Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for the past two years, I have been going on and on about strengthening primary care because residents across this territory need and deserve to be able to see a health care practitioner in a timely way and to be supported by a team that knows them and understands their health history.

Currently, it is still a struggle. Some Yellowknifers can't get an appointment at all with Yellowknife Primary Care since there's not enough available slots. There are still chronic nurse vacancies in community health centres and some health cabin communities are still waiting months or years for a visit by a nurse or doctor. So that's why we fought so hard several months ago to get money added to the budget for primary care, and we are seeing the results of those efforts in the supplementary estimates tabled this week, with almost $2.7 million proposed for new nurse positions in primary care. So I am very much encouraged by this. I do believe it's the only way forward to be able to ensure we get more appointment slots and more frequent visits to smaller communities. But in order to see results, Mr. Speaker, we need to up our game on recruitment and retention.

Over the last year and throughout the last sitting, we were told that the answers to human resource challenges, like chronic vacancies and poor retention, would all be found in the people strategy. Now that process was delayed for at least six months as we were told HSS needed more time to incorporate staff feedback. While the people strategy was finally released in April, and I have to say that after all that buildup, it was a bit of a letdown.

If you take out all the full-page glossy photos, it amounts to about 10 pages of text, and it's extremely high level. It's full of broad principles, like effective communication, prioritizing safety and mental health in the workplace, cultural safety and antiracism but, honestly I can't find anything new in there that would signal a major shift in approach. We have many staff already tasked with health care recruitment and they do standard things like setting up booths at conferences, but I would argue we need to get more creative and more practical with our recruitment and retention approaches. Mr. Speaker, I ask for your unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our strength in the North is in our community and our personal connections. We share information best through word of mouth, so let's better empower our existing workers and community members to recruit from within their networks. Let's emphasize the personal touch and make sure that we give any new staff a real northern welcome to each of our communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.