Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're talking about money that's already been spent. So you know and I know the majority of the people living in small communities are Indigenous people. And for some of the small communities, we know that without agency nurses or contract staffing for nurses, we will be without nurses. We're not going to have any services. We have a health centre but we're not going to have any staff, nobody to look after the small communities. So I do support some of -- because of that, you know, I do support where we do need -- and here we're crying, we're asking for more doctors, we want more nurses, but small communities -- and you said it before too, small communities do matter and we do need a better health care.

So with that in mind -- with that in mind, like, for the nurses in small communities -- and I know that you said locum and physicians are not in this -- it's not part of this budget here, that $2.4 million. So I just wanted to know and ask -- well, I know it's finance Minister, but I think I should be asking the health and social services Minister. I know it's hard and it's culture shock for newcomers to come in, but I just wanted to know -- and I know that there's a lot of colleges and universities in the south where it is Indigenous, most -- you know, there's a college of nurses in -- which is for Indigenous in Saskatchewan and in Alberta as well. So I just -- sometimes we do get lucky. We get a nurse that loves our community or that loves the region that stays for many years, you know, and they -- some of them stay until they retire or well beyond retirement, you know. But that's only few in between. It's not too often. So I just want to -- it would be nice if we can do something to recruit -- I know that in the North we don't have too many Indigenous nurses and doctors that were born and raised in the North. And if we do, then they go somewhere else in the south so I think we need to recruit more Indigenous nurses and doctors across from -- you know, like, from the south, from the colleges.

I don't know if it's -- could be part of this budget but I just wanted to know if there's any kind of a campaign that's happening between the GNWT, health and social services, or with the human resources to recruit other nationalities? Because I know if it's an Indigenous, hopefully they will want to stay because they come from -- many of them are from small communities, small -- like, from outside of a larger regional centre. So, and I know this is not -- this is old money that we're talking about; it's money already spent, but maybe for upcoming budget, if we can put something in there where -- because it's good for career too, a career opportunity for young people that are -- you know, that are within our region. So I just -- that's just -- it's more of a comment.

So maybe, A, we can keep that in mind for future reference, especially for small communities, for outside of Yellowknife, where it is hard to recruit. And we do need more nurses and sometimes it's the agency nurse that comes in, and we don't -- and I don't think any communities would like to see their health centre shut down because there's no nurses. And agency nurses do help in many of this -- in these areas.

So another one too is that here, to provide funding for the in-territory child and family services program with NTHSSA. But it's not just TCSA, but it's probably other region as well. So is this keeping to where -- keeping the kids in the North or in the regions? Is that -- this budget, is it part of that? Because I know that a lot of time before kids were -- when they were removed from the community, they were always sent to a larger regional centre, and there's a lot of voluntarily agreement that's being -- that's taking place. Does this budget reflect that? I'm not too sure. Thank you.