Yes.

I want to start by underlining that scope of practice is a big issue in terms of recruitment and retention. It is really important that we have a safe practice environment for our nurses to work in. As you indicated, nurses will not want to come and work for us if they think they're going to lose their licence, but as Sony indicated, in the vast majority of situations that nurses find themselves in, they are working within their scope of practice. We do have these other supports where they're able to call a doctor and get that order so that what they've done is not outside their scope. Having that safe practice environment is really important in terms of recruitment and retention.

We're increasing the visibility of this as a place to work. Despite what the report says, there are nurses who are excited about the idea of coming and working in first nations communities. It provides an opportunity to do stuff that they wouldn't necessarily see in downtown Toronto. It provides them with an opportunity to work in another environment, learn another culture. There are some really exciting things about working in first nations communities.

In addition to our mandatory training, we're also working, in terms of recruitment, on a development program that's helping in a couple of areas. Number one is training the nurses in charge. You need to have that leadership if you're going to have a good practice environment for nurses in which the processes are followed and everything runs smoothly.

That's one part of the development program. The other part of the development program is bringing in those new grads and making sure, as Sony indicated, it's the right kind of person we're recruiting and then training them up, making sure they have what it takes to work in this kind of environment. It does take a special person.

As well, there's student outreach, connecting with new grads, going to universities and encouraging them to apply. Working at optimizing our staffing mix is another part of our recruitment strategy, making sure we have doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, and paramedics so that we don't run into the scope of practice issues.

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