Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would concur with Mr. Erasmus as saying we are not trying to diminish the level of services which are available in respect to the specialists. In fact, we are trying to, hopefully, provide some supports to try to enhance that pool to make them more accessible, if at all possible, to all residents of the Northwest Territories. The intent would not be to diminish any of those services but certainly to make them as accessible as possible. I had forgotten to mention it earlier in looking over my notes while I had a chance to listen to Mr. Erasmus and Mr. Henry. Mr. Ootes brought up the issue about the medical association bringing up concerns about formula funding and inequities. There is no formula funding in place right now with the way that we finance our partners, the boards. As you know, that was an issue in looking at formula funding that brought a lot of concern because of what the impact of trying to equalize some of our funding would do to our partners, the boards. As a result of that, we were fortunate that the Financial Management Board rebased us the $4 million that we are using toward the Strategic Initiative Fund. Firstly, we will try to in a small part compensate for some of the deficiencies and some of those boards that
were not funded at the same level. Secondly, we try to target some of our dollars specifically toward preventive types of programs.
The other issue is on national standards, territorial standards. Certainly, our understanding is we do have those. There are core services we require to provide to our residents. I use the issue of breast cancer screening as one, because as you know, that is another issue which has been discussed over the past couple of years in this House. When we say it is a core service, we are saying the boards have to provide that. It is a matter of discretion for them as to how they provide that, whether they send people out or make sure individuals follow the guidelines that are set, Mr. Chairman.
In respect to Mr. Henry's comments on facilities, it is important to recognize you need to have some form of regional facilities where you can bring together some resources, in order to try to provide some basic services which could ultimately save the system dollars in the long run, particularly in the area of having to minimize or eliminate some of the medical travel which is a big part of our costs, Mr. Chairman. I speak of things like having the capabilities of having observation beds for individuals that may or may not need to be medevaced. If there were not these types of facilities and these types of supports were not readily available at a central location, things like birthing centres that we know as a result of the Rankin Inlet pilot project worked, some of the minor surgery capabilities, some of the x-ray lab type of services and ultrasound services; just as importantly, Mr. Chairman, you have to have facilities that are available and are able to support the specialists if they do not happen to be from the region, if they happen to be travelling in. Again, in centralizing some of the travel, we are trying to reduce overall costs. I think that it is important for me to put on the record, Mr. Chairman. With that, I hope this is the end of the general comments. We have done it twice now. I see another Member came in late as usual, Mr. Chairman, and I am hoping we can move on. Thank you.