Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to deal with an issue that is arising here at Station Regional Hospital, that seems to be receiving some concerns by the people who are the specialists here. The Med-Emerg report made a number of recommendations and seemed to indicate that the department will go in a certain direction. I understand that further work is going to be done on that this fall, but the concern here is that we have a group of specialists, and they are serving fairly well the whole of the Northwest Territories and certainly all of the Mackenzie Valley. There is an unease there now that the way the future through the developing of all the responsibility to the boards may result in the loss of a number of patients coming here to Yellowknife for specialist treatment. If that happens, that means we may loose specialists and it could have a snow ball effect.
In other words, right now we do have a set-up of a group of specialist here and they can provide most of the services for the residents of the western Arctic certainly if not more than that including the Keewatin. This is a major concern. I have spoken to some of the medical people myself. It is happening because of the fact that we are devolving so much responsibilities to the boards, and there is no sort of guarantee yet that we will be able to maintain the volume of patients through these specialists because it will be a choice of each board where they go. Then it becomes a competitive matter. I wonder if the Minister could enlighten us somewhat on this and provide some reassurance? I will only ask one question. Could the Minister provide some reassurance that we want to maintain this group of specialists in the north and build on that so that we do have a centre of excellence here in the Northwest Territories to treat on an ongoing basis most of the major medical concerns that require a specialist, an operation of some sort? Thank you.