Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Mr. Speaker, the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The forum that I spoke about earlier in my statement is going to go out and look at the existing services and how we provide them. In the terms of reference that I will table later on there is no mention of how it is restricted, but it will be focused in how it goes about its work. I will be meeting with forum members that are selected before they go out on their community consultations. As I stated earlier to a number of questions in this House, this forum is going to be focused on how we can improve our system and looking at the existing sustainability concerns that I also raised. We need to make sure we can provide for services in the Northwest Territories that are sustainable. The message they will have with them when they go out to the communities and do their workshops will be focused as to what we can do within the existing confines we find ourselves in now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the forum members go out through the territories and hear the concern that there needs to be reprofiling of dollars in different program areas, that is something we will look at to see, if it means a reduction in service to what degree, that will all be looked at by the forum as they make their final report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Minister's statement he stated that currently there are nine health and social services boards in the NWT. In light of the recent announcement of Nunavut that they are looking at the elimination of health and social services boards, obviously for financial reasons, perhaps there are more reasons, but could the Minister tell us here in the territories will that also be under consideration, the possibility of the elimination of health boards?

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would not want, before the forum even gets started, to establish that it would go out and start looking at reduction of services. Mr. Speaker, the Nunavut government has announced indeed that they are looking at consolidating their health boards, but as I stated in an interview with CBC, their situation is quite different from our situation. One of the things, as I stated in my statement, we will be looking at our governance structures and again, looking at affordability and sustainability of the systems we carry on with today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Final supplementary, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am somewhat concerned about the cost factor that this may take. We have done the Med-Emerg Report to the tune of $750,000 and jokingly referred to as a doorstop and several other reports that need to be, of course, taken into consideration. Could the Minister tell us if he has a budget allocation for the Minister's forum?

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has not been a budget laid out, so to speak, but we definitely will come under the Med-Emerge Report that was done and I would like to notify the Member that, in fact, the Med-Emerge Report

was used in the strategic plan that was developed and put forward by the department, not as a doorstop. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Mr. Morin.