Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will have Dr. Kinloch respond.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am not aware that a specific proposal has been received in relation to this. If one has, then we will respond to it.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This commitment from the previous Minister was made quite some time ago. The department should have an indication of whether or not they received a proposal or not. Can the Minister indicate if a proposal has been received, or the status of this commitment? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am not aware of any proposals which were made by my predecessor. I will let Dr. Kinloch respond.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I indicated, I am not aware of any specific proposal which the department could act upon.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister if there was any communication between the community of Fort Simpson, and the region, and the Department of Health pertaining to the commitment which was made by the previous Minister regarding funding an internal review. Has their been communication at all? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Since I took the portfolio over, as far as I know, I have not received any request from the region. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Has there been any correspondence from the department to the community pertaining to that commitment?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Not that I am aware of. We will look into it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am aware that there was a letter sent to the regional council as well as the chief from your planner -- I forget her name -- who is working in that department with regard to the funding. Perhaps you may try to communicate with her to see where this is at. I just wanted to know what the status of this commitment is as it seems to be the part that is holding up this review. If we could get on with it, I think we could probably get on with the review itself. Just a comment. Does the Minister wish to respond to that? Thank you.

Thank you, we will do that.

The reason for the community in wanting to get some sort of funding is that this study is driven by the department, it was originated in the department. I have always been involved, and especially in health, which is very important to the people at the community level, everyone is aware of it in my constituency. If there was a way of getting all the people who are concerned about health together and ask them what they would like to see in health services, I think it could be a driving force because this is driven by the department. The purpose of it is unknown. It is not coming from the people; it is coming from the department. It seems to be floating around in limbo. If something comes right from the community level, such as the importance of health, I think you are going to have some momentum and there would be some action. Because the communities and the people at the community level do not have control of this process, it has been floating around for the last couple of months. The way I have always done things is that it has to come from the people first. It has to be people driven, but it is driven by the department. People are asked to buy into that process and that happened because as you have said it is a multi-stage process, developed by your planner. The community was approached in stage II with a document of your study. We have had further meetings. It is stalled because it is not people owned, it is department owned. The purpose of requesting this funding is that if we could do our own study to get a feel for what the people want regarding health and health services, then perhaps we could combine these two processes and it will drive itself. At the present time, that is not the case. That is the reason why there is a request for funding, to see if we can find out where we are at in this whole process. Thank you.