Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there are two things that I could offer on this issue. The first one being that as a government we've made a commitment and invested considerable amounts of time and money in establishing the Sahtu Health and Social Services Authority that will bring into the Sahtu the decision-making capacity and program administration for the people in the Sahtu by the people in the Sahtu. We set up the administration. We have a CEO in place, we're working on the staff housing

issues. There was a considerable amount of work done at the front end with our committee that went around. A regional committee went around the Sahtu and consulted on how best to do this. The direction to this point from the leadership was they want to hold off on setting up the board itself, but focus on administration, which we did. The goal, when we move on the board, which I'm getting some signals is now ready to be considered, would be to have community representation from each community to sit as a board of management providing direction and authority in the delivery of health and social services.

The other broader issue that's going to affect all boards and agencies was touched on, as well, by our Social Programs committee and has come up in this legislature as one of the issues we want to look at. That is the role in the broader sense of boards and agencies in the Northwest Territories, and what's the best structure to in fact have, given the number of boards and in many cases the common mandates and the smallness of our jurisdiction. So in those two areas, I think work will be done and is being done that will make the systems in the Sahtu more responsive to the people. Thank you.