This really is the last question this time, Mr. Chairman. If you do your survey and all of your consulting and so on, in the case of the Inuvik facility, if you find out that there are only 100 people who are really concerned in the Sahtu, will the decision you make be either all in or all out? Either you all go to this or you don't. We will make other arrangements. Or, will it be that you say, there are some cases where you could go here and some cases where you can go somewhere else. What is the Minister's thinking on that?

Mr. Chairman, I would like the decision based on whether they are all in or all out. The way that it is leading at the present time, it would appear that the Sahtu will come to Stanton Yellowknife Hospital, so they would all be out of the Inuvik area and they would be in to the Yellowknife facility. If that decision is made, then I would appoint someone from the Sahtu region to the board of the Stanton Hospital, so they feel they have representation that can, perhaps, bring the Sahtu slant to decisions made at the board level. Whether I could say absolutely cut and dried that everybody from the Sahtu will always come to Stanton, Mr. Chairman...I have been in politics long enough to know that there is always some wrinkle that comes at you from some direction. There is going to have to be a little bit of flexibility. It may be a family issue, it may be any number of things that you just can't plan for when you are making those blanket statements. I would say that, occasionally, there may be a person who goes from the Sahtu to the Inuvik hospital, but I would see them rarely and only for special reasons, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One of the issues that have been raised in my community of Arviat, has been the issue of representation on the regional health boards. It was reflected in the report of the Standing Committee on Finance. The concern was that a representative of the community health board had not been represented in the Keewatin Regional Health Board for a period of 17 months. In that period of time, there have been some major decisions made. Other studies, which have been completed by the Keewatin Regional Health Board, has left the community of Arviat without a representative and without any say as to what takes place in the decisions in the Keewatin region. I appreciate that the new Minister was very quick to respond to this concern, and also the fact that there were a number of Ministers who took on the portfolio, but it was a concern which the community was unable to do very much about. I also have learned, in that period of time, that the process for appointing a representative from a particular community to a regional health board can be tedious. I would like to ask the Minister if there has been any thought given by the department to changing the process for appointing members from communities to the regional health boards?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I haven't given any thought to changing the procedure, but I'm all ears if the Member has some suggestions on how we can make the process better, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, I don't really have any suggestions. I also understand that the appointment of representatives from communities is right in the act, so it would seem to be difficult to change that process, unless we change our act.

One of the suggestions I have heard is that the community should be able to appoint or elect a person from their community to represent them on the regional health boards. But, again, if it is in our act, I would think it would be very difficult to change that. Is it, in fact, in the act?

Mr. Chairman, yes, it is in the THIS Act. But, as I say, if there are suggestions out there, I'll listen to them. I think, at times, people get frustrated with, as the Member said, the tediousness of the appointments. All I can say, Mr. Chairman, is that we will endeavour to be as quick as possible in that process in the future, to make sure there are no communities that don't have representation. We will try to speed up the process a little bit, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to reiterate the difficulties I was coming up with. Because there wasn't a representative of the Arviat health committee, it left much of what was going on with the regional health board on my shoulders, trying to pass it on to the community health committee. The way I understand the process right now, the Minister of Health requests three names from the regional health boards, which come from the community health boards. Again, that process, as I have stated, is tedious. I was wondering how much influence the MLAs have in this whole process?

Mr. Chairman, I can only speak from my experience as Minister. Generally, what happens is that I allow the appointment process to go through its tedious course, the consultation, et cetera, and I usually end up with a name on my desk of who should be appointed. At that time, the MLA is contacted and asked if he or she has anything to say with regard to the appointment. I haven't had an MLA yet, that has said, I want you to change this or I don't want this. So, I haven't had to face that situation yet, Mr. Chairman. How much weight would the MLA's counsel carry with me? Considerable, Mr. Chairman, considerable.

(Translation) Mr. Chairman, I raised this question before when Ms. Mike was the Minister of Health. It is not to say that we don't like the idea of the Keewatin having a regional hospital. My constituents from Sanikiluaq often go to the Keewatin or go to Churchill when they have to go to the hospital. If there was a regional hospital built in the Keewatin, they have often told me to relay to the Minister what inconveniences might arise because they probably wouldn't have to go to Churchill, Manitoba if they built a regional hospital.

The residents of Sanikiluaq have wondered if they would have to go to the Keewatin. They have wondered if there was to be a medevac, if they would have to go to the Keewatin. A lot of times, especially for unilingual Inuit, if they have had to travel a long distance, they have asked if they could continue to go to Kuujjuaq. I don't know if the Minister is ready to answer this question, but during the planning process, can this also be looked at? They would prefer to go to a different community.

We are all aware that money is involved. The GNWT has to pay for the hospital in Kuujjuaq, but the residents want to understand if there will be more problems arising or if there are going to be any changes made if they build a hospital in the Keewatin? I wonder if this is part of his plan? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, to tell you the truth, I haven't considered Sanikiluaq in the Keewatin formula at the present time. Certainly, I'll take into consideration their concerns. I would point out that, although there is a facility being talked about for the Keewatin, all the necessary studies haven't been done yet. Today, the Legislative Assembly passed a motion put forward by the Standing Committee on Finance, with regard to some of the studies that have to be done and certainly we will factor Sanikiluaq into that particular area.

I would point out that Churchill, and I think the Member did mention Churchill, there has been some talk by the Department of Health in Manitoba that maybe the people from Keewatin would have to start going to Thompson. I am saying that this has been talk. I know their Minister is anxious to meet with us to discuss some of these issues of Churchill and Thompson. It is not only for reasons of our own that we are looking at some options because the situation in northern Manitoba may eventually dictate that we have to do something different with our people. I will undertake, Mr. Chairman, to examine the Sanikiluaq situation. I will undertake to have someone go in there in the next little while to discuss the community's feelings, and we will also raise this issue with the Keewatin Regional Health Board, to let them know that there is a concern in Sanikiluaq. Hopefully, by talking to Sanikiluaq and making the regional health board in Keewatin aware of the problem, we can resolve any of the issues that might occur and also put aside some of the fears that people in Sanikiluaq may have, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to go back to one more point that I had forgotten to mention, regarding the entrance in the stairway of the health facility in Arviat. During the summer, I met with the health committee and they raised with me, the concern of the entrance and how difficult it is for people to carry patients on stretchers and how steep it is to have to climb the stairs to get into the health centre. When I raised this with the Minister in the summer, the way I understand it, the Minister relayed this to the Department of Public Works, who then went to the regional health board. The regional health board indicated that there were no problems with the entrance of the health facility. This is one example where the communication becomes difficult, where a community would like some form of result, and it has ended at the regional health board because there is no representative. That is a concern that was raised with me, which came back to me eventually, with the comment that the regional health board felt that it was not necessary for anything to take place to the entrance of the health facility. I have more recently asked the Minister about the entrance, and I would like to get some clarification on what it is the department intends to do with the entrance of the health facility in Arviat. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, In think the price to change that arrangement physically started at $65,000 and went up from there. What the Keewatin health board has decided to do is contract someone from the community of Arviat for this winter, to keep the snow clear of that particular access. Then, when the building is eventually renovated -- which is going to happen the year after next -- then the access

will be taken care of physically and, presumably, the problem will no longer be there, Mr. Chairman. The board has decided that it is a problem and they are going to supply labour to keep the ramp free of snow for this winter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.