Thank you, Mr. Chair. Like Minister Miltenberger, I think it’s very important that we don’t get left behind. We have to start planning so that we’ll be ready to negotiate with the federal government when the Health Accords are being renewed. We have to push for a very hard bargain. I remember way back when, when the three
northern Premiers got together and went to Ottawa and stayed in Ottawa until they got a fair share of funding for health care. I don’t know if it will come to that, but we have to be prepared to take that type of action.
Obviously, prevention is the cornerstone if prevention can help reduce costs significantly. I talk about the Foundation for Change. We need to continue to work on that. We can’t supply all of the services, as I said earlier. Medical travel is a very big, big cost. We have to make sure that it is administratively done properly and also serves the needs of the people that use it. I think we are very lucky here in the larger centres because we have access to health professionals. We get prescriptions. We can walk down the street and get it filled. I think we have to make sure that the smaller communities don’t get left behind. We have to make sure that we get health professionals there, that they be able to access drugs and get support as needed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.