Recently, while attending the Sun Country health board meeting, they were talking about the ongoing issue of recruitment of nurses, which I'm sure is a main topic for most every health authority in the province, and they mentioned an astonishing figure of resumes from a recent recruiting trip to the United Kingdom.

There were over 360 "expressions of interest" submitted to the recruiters who held recruitment career fairs around Britain. Now, Sun Country most assuredly has a doctor and nursing shortage, so this level of interest is quite welcome; will it alleviate the shortage?

That remains to be seen, actually, because the "expression of interest" is only the very first step in the process. Each person's resume has to be sorted into categories, such as their level of education and experience, and what each person may have specialized in; the qualifications have to be checked out, and then one of the hardest aspects of the process, immigration.

Is all of this worth it? Well, if it fills many or all of the vacant positions available right now in Sun Country, estimated currently at around 20 to 30 positions just in nursing, it certainly would - but keep in mind that other health districts were also involved in the recruitment drive in the UK, and may end up trying to lure some of the same people.

But imagine, coming here to southeast Saskatchewan after living and working in Britain. This is where the current residents and business people of the southeast can play a vital role in the retention end of the process. As was pointed out to the Sun Country board, we can get the people here, but then they can be lured away to work in a more lucrative position once they're here.

The challenge will be to make the quality of life appeal to them with the amenities and features they want to the extent they'll fall in love with the place and stay. Now, one point that may play in our favour is the weather - not the current weather, mind you, as it's -22 with a wind chill outside as I write this - but with the immigration process and so on, the absolute soonest we'll see anyone here from that UK recruitment drive is in six months or so, which would have our new health care people touching down here in May or June, some of the best times of the year temperature-wise.

We have many amenities and attractions here, not just for the tourist, but for new residents to enjoy. It will be not only the initial friendliness and hospitality of residents that help, but the ongoing friendliness, the ability for the new people to make connections in the community and feel welcomed and warm that will help make them want to stay here.

In a way, it's a similar need to what was expressed here recently by Dr. Lynda Haverstock, as she and others talked about developing our tourism potential. We have features and unique attractions here that other larger centres don't have, and we need to ensure those are emphasized positively, things like our small-town atmosphere that's good for peaceful living and raising a family, with the amenities that bigger cities have, but without all the traffic and hassle and crime and hectic pace of living and everything else that goes with living in a larger urban centre.

In the end, folks, it will be up to us to show the quality of life we know and enjoy here on a daily ongoing basis; with the restoration of health care to the levels we need tham at to serve our growing population, I think it'll all be worth it in the long run.