Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it is primarily a medical decision on whether or not to send out a patient and there is normally a medical referral unit in each board that makes those types of decisions. Thank you.

Thank you. Operations and maintenance. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like if the Minister could, I know he had responded to Mr. Roland that he did not have the information from previous years, but would he at least have the cost in this medical year? What was budgeted for medical travel in the present fiscal year we are in as opposed to what he is proposing for the new budget. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will give the total amount for the '96/97 year budget was $17,499,000. Thank you.

Mr. Minister, your microphone was off. Could you repeat the last line, please. Mr. Minister.

$17,499,000 for the '96/97 year. Thank you.

Thank you. Support and health services administration. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There was $17 million the Minister tells us in the '96/97 year in the main estimates. What is it projected to finish up at, by March 31st, after supplementary appropriations and so forth. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

I will let Mr. Ramsden speak to it. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Ramsden.

I think what would be appropriate for tomorrow, we can provide some information that shows the projections by board. It was recognized early on in the fiscal year that the amount of money that we allocated each board was insufficient given that we obliged them to seek significant price decreases in each of the areas of medical travel. In order to reconcile to the numbers in terms of activities summary, we have to look to the costs that are included in the medical travel area for group homes, Larga, the referral service that is included in that area. I think it would be appropriate to provide some projection, board by board, which we do not have with us, but we can provide for tomorrow.

Thank you. Operations and maintenance. Total operations and maintenance is - I have final supplementary, Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to that information tomorrow. I think there are some questions that need to be answered, as the government has to look at ways to control this expenditure. It just keeps going and going. On the question of the Med-Emerg contract, I had asked at least a week ago a question in the House for information regarding this contract, and the Minister alluded today that he would try and get that information for me tomorrow morning. I was hoping that it would be a matter of photocopying the information. I would suspect the terms of reference were prepared before the contract was let. I would hope that an explanation of how the decision was arrived at to use outside consultants and the cost. I would hope that would all have been available. I look forward to receiving that tomorrow morning. I will wait with those questions that I have in this particular area until that information is provided tomorrow. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. I take it that that is noted by the Minister and his officials. I have the honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

I will ask Mr. Ramsden to speak to it please. Thank you.

Thank you. The deputy minister, Mr. Ramsden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This increase is specifically related to the roll out of the community based information collection and data management systems, primarily in the areas of encounters with the health and social service system. The system that we are calling Wellcom, which is intended to be a health centre based system that will allow for the collection of information on each encounter by a patient, and track the services that are provided to that person, linked to medical travel, so that we can provide linkage to both the cost of travel and the reasons for travel, the services provided to the person when they are out of their community. It also includes the initial stages of implementation of the child welfare information system, and some amount of equipment in both the Baffin and Inuvik to support the initial pilot programs in telehealth, telemedicine as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you. I am getting a signal from the honourable Minister that Mr. Ramsden will respond. Mr. Ramsden.