Thank you, Mr. Chair. The cost of health has been continuing to rise and not only in the Northwest Territories but all across Canada. In a lot of ways, it is unsustainable, but the cost of health is rising at about 67 percent and our formula agreement provides for a 3.5 percent increase.
I think that we have to find ways to change. Our health system is impacted by a number of pressures. We have a lot of medical travel, obviously, because a lot of the services we can’t provide in the Territories. We don’t have economies of scale. Drug use and costs are increasing. We have a shortage of professionals and, of course, we have chronic diseases. In order to find ways to reduce costs, we are talking about the Foundation for Change, which is to allow us to realign our health system so that we can be flexible with what is happening out there. I think it is more than money.
My colleague Minister Miltenberger talked about spending 2 percent on health prevention. I think that there is an old saying: a penny of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I really believe that. We have lifestyle issues. We have an aging population. We need to put more focus in that area. I think that we need to look at using more technology.
I think the fibre optics we talked about earlier will allow us to use more technology to be able to deal with the smaller communities. There is still a question of health professionals. Somebody mentioned yesterday that our people are dying out there, so we need to find a way to make sure that we get health care to the communities on a regular basis so that people can receive the services that are required. Thank you, Mr. Chair.