Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the move towards a different kind of primary care model is going to happen in stages. We certainly are not going to get there in a few months.
The first and primary objective is to stabilize the physician population in Yellowknife because we have lost a significant number of family physicians over the last few years, to the point where services to the outlying communities which were serviced by Yellowknife physicians are also being affected. They are not getting their regular medical clinics either. So the first concern is to stabilize the physician population by providing an alternative payment method that would meet the concerns of physicians.
Currently, physicians in Yellowknife are paying very high overhead costs to the point where they are finding their practices unsustainable. They are having difficulty attracting new physicians to come and work in this environment. I certainly would not want to give the impression that we are going to be moving very quickly to a brave new world of primary care.
This is obviously going to take some time in terms of both moving the physicians to a new kind of payment model. That needs to be done on a voluntary basis. The tradition of physicians working on a fee-for-service basis is very strong in Canada. We need to preserve that choice for physicians locally who do not wish to come onto contract.
The negotiations are complex. They are sensitive. I think all parties would agree they are extremely challenging in terms of the number of issues we are trying to deal with. I would be very hesitant to put any kind of timeframe on a conclusion, given the dynamics that are at play. I will say the department is very determined to try to implement an alternative primary care model.
We sincerely believe that offering physicians an alternative payment will help to stabilize the method. Certainly the response we are getting from a majority of physicians locally is that they are very interested in the alternative payment method and support it. I think the best we can do at this point is commit to keep the standing committee apprised of our progress and certainly to convey in our negotiations to physicians that Yellowknife MLAs are also hearing from their constituents that they want to see progress on this issue. Thank you.