Mr. Speaker, at this point in time and for the last three months, I have been trying to find out exactly what it is that had been allocated to each community and how we came to those decisions to put these particular facilities in the communities. From the information I have gathered, it does not appear to me that we have a clearly defined policy as to when, how and to what degree we do needs studies before a facility is determined in a certain area.

So, Mr. Speaker, I'm still working on that to see if we can come up with a fair distribution of infrastructure so that each region gets treated fairly, and that each community has a needs study in terms of what their needs are as well. There are some policy guidelines, but decisions of this government in the past, as far as I can determine, have not really been guided by a global look at the Northwest Territories; rather, by community interest, or maybe a couple of communities together or a community that aggressively pursues resolution of infrastructure needs to be met in that community.

I hope shortly I'll be able to do an assessment to see how we can more adequately look at needs. Presently, for example, in the Delta region we've had a request for the ongoing maintenance of the Aklavik elders' facility. At the same time, we have another suggestion on what the town of Inuvik would like to see in their community; as well, what Tuk would like to see in their community. At one time, when the facilities were first built, one facility was put in and everybody else was channelled there. However, communities are getting more aggressive. They're getting more clear in enunciating what it is they feel they should be responsible for and to what degree they should keep their elders in their own community, and at what point in time we have to ship them out to a facility that has more medical back-up.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to clearly say that the guidelines and general policy really seems to have been motivated by the hard work of certain communities or areas to pursue facilities for their region. Thank you.