Thank you, Mr. Chair. Quality of programming is a difficult issue when we look at our makeup of the Northwest Territories. I can just look at my own family to see the impact. My children, growing up in the Northwest Territories, if they were to marry out of an aboriginal group, their children would probably not be covered based on the genealogy of ancestry. Yet they were born here and they have an aboriginal parent. So it is a tough question to deal with.

I think the question arises from the difference in the health care that is provided to Canadians. Here in the Northwest Territories we have the non-insured health benefits as well for Indian and Inuit according to the federal agreement. In that agreement, you see the extras that are available for dentures, eye glasses, medical travel and some of the drugs. As I said earlier, we are going to hit that ceiling here and we are going to run into some other problems overall. It is something we are going to have to wrestle with when it comes to how do we deal with the federal government on these issues. They are important. They have been created, part of past agreements between the federal government and aboriginal governments and when we took over the programming it was attached.

Now again, I know there are a lot of aboriginal governments that are working at trying to take over that end of the programming. It is something that is part of the intergovernmental process. They are intertwined in the Northwest Territories. There are going to be some differences remaining. I think there are ways where we can bring things together.

How do we bring together programming that was set up through this government in conjunction with the federal government and the aboriginal groups? For example, with student financial assistance, the Dene are treated tax free in that situation. The Metis and the Inuvialuit are not. As well, the non-aboriginal portion of our population fall outside another degree. There was some ongoing work that was being done with the groups in the Northwest Territories to try to bring this to a little more of a setting where we can all look each other a little closer in the eye. That is not going to be without negotiation.

Some areas are still a way out of our hands when it comes to the federal government and the belief and constitutional rights of those that have come before and are considered First Nations in our land. They have made agreements with the federal government and we have accepted the transfers and we are implementing them on their behalf. As I said earlier, some of those groups are wanting to take over their own delivery because they feel this government has not done it properly. On both sides of the coin we are going to get bit. I think if we form the right partnerships and look at this in a new way where everybody has a say at the table, at the end of the day we can come out with a compromise that will lead to a better system overall for the Northwest Territories.

I know my long term goal, I do not want to see a school in Inuvik for the Gwich'in, another one for the Metis, yet another one for the Inuvialuit, and one for non-aboriginal people. We could never afford that. So all parties have to work together. Thank you.