Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to take an opportunity here to add some of my views on the general issues surrounding our health care in the North. I have already commented in the House yesterday and today on some of these issues, so maybe I can elaborate on it and ask the Minister some questions.

Mr. Chairman, as I stated this morning in my statement, I do not have an objection in principle with doing a study. I did raise questions about whether or not the Minister is clear about what it is she is trying to get at through this review. What I meant by that is I recall getting a letter from the Minister explaining what this review was supposed to achieve. In that letter, attached was a nine page terms of reference. It is very extensive. It is basically asking for answers to almost everything under the sun.

That brings up questions on what it is the Minister is trying to achieve there. I think the overriding concern, what the Minister is trying to get at, is the governance structure in the Northwest Territories with respect to our health care management. In light of the fact that issue was also addressed in the other report, It Takes a Community, as well as being touched on in the Minister's Forum on Health and Social Services. I did not get a chance to read Med-Emerg, but I believe it was addressed there too.

Mr. Chairman, what I would like to tell the Minister is I recall about 11 years ago when I was a researcher for a committee on agencies, boards, and commissions, we studied health structure. I remember a consultant who was here from down south kept saying to me "the form has to follow function." I did not really know what he meant then, but when I think about it now, I think that is very apt in trying to address what we are trying to do with board governance.

I think we have to remember that whatever governance structure we have to deliver health care programs has to be there to serve the purpose. They are not just there to overtake or get in the way. I am not saying that they are, but obviously I believe very strongly that the bottom line for all of us here, and the Minister, has to be the delivery of services. If the structure we have now or the way we are doing things now, or cost overruns, or anything is going to cause having to make a decision to reduce programs in any way, we have an obligation to look at the total picture and make some really tough choices.

For that, I am supporting the study in principle, but I would like to hear from the Minister as to what has driven this need on her part to do this study and what it is she is trying to get at.

Second, Mr. Chairman, I just want to indicate that yesterday when I made a statement recognizing the long-term services of physicians in our Territory, I also mentioned casual discussions with doctors at Stanton. What I realize now is that we have a very fragile health care system in the North where we are lucky in many ways. Many specialists are here providing services and as a unit, they are able to provide more than what they could as an individual.

We have a system built and I believe very strongly that we cannot tinker with that. It cannot be a choice between whether we are going to have a surgery unit or whether we should just combine them because they make sense on paper. There have to be other decisions we could make on the overall structure of the health care system before we come down to one surgery every two days versus every five days. We cannot be talking about these issues at that level. There has to be something else we can do. Choices have to be between health care and maybe government employees going to conferences. I do not know. We have to look at the overall structure and what our priorities are.

In that way, I really want to stress the point that I hope the Minister is really clear about what it is she is trying to get out of this study. Second of all, that she keeps her focus on keeping the services and making sure we provide essential services with the structure in place to do that. I would be interested in hearing the Minister's comments to that end, and I will follow that up with some questions on the shortage of nurses at the hospital. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.