Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll try not to go on for 35 minutes again, Mr. Speaker, with respect to the budget. But on a high level, first of all, if the government has the fiscal capacity to invest in the Northwest Territories and in the people and the residents of the Northwest Territories over the long term in a sustainable way, then we can continue to provide all of the programs and services. We are running up ourselves right now against a situation where we don't have that fiscal capacity year over year and that one bad fire season can wipe us out with nothing left to show for it and nothing left to reinvest, so simply as a starting point.
Now, that said, Mr. Speaker, more specifically, the Department of Health and Social Services, for a very long time and continuing with this budget, receives one-third of the full operating budget of the Government of the Northwest Territories and receives the largest single addition this government had in this particular budget of some, I believe, $30 million. So in short, we are now still in a position where we're continuing to invest in health and social services. We have the health recruitment unit that is housed between the departments of Finance and Health and Social Services. That will continue, and that will continue to receive the investments in this budget and going forward through departments' efforts. It is seeing successes. We've actually achieved having a net 20 percent gain in recruitment to the health profession.
Mr. Speaker, I realize, and as Members noted, definitely on the last question, we do still have to address morale. We have to address retention. But we will be in a better position to do that when we have the capacity within the government. So, Mr. Speaker, I realize I've gone on probably longer than you want us to, and I'm going too fast, so I will stop there and wait for the next question. Thank you.