One of the other areas that I feel this department has to look at is the whole area of identifying the inequities between what resource people in communities are being paid by way of salaries and benefits. Also, the community programs that are presently being carried out by the band council for mental health workers, social workers, alcohol and drug workers, that we have to bring them in line with the rest of the public sector in regard to the professional people in the different areas.

We cannot have an imbalance of salaries and wages between the community professions and people at the regional centres or the headquarters level. We have to somehow ensure that equitable resources are there so that we can pay these people for the job they are doing and the qualifications that they have. We should not continue to downgrade or undermine people's abilities simply by offering a community $30,000 or $40,000 and say, here, get a mental health worker.

You cannot do justice to that position by nickeling and diming it. That is something that I do not see in here. I think as a department that you should look at the ways people are treated because they are either not a government employee, they are employed by the community through the band or community councils. We have to somehow bring that in line that these people are working for the public. They are public employees in the sense of the word but we are not treating them like other public employees within the government.

I believe we really have to take a look at the inequity of the salaries of these people. I would like to ask the Minister, what are you doing to ensure that the inequities in salaries and benefits for the workers in our communities, that they are being treated fairly compared to other professions?