Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think this motion speaks for itself, but I will add some facts to it.

When the NTHSSA, the health authority, was first established in 2016, it inherited an accumulated deficit of $51 million. In 2020, that deficit had grown to $94 million. As of March 31st, 2024, this year, the accumulated deficit stands at $272.9 million. Mr. Speaker, from that escalation, from the amalgamation of the authorities to now, we are on an ever increasing track of financially unsustainable model of health care delivery in the Northwest Territories to the point where our own public accounts are being noted as -- or this area of spending and deficit are being noted as almost tanking the entire government's fiscal situation. We need to get to grips with this, and I don't think we know how.

We have brought numerous independent third-party reports over the years. We have brought deficit reduction plans, strategies, working groups, committees. Your committees, Mr. Speaker, have looked at this over many years, and it's -- it's a persistent problem that is showing no improvements of slowing down. And not only that, if it wasn't just the value for money for health care, it's the quality of health care that Northerners are -- that Northerners have access to.

And we see the issues with administering health care leading to programs or services shutting down. Perhaps most well-known is the obstetrics and birthing services. I think Inuvik struck -- the Inuvik hospital struggles with this. The Yellowknife hospital struggles with this. Agency nurses are being deployed because we can't obtain the specialized nurses that can do this work. And no one knows why when we ask these questions. And I know there's a problem in Canada, but there's a bigger problem here. And we need to get to the bottom of it. And I think, just as the Premier spoke to when he was telling the House and the public about the new health care sustainability unit, we need someone from outside of the authority to find the solutions to make things more sustainable. And this motion calls for our auditor, the Auditor general of Canada to do the same thing. And I think -- I agree with the Premier, but I think it's even better to have someone completely outside of the GNWT to do this work. And rather than hire someone and use taxpayer dollars to get yet another review, let's get our auditor, who we don't pay for, but does expectational work, high quality work, and can really give us some recommendations that we can put into practice and start to solve this crisis of health care.

We know it's not getting any better. We know that there's lots of effort that this government's trying, that previous governments have tried. So the motion here is not to scold anyone. It's to bring that expert eyes of the auditor general to bear to solve this problem, because there are so many different -- it's a multifaceted problem, and I don't think -- I think having that resource of the auditor general, with all their expertise, is the right way to go here.

And I look forward to the debate today, and I look forward to continuing to work with our Cabinet colleagues, and Members on this side of the House as well, to solve this problem over the coming years of this government. But I think if we have this help from the auditor general, it's going to be a lot easier. And where my mind goes is, you know, first to the people of the Northwest Territories who need access to medical care, especially as things -- you know, as our economy slows down, as costs continue to increase, as it gets hard -- as climate change continues to create struggles, our health -- as people age, we're going to need more access to health care. We're going to need a stronger more robust health care system to weather the storm of these challenges, and we know it's breaking. So we need to do this for the sake of our residents. We need to get a clear -- clear answers forward from an independent unimpeachable source of expertise. And our workers need this too.

I have many nurses, doctors, allied professionals, who live in the Range Lake riding, and they've been talking to me since the election, and they're not happy with the direction that health care has taken over the years. They're not satisfied that we're doing enough as a government to solve the problem now. And we brought a lot of advocacy to their plight and to try to help the quality of -- the quality of life of workers and make it more attractive, more meaningful, for recruitment and retention in the health care system. But it's just not working. So if we have this -- again, this help, this expertise, that can tell us how we can make the system better, it's going to be a benefit to everyone in the Northwest Territories for generations to come. And this can be the government that finally, finally, sets health care on the right course for the Northwest Territories. And that's what I hope this motion will achieve, and I ask my colleagues to support it. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.