Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have been pretty silent during the past couple of days, going page by page, basically listening to my honourable friends, getting direction for the task they asked me to do on their behalf. At this stage, on page 19, there are a couple of subjects that are dear to my heart. One is education and one is health care and hospitals. When the Members and I as chairman of the standing committee of agencies, boards and commissions, had our first public sessions in Fort Smith, there were some very interesting scenarios in terms of what the media -- the types of questions they were asking, and the types of concerns that were being brought up by students at Arctic College in Fort Smith because of the information that was in print in the local newspaper. The issue, or what concerned me, was that people thought the ABC standing committee was just formed to make all these cuts and changes to agencies, boards and commissions because of this report. We quickly cleared that up, as to what the committee's role was.
Also, the Members that were there had a chance to mingle with the students, and they were very concerned that we came down to Fort Smith to cut Arctic College. We had a lot of discussions and talks with many of their peers. But I agree with the motion that was just passed. Arctic College has grown. In the region or riding I represent there is a campus that has been going through fairly difficult times in terms of finding operating monies and finding its mandate; why is it there and what is it supposed to be doing? Things are changing, as everything else does, and I think this motion just gives direction to the people that are in charge of Arctic College to look at their strategies and find out what programs and services should be where, and how effective and efficient they are.
In terms of health services and facilities, this is another area that the standing committee on ABCs looked at, and we heard a lot of input and feedback from people involved in the delivery of health care --doctors, nurses, regional boards from across the Territories, and other people that are interested. They were very concerned about the methods that seemingly have been used to implement this "Northwest Territories Way." I am glad the Government Leader has offered to give us an update and briefing on this, and hopefully that would help us in our deliberations and provide us with more information.
Inuvik has had a hospital for many years. It used to be a fairly large, fairly active centre with a wide range of services compared to what it is today where it has two wards, one of which is a long-term care ward with seemingly limited services. I am not one for saying it should be reduced further. At this stage, I am not willing to support any moves to do that.
I want to make these comments to clear the air on what our role is as a committee, and some of the perceptions we found when we were out visiting communities. Mahsi.