Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The boards in the western Arctic have been working together to look at options for managing the medical travel including how they could look at ways to reduce costs. They contracted a consultant earlier this calendar year to help them with that review and they just recently received the report and one of our recommendations is in fact to look at negotiating preferred rates or tendering for preferred rates with the commercial carriers. At this time they have not acted on this recommendation.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a short comment and a number of questions of the Minister. I will start at the end of the Minister's statement where he talked about where we continue to have an excellent health and social services system in the Northwest Territories. Mr. Chairman, I would be inclined to agree with the Minister, at least from my own experience. That is not to say that there are not problems that we can work on, and I think the Minister and the officials have recognized that with some of the initiatives that are being taken. I have not had a lot of personal contact but I have talked to some of the clinic operators in Yellowknife and they are very concerned with the shortage of doctors and their ability to attract doctors to the city and I believe that it is fair to say that there is a shortage at the present time. It is certainly not critical but there is a shortage and we have an excellent facility in the capital city which serves all of the Northwest Territories. I am a little concerned that if there is difficulty in attracting medical professionals to the north, that all of the territories will suffer by not having that expertise here. My first question to the Minister is could he tell me about any assistance or plans that the department has in place to assist clinics or hospital to attract medical staff to the north? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I note in the Minister's opening remarks that he talks highly of the co-operation of all the partners. I also note in his statement where he points out, I believe, correct me if I am wrong, that the professional staff's doctors have not had a rate increase in a couple of years and if this is in fact correct, would this not be a good indication as to why it is so difficult to attract medical professionals to the north and what proactive steps is the Minister prepared to take rather than waiting for the Medical Association to maybe come and make the suggestion. Is the Minister prepared to take into consideration that compensation and the lack of any increases in the past three years may be strongly contributing to the lack of professionals here in the territories? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do not believe that

doctor recruitment was a major concern for a number of years and as I note the Minister pointed out, there was a rollback and there have been no increases for a couple of years and the Minister did mention that some of the doctors did choose to move on. I am sure that the incentive of higher remuneration did attract them in the first place, so I am wondering if that is not the main reason that we are not being able to attract more doctors to the north? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Are the medical schools, or does the Minister have any information to say that the medical schools in Canada are producing less doctors than they were a few years ago? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Going on to comments on the Minister's opening remarks regarding care and protection of children and youth and I note the Minister has a continuing concern with that. I also note that there is an additional $1.2 million being allocated to meet the growing demand of foster care services and youth treatment facilities. The $1.2 million sounds like a lot of money. What is the amount of money spent in this particular area annually or what did we spend last year? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For children's services we have budgeted for 1999-2000 approximately $6.4 million for children's services delivered by the health and social services boards and we have budgeted a further $3.2 million for services provided by southern institutions for children who are placed in the south for treatment. Thank you.