Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With boards and agencies, everyone knows the decisions made where policies are being developed, and I think what we are hearing from this government when it comes to non-insured health benefits that there seems to be a real lack of understanding from the government's view; they think this is just a federal program and because we are not making money on it, we are losing money that maybe we should give it back.

I think we are starting to lose sight. This program has been there for several years and a lot of money was taken out of this program which was not given to the aboriginal community. This government used it in-house to fund other programs and it was there to top off other programs in the past and yet now, because of the federal programs, we have seen a real major effect in our communities where aboriginal people are being told now, "Well sorry, you are a status Indian" or what not. That you are going to get $600 on your dental care. You can only get one set of glasses.

This government seems not to be enhancing the programs but we are delivering it on the basis, "Well sorry, we are losing money here. We cannot assist you." I think for a lot of people, especially in dental care, it is going to cost you a lot more then $600 to deal with a problem, especially with a lot of our children. When you start looking at the cost of dental care in the North, you cannot get much done for $600, especially if you only get to see the dentist once or twice every two years.

There again, I think that this government should be enhancing those programs instead of taking the position that they do not support what is, in regard to the aboriginal programs that we administer on behalf of Ottawa.

I know for a fact that in the past, there has been monies taken out of this program, when it was used for alcohol and drug programs. It was used for other initiatives, in regard to the Tl'oondih program. A lot of the dollars that were spent on that program came out of this fund because the government was not going to put their own money into it because it was an aboriginal-based program and that they were going to use those dollars to offset that cost.

If the Minister wants, I can give her that information, because that was something that I requested in this House and I got that information.

So I would like to know, is the Minister willing to enhance aboriginal programs or enhance the health and well-being of aboriginal people? Or will we continue to treat them as second-class citizens when it comes to programs and funding from this government?