Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, colleagues. I think today was a very good show of the unity of this House to address health care on very strong terms. I think having these conversations in here is really important as well. It's the heart of our government, a heart of our democracy; the heart of our society in many ways. And knowing that we are listening, we're having these conversations in a very public forum is exactly what so many people want us to -- want to see when they feel like they're, quite frankly, banging their heads against the wall to be heard. So I think this is a good start, and it's a good way to move forward.

I want to take a minute to acknowledge that our Minister of Health and Social Services is an Indigenous nurse with -- and someone who has real experience both in the profession and in the small communities. I hear that. I have no compunctions about her character, her experience, or her passion for the work. She is the Minister, though, and as the Minister she is accountable. So when we bring a strong voice of accountability to these issues, it's not to diminish her strong credentials and bona fides as a passionate health leader in the Northwest Territories. It is to hold her to account for the job that she has been assigned. And it is a tough job. I acknowledge that. But our job on this side of the House is to be tough critics as well. And I think when we have these discussions, it can get -- there can be tensions. But that tension is exactly what -- what's required sometimes when we are at these crisis points.

So, Mr. Speaker, I support the Minister's -- the three kind of overarching principles that she had laid out, but I would like her to add a fourth, one of those being -- that being the staff-led innovation pieces, staff-led feedback, innovation, system -- continuous improvement of the system. That needs to be enshrined in our healthcare system.

Before the amalgamation of the authorities, there were robust mechanisms in place for physicians, for nurses, for other healthcare professionals, to participate and make continuous improvements to their workplaces. Somehow, that hasn't transitioned into the new -- the amalgamated authority, and it is something that's sorely missed. Now, I should stress, no one who's currently working there wants it to change back to the way it was. They recognize the improvements of centralizing the authority into one cohesive unit. But they do feel unheard. And I know there's been town halls. The Minister's participated in those town halls. We've had town halls as well. And, unfortunately, I think the -- you know, the conversation's happening but people aren't still feeling like those conversations go very far. So we need to find a way -- and I'll charge the Minister with this. We've given her some places to start, but staff-led innovation and continuous improvement and system change that needs to be enshrined in operational groups that can make -- so it's not a top down process where all the changes are coming from a public administrator or from a board or from senior management, but they're actually coming from the floor, meeting somewhere in the middle. Because that's been missing from this conversation and from the system that we currently use.

You know, I'm pleased to hear there's only five agency nurses. I know they've been reducing the amount of agency nurses, so I just say take the extra step, commit to phasing them out. If we wait for every other jurisdiction to do it, I guarantee you there's other jurisdictions saying the exact same thing, especially the smaller provinces, PEI, New Brunswick, that are struggling with these challenges as well, that are have-nots. I'm sure that they are saying same thing. If we get rid of this resource, then we'll lose it and what are we going to do. But if we all did that, not much would change. I think of daylight savings time. You know, we're waiting for Alberta. Alberta's waiting for BC. BC's waiting for California and so on and so forth. So we're never going to lose it. And that's frustrating for people who are tired of it. And it's the same thing here for workers who are tired of seeing travel nurses and competing with travel nurses while they want to see them gone, and they don't want to hear the excuses of, we'll wait for everyone else to do it first. I applaud Quebec for their changes, and I hope other provinces do follow suit, starting with this one next. We could be the next domino to fall as we move forward, and we've given the Minister plenty of time to consider a robust plan.

Now, I just want to speak to -- I know some of our colleagues are very passionate about collective -- expanding collective bargaining for nurses. But there are other healthcare workers as well. And, you know, the discussion we had yesterday in the House didn't include them, so it's -- I don't think it's too perplexing to consider that those healthcare workers also need a voice.

One of the things I have heard from those folks, who work very hard for Northerners, is that they don't feel like they're heard as loudly as the doctors or the nurses and so forth. And we don't want to leave anyone out. So what this is calling for is essentially for the parties who are involved with labour in the Northwest Territories to sit down and figure out an inclusive way to make sure no health workers are being left out. You know, so there's certainly a lot of effort that's gone into supporting nurses, but we need to support everyone because we need those professions as well.

Mr. Speaker, the working group concept that also is flummoxing some Members, this was pitched by our Honourable Premier. So I don't know what it looks like. He's established a small community -- a committee of Cabinet, which is a different approach. I'm not on that committee. I've seen the terms of reference, but this is a concept that was brought forward as a way to find closer ways to working together. So, yeah, we have a standing committee, for sure. We have these committees. But this, again, was a novel concept to solve crises or challenges that are affecting regions, not long term but short term. And we have a crisis right now that needs short-term fixes before we can move to those long-term stabilization. So to put a finer point to it, the motion contemplates an action plan at the fall; let's establish a working group from both sides of the House to build that working plan collaboratively. So if any Members are wondering what it could look like, that's an option. But I'll leave it in the hands of the people with the resources to pull together that rather than speculate on our side because ultimately it wouldn't be in our hands; it would be in the hands of the Executive Council.

And my last comment is just because I'm a Yellowknife Member doesn't make this a Yellowknife motion. I hear often that criticism, and you know, I hear on the one hand some Members saying, you know, there's a divide and conquer approach that is often seen in this Assembly and we shouldn't have that. And then I hear other Members saying well, Yellowknife gets everything. But that's divide and conquer. And, again, just because I'm a Yellowknife Member doesn't mean this is a Yellowknife motion. If we're trying to staff positions in the communities and outside of the capital in regional centres, well, we need a strong incentive regime. We need a strong collective agreement. We don't have the staff to deploy to the small communities or recruit to the small communities, so I don't see what these points are explicitly about Yellowknife. Yes, there's a hospital in Yellowknife that serves the entire territory. It's Stanton Territorial Hospital, not Stanton Yellowknife Hospital. We benefit from that resource, absolutely. My community benefits from that resource. But it is not to the exclusion of the rest of the territory. And this motion is contemplating solutions that affect multiple communities, and the changes that we want to put -- we want to put in place will impact multiple communities.

So, again, don't let the fact that Range Lake is in Yellowknife fool you. This is a territorial motion for a territorial problem to help territorial doctors and nurses. So I -- with that being said, I think this is a good start to this problem. I am very -- to start solving these problems. I am very encouraged by the words spoken by the Minister of Health and Social Services in this debate. I was encouraged by the words she spoke earlier about a willingness to make changes to the public administrator's work plan to better explain his mandate.

I think communication is a key point here, and I want to communicate something very clearly, that coming into this session, I had made references to confidence. I'm no longer making those references to confidence. I am now confident that the Minister is on the right track. And now it is our job to hold her accountable for the commitments she's made. But I am confident that she is moving forward, and I hope that we will be active partners as we build a stronger healthcare system together. But rest assured, if it falls off the rails, I will be the first one to jump up again and say this is not okay; we need to take care of our doctors and nurses, allied healthcare professionals and everyone else. But the Minister has clearly understood the problem. I have confidence that she will bring forward plans that are going -- a plan. I hope it is costed, time-bound, and is very clear and clearly communicates the government's intentions and actions to the public so there's no ambiguity, and people , not just me, but the people of the Northwest Territories regain confidence in their healthcare system. And, most importantly, the people who work in that healthcare system regain confidence as well. So the Minister has a lot of work ahead of her, and I hope we can all be part of the journey together. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.