While some MLAs aren’t happy with the pace of connecting Yukoners with primary health care providers, the health minister says the government is doing a lot to grow the health care workforce.

In the legislature Monday, NDP Leader Kate White wanted to know why the wait list for a family doctor is still growing.

“The Liberal government repeatedly seems unprepared for these easily predictable trends,” she said.

“Their inaction and lack of vision have left thousands of Yukoners without a family doctor, and Yukoners are suffering because of it.”

But lack of access to a family doctor is a challenge faced around the world, and is fuelled here by population growth and an aging population, according to Health and Social Services Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee.

She then listed off several actions the government is taking to beef up not only physician numbers but allied professionals, including:

• Implementing the new Health Human Resources Strategy;

• $1.5 million for staffing, including salary support for LPNs bridging to become RNs;

• $321,000 for recruitment, including a position with the Yukon Medical Association and a policy analyst at Yukon University;

• $580,000 for Yukon University for programs leading to a social work degree and medical office assistant diploma; and

• $340,00 for travel and professional development, including nurse training and support for Indian nursing students.

The new walk-in clinic, which opened in December after a false start in the spring of 2022, “is the only thing that has happened in the last 12 months to help Yukoners without a family doctor,” White said.

McPhee said the clinic has been “wildly successful” in its temporary location, at 9010 Quartz Rd., which it shares with the midwifery program and the French-language health centre.

And in the communities, the nursing vacancy rate has dropped to 15 per cent.