Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as Members of this House may know, hospital and physician services for status Indians and Inuit is a separate agreement in contract with the federal government, which is administered by this government on behalf of those individuals who qualify for services under that program.

Mr. Speaker, this is an approximately $20 million component in the money that is received by Health and Social Services from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Mr. Speaker, this particular agreement has been under some dispute with the federal government over the past year. The crux of the disagreement relates to the fact that the costs are increasing for these services, and as the Government of the Northwest Territories is responsible for delivering those services, Mr. Speaker, the issue is the demand on those resources.

With the demand for services, the cost of those services is escalating at about five percent per year and the federal government, up until our most recent talks with them, have refused to have an escalator in there any greater than two percent. They have capped it at two percent, and so this is an ongoing concern. It does represent almost $20 million a year. We are coming up to a March 31, 2000 deadline, Mr. Speaker, so this is why this is a very important issue to this government. Thank you.