Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Briefly, in the Minister's opening remarks he talked about the strategic plan that will provide vision for Health and Social Services for the decade to come, and he expects it to be, hopefully, completed in May, 1998. It would be nice to see before we actually get into division what we are heading into besides knowing that a plan is being worked on. This has been one of the concerns I have had as well, especially since the department will be working with the boards to develop a comprehensive business plan based on the strategic directions of the overall Health and Social Services system. There are a number of items there. My concern would be, as brought up earlier, last week, with the Inuvik Regional Health Board and my specific questions which I will bring up later on in the appropriate section which has to do with funding levels and Cabinet decisions as to how they impact those funding levels. It has been just over a year since the closure of Delta House. Although the Minister at the time in an Inuvik meeting made a commitment to support, as they now call it, a turning point helping them work on other initiatives. I am disappointed as are members within the community that the help that was offered did not seem to follow through down to the community when the crunch came. It was like pulling teeth in some instances. So I would have questions in that area. Although, they have moved to another area, they are trying to provide some services within the community when it relates to drug and alcohol, which has been severely reduced but they are still trying to provide some service to the individual. I will be asking questions in the appropriate section when it comes to the amount of funding we are spending in sending out patients. I am speaking of medical and travel dollars as well as costs for the individuals to be in another facility.
Hopefully, this framework we are talking about will establish a solid criteria where all health boards will know, and it will be clearly labelled and spelled out, that the process which is to be followed when it comes to health care for individuals in the Northwest Territories. Although there should be some flexibility, all people across the Northwest Territories should be eligible and able to receive medical health for items that are open and offered to all residents of Canada. Of course, I am interested in the process of the Inuvik Hospital and its financing, when it comes to the federal government. Hopefully, the Minister can update us as to what is happening in that area. I think that we have come a long way and the last two budgets we have gone through without a lot of discussion. We are moving in the right direction of giving communities control of developing systems, but once again, I must say there needs to be a framework in place where all health boards are expected to operate. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.