Thank you, Chair.
Thank you so much, Minister, for being here today. We greatly appreciate your input and feedback on this important study.
We recently came back from a trip in which we went to Vancouver's Eastside, visited a friendship centre and UNYA, the youth association across the road, and then went on to Sioux Lookout and visited a hospital and the indigenous health authority.
Everywhere we went, resources were the number one issue that so many are dealing with, especially at the indigenous health authority up in Sioux Lookout, where their building was fairly packed. They were in tight quarters. It was a smaller facility and an older facility.
We were in a brand new hospital up there, a spectacular hospital, which seemed to be providing very good services, but most of the people there were non-indigenous workers. The indigenous health authority is all indigenous workers, and they were in a facility that is not nearly as nice, and like I said, very.... You could tell that there was a lot of frustration and a lot of potential burnout amongst the workers there. This seemed to be a common thread: that they're burning out very quickly, and in some instances, a year or two into the job.
Has your department looked at the numbers that we need to hire and train to properly support places like Sioux Lookout and Vancouver's Eastside, both for counsellors and as health assistants in nursing in these remote communities?