Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we delegate a lot of responsibility to the regional and local health boards. That has been the trend of this government and past governments.

If the Member is suggesting that he would like me to become directly involved in the needs and the delivery of programs and services at the community level in by-passing boards that have been setup, it is just an interesting idea. He talks about the Minister's authority, but we have delegated a lot of that authority to the boards. If the boards are not there and close-by in a position to be responsive to these needs, then I do not know who is. If the boards are not responsive to the people and the needs of the communities, that is something we need to look at, but that is a governance issue.

Right now, the system that we operate under does refer the identifying of needs like this to boards, who then pass those needs on through their business planning process and their business plans to the department for approval. Thank you.