Mr. Speaker, May 10 to 16 is National Nursing Week.
Nursing Week is celebrated each year throughout Canada and the world during the week of Florence Nightingale's birthday of May 12. This week is an opportunity for all Canadians to express their gratitude for the hard work and important role that nurses perform, and also for the courageous manner in which they expose themselves to the risk in the provision of essential nursing care such as during last year's SARS outbreak.
While this week offers all the opportunity to recognize the vital role nurses play in our health care system, we should respect the contribution of nurses and other health care workers year round by ensuring proper funding, and fair and equitable employment conditions.
It is an outrage that we as a country continue to face significant shortages of nurses due to a decade of funding cuts to our health care system, coupled with the continued lack of a coherent strategy for stable funding from the federal government.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all Canadian nurses for their hard work, often above and beyond their assigned duties. It is through their dedication and sacrifice that our health care system continues to be one of the best in the world.