Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Health care is what I'm going to talk to the House today.
Mr. Speaker, we have a great system, best system, some of the best people, Mr. Speaker, but all systems have their challenges. So, Mr. Speaker, when we talk about the heroic efforts that the nurses face or challenge every day, you know, we are a great -- we're of great appreciation of what they do. Mr. Speaker, often they're treated as the only people we talk about in the system, but they are the symbol of the system in the way we chat about them. Let us not forget there are many people that support this system, such as personal support workers, admins, techs, and the list goes on. So when we speak about nurses, sometimes we tend to forget to mention the other names so I don't want people to feel we don't think about them. They are on top of mind.
Mr. Speaker, but like every great system, a hospital is similar to what I would describe as the game Jenga. You can only put so many stresses and challenges on the system before it tumbles down. Nurses are on the vanguard of our healthcare system, Mr. Speaker, and often we talk about them in a way of being the first ones that we see to receive our health care. But I often wonder, you know, no matter how many health care czars we hire from far and wide, Mr. Speaker, will they get to the root of some of these challenges our system is facing?
Mr. Speaker, it seems to be that we're giving glazing efforts towards the management and relationship challenges, the pay equity challenges, and certainly the working condition challenges. Mr. Speaker, to go back, we don't seem to spend the time about finding out why the frustrations are there with the management challenges. No, we just assume everything's good, and if you hire the guy from Regina to go through it, well, heck, you know, he'll hear what he's paid for to hear. He's hired by senior management to look at the system. Well, he's not going to be as critical on the system as one would think. Mr. Speaker, pay equity, often we hear about –
Point of Order
-- point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Member from Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is speaking about an identifiable individual who is not in the chamber to defend himself. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Hay River North. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Premier's now identifying him. I said you can hire someone from Regina. We have had many people in this House reference who he is so if we want to get to specifics, we can name him, but we're not here to name people. Particularly, I think it's a far stretch, and we can't keep talking about these people and pretend they don't exist. It's a reference, and that's the point. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Colleagues, it was a very close line. Please let's not do semantics in saying could be where, it should have, would have. Let's be very respectful of our people in the public service. At this point in time, there is no point of order, but I appreciate us making sure we're aware of this situation.
Member from Yellowknife Centre, please conclude your -- or back to your statement, please.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the chance to finish, uninterrupted hopefully.
That said, Mr. Speaker, we should be talking about ratios. MIT did a review years ago, I seem to read, which was we're not computers; we're people, which is you can only challenge and stress the system so much whereas in nursing ratios asked the question can we allow our teams to focus in a reasonable and balanced way? Mr. Speaker, I'll end with this because I can't seem to -- I don't have enough time to finish my statement. I'll say you can only work the system to the bone and expect best results, but if you work the system to the bone, all you're going to get is a bony system and nobody wants that, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Members' statements. Member from Hay River South.
