Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I look back into my past Members' statements and one of the things when I was campaigning and one of the things that I stand for is to assist in the hiring and practices of and increasing our healthcare providers. It actually became one of our 19 priorities in this House.
I'm going to read one of my statements from June 3rd. Mr. Speaker, the nurses are core to our NWT healthcare system. Without nurses, we would have no one in the communities, no one to care for our patients in our hospitals, no one to provide nursing care for our Elders, no one to assist our new mothers, no one to provide health education to our youth in many communities, as well as many other things they do. Unfortunately, that they are not treated the same. There is a nursing shortage in the country, and yes, it's hard to attract people to the North due to the cost of living. Nurses are essential. What does this mean, Mr. Speaker? It means that when there a pandemic and the entire territory gets to stay home, they have to continue to work. Nothing has changed for them. It means that if working in a hospital in the NWT and they wish to request time off, if there's no one to cover their shifts, they do not get time off. Mr. Speaker, we absolutely could not function in our healthcare system without them.
On May 29th, 2020, I also talked about the crisis of the healthcare hiring practices, and I directed those to the Minister of Finance with HR questions. You know, at this point we're two years into it. I've been raising the issue. I fought hard to make sure that that became a priority and here we are today, now, with this closure of the obstetrics.
We don't know the Minister said yesterday that there is no further closures but how do we know that? With the crisis that we're in and the nurses that are leaving, the nurses that have reached out to myself and said they're just on the edge of leaving and changing careers, this is a crisis. Our people are at risk in the Northwest Territories if we don't deal with this issue now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Members' statements. Member for Nahendeh.
