Mr. Chairman, we have just now received the new agreement from Canada about what they will pay in that regard for the next year.
So, again, we are running into a little bit of a difficulty in one of the regions whereby one of the boards is overspending in the dental area. It's becoming a problem simply because those particular funds flow from the federal government, and when we are overspending in one particular area, we are either taking away from other areas in the Northwest Territories or we are forced to pay with our own money for fees that are really the responsibility of the federal government, and yet the federal government does not agree with the level of services that is being provided by a particular board. So in one instance, it hasn't worked out as well as we would have liked, although we are trying to correct that at the present time.
With regard to other dental services that are available across the Northwest Territories, dental therapists are in just about every major centre now, and although that's working for us, what we are now finding is that we are not getting to these children until they are in school, and by then, some of the problems that they have with their teeth are really starting to affect them. So we are now looking at how we can get to those children before they become school age. Those kinds of things are available in communities at the present time.
As far as the other areas of actually basing dentists, or, to raise another two issues that have been very difficult to handle, those of periodontic and orthodontic services in the Northwest Territories, we are going to be addressing that issue fairly quickly by employing an orthodontist to look into what exactly is required in the Northwest Territories and how can we best meet that demand. I have to tell you, though, that the department and I still share the concern about the amount of dental problems that we have in all of the communities, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.