Mr. Chairman, that is a dilemma I know you faced when you were in this particular portfolio. The only way I see to resolve it, and perhaps the petition that came to the House today is somewhat timely, is establishing, before we go into the construction, exactly the catchment area and the kinds of things that we will be doing at that particular facility. Resolving this issue of Sahtu, whether they go north to Inuvik or come south to Yellowknife is uppermost in my mind at the present time, in order that we can then, having made that decision, clearly and concisely explain to the people who are residual, the people who are left in the catchment area, that this is the kind of facility that is there at the present time, and here are the services that it is providing.
Hopefully, by looking at some of the medical records around there, we can tell the kinds of treatment that are required fairly regularly and how often those kinds of things occur. That does change slightly across the Northwest Territories, Mr. Chairman. And then, allow the needs assessment to eventually dictate to us what the requirements will be. From that, we will turn it into an asset.
If it is several hundred people here or there, plus or minus, then I don't think it will make a great deal of difference. With the Sahtu, we have to resolve that issue before getting involved. I think we are very close to doing that, at the present time. I talked to the deputy mayor of Inuvik last week and there seems to be a recognition that this particular area of the Northwest Territories feels that they are sort of half-way between Yellowknife and Inuvik, that some of them are sent to Inuvik and eventually have to come to Yellowknife anyway. They are saying, we would like to come to Yellowknife. There is an acceptance, I think, in the Inuvik area, of that particular desire of the Sahtu. If we can resolve that in the next six or eight weeks, Mr. Chairman, then we will be well on our way to being able to do what Mr. Lewis described, which is to say, here are the number of people. This is the kind of treatment we want to deliver. This is the kind of facility that will last us for the next 30 or 40 years. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.