Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I listened very carefully to what my friend Mr. Gargan had to say and I think I see what he is alluding to. I must agree with him to some degree. I lived in a small community, like many people, and I

know people who are good at doing certain things. If you ache or have a problem with sleeping -- it even went as far as dealing with fertility -- you would go and visit that person. That still exists to some degree in some of the communities, not only here in the Northwest Territories, but elsewhere. We have always done this and it is good. But there are different things we have adopted over the years, now more toward the more conventional methods of treatment. I agree with Mr. Gargan, if I get an ache and pain that is one thing, but if I have a broken leg, I will go to see someone who knows how to fix broken legs. The difficulty that I see in such a motion is not in the fact that we should recognize them -- yes, we should recognize that is a part of our heritage that we should continue -- but the difficulty is the funding by government and incorporating it into our system of health and social services. Now, in social services it is different. We have people who are very compassionate and good listeners, the old folk and some young folk too. They can listen to people and help them deal with problems. But when we start getting into the health field, it is a bit different.

I see a problem when we start introducing funding into this. Who do we give the money to? Is it one group of healers? Anything we do in health today has strict rules and guidelines they use before a person is allowed to practice medicine anywhere. Without being flippant about it, I would say the Department of Health and this government's regulations are going to kill this before it even gets off the ground, just given the regulations that would be required before funding is given.

Seriously, how would we gauge what we should be funding? Is Lac Ste. Anne something we should be funding? I know people who have gone there. People go to Parry Falls, near Lockhart River, for traditional healing and without funding. There is transportation, but it is incorporated into another part of our program. I don't know if it is dealing strictly with traditional healing. If we start putting money into this, it takes on a whole different character.

I would like to support the part where we recognize it, yes. I would like to support the part where we encourage it, yes. I would like to support something like this to continue with the people who do understand and go about learning these things from elders, yes. But when it comes to seeking funding from the government to do this, I have difficulty in understanding exactly who we are talking about, who should be getting funding. If it includes midwives, that is another thing that is different. I don't fully understand it, therefore, I would not be able to be supportive of the funding part of it. I think there are many problems we are going to be facing and it may take away from that community and the traditions that exist today, once we start doing that. Thanks.