Cubby. His saying begin with the end of mine. I think this motion says it. Let's begin hoping we can build a better health care system, and now let's work to achieve that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
