Thank you, Madam chair. First of all, as had been discussed at the tail end of the discussions yesterday, the bulk of the changes in regional social service offices moving to boards is captured in the community programs and services activity, as opposed to the support in health service administration activity. We regret any confusion we may have caused. In terms of the grants and contribution increase, the most significant area of increase in grants and contributions is in the area of medical travel. It is one of the key cost drivers that we talked about and certainly has been an area that had been habitually under funded and is still suffering from growth. There is $6.5 million for medical travel. There is $1.72 million in physicians inside the Northwest Territories. There is an increase there as well in grants and contributions. We have some significant offsetting reductions. $1.5 million is being reduced with respect to reduction in expenditures on non-medical escorts. There is approximately $800,000 being reduced in terms of contributions to the Stanton pool of specialists, specifically related to changes that are being proposed to reduce the premium on pension contributions for the salaried specialists. That is speaking to the grants and contributions. Those are the main areas that reconcile the change in that area. As I pointed out earlier, none of those are related to the social service changes. That was an error on my part and I regret the confusion. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam chair. Madam chair, in line with the community empowerment initiative, the community would have to want to take it on first. If he is talking about a specific health centre in a community, then that would be the case. If the community wanted to take it on, they would be able to do that, Madam chair. Thank you.

That is correct, Madam Chair. That is what we are encouraging in the communities that are actively pursuing the transfer of social programs now. I can think of at least three, Aklavik, Cambridge Bay and Igloolik. In each case, the principle players are people doing the support work and negotiations on behalf of the community and are being encouraged by the department to deal directly with the board. We have had some amount of discussion to provide the encouragement and to provide support, but it is important that the discussions be as direct as can be between the community and regional board. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, a lot would depend on when the community would be requesting the transfer. If the request was there, we would facilitate it as quickly as possible. I think it is fair to say there is not a huge amount of interest at this point, for taking over the health centres and the health programs. There is some interest and we are hoping as we develop a few communities, they take it on and people see the overall impact to their community, so more communities will try to take on that initiative. Madam Chair, thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We know there are. We know some boards have problems because of the locations. In that vein, we understand the retention of positions in some of the larger municipalities. The larger communities have been identified as a problem area that has to be given some consideration, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will ask Mr. Ramsden to speak to that. Thank you.

There are a variety of issues on the table that we are working with right now. First of all, on a very general level, we are trying to improve the amount of communication that goes on between the NWT Medical Association, the boards and ourselves to look at barriers to retention of physicians. We are certainly trying to involve physicians actively in the reform projects. It is our view and the view of the medical association that there are things that can be done differently to ensure we can become a more attractive jurisdiction for physicians, and we can keep physicians longer. We have granted some flexibility to the boards as well. For instance, in the Inuvik board they had the flexibility to arrange a capped fee schedule for the doctors, where they could actually give some certainty in terms of the total fee available in the Inuvik region for physician. With respect to the Keewatin Board, we have been in active discussions with the board and the Northern Medical Unit based primarily in Churchill, aimed at bringing both services and some physician positions into Rankin. The view of the board and physicians in Rankin, is that there had to be a minimum of two so they could provide mutual support for each other. We have been facilitating those discussions and it appears now that we are going to be successful, primarily on behalf of the board and their efforts, to bring two physicians into Rankin which, in their view, has been a significant success. Those are some of the approaches and efforts that all three parties have been taking. Thank you.