Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I concur with most of the comments that Mr. Bell makes. I could critique them and put my take on them, but I agree with him that the recruitment and retention, the competition amongst boards, and the duplication and overlap of the efforts of boards is not a worthwhile expenditure of time, money or resources; and that the level of satisfaction with health care practitioners who are already practising here is our biggest testimonial if you hope to be attracting more professionals to come here. That is the first thing that people who are thinking of coming here do, is talk to the people who are already practising here, so it does have a significant bearing on how they feel they are treated, whether they are appreciated, whether they are recognized for their work, and whether the environment where they work is conducive to them feeling they can do the best they can.

I agree with you that the recruitment and retention efforts at the very least to be coordinated by the department. Whether or not they need to be centralized is something that we continue to discuss.

The Maximizing Northern Employment Initiative is very exciting, and Health and Social Services are working very closely with ECE on this strategy. We do see in the long term that the training and employing of Northerners in the health care field is a very viable solution to the kinds of pressures we feel from the national and international competition for health care professionals.

FAS/FAE is an area where we should be definitely taking a leadership role and turning our attention as a government. Our statistics, as you know, still do indicate that 30 per cent of women who are pregnant in the Northwest Territories would still consume alcohol. That is very frightening, given the projected costs of providing support to an individual with FAS or FAE over the course of their lifetime, not to mention the loss of their potential as well.

The recently announced federal money, although any money is always welcome, certainly I agree with you that $850,000 per year nationally is not going to probably put a big dent in the problem here in the North. I think that we as a territorial government really need to pay close attention to this issue because the dividends and the return that we will see on investment now and early intervention in dealing with these problems will be very significant in the future.

I think that is all I have to say on Mr. Bell's comments. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.