Mr. Speaker, as you know, we have a freeze on all new hires. Any requests for new positions to be advertised have to come to me for rationalization. Whether or not that recommendation has been put forward in the Strength at Two Levels report, it is a very badly needed position because the whole medical travel issue has been an ongoing and troubling situation for us. We have to come to some end as to how it is to be handled. It does not matter whether it is in Baffin, Keewatin, Kitikmeot or the Inuvik Regions, the travel policy that we have is being interpreted in different ways whether it is for the patient or for the escort. We really have to do something about that. I felt it was very necessary to begin to rationalize how we are using the medical travel responsibility.

It is skyrocketing. We have all kinds of policies, and I feel that rather than making an overall judgment on who is doing what in various regions, we should decide on how to better deal with the escalating costs of medical travel.

I believe you said "centralized" I think that by using that word it may determine that we are trying to centralize medical travel for any purpose. But the whole idea is to look at travel, the medical travel, the travelling of escorts and how we are using it. The idea is to find out how and what is being abused. At the same time, while there are many accusations out there as well as reports from different people, we have to be fair to people by taking a very aggressive stand on how medical travel is being used. It is an overall problem that we have, whether people go to Churchill or Winnipeg, whether they come here from Kitikmeot or go to Edmonton -- these are the problems we are having which need to be addressed.

We have had many questions raised about people going out just for one visit for five minutes; going, coming back and being referred out again for a visit that was not necessary. These are the types of things we are trying to address with that position. It is an overall position to look at how medical travel is being used, not necessarily trying to look at redirecting traffic at this time. Thank you.