Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Member touches on an issue that is one of the key components of the document that we talked about where we looked at referral rates, acute care usage, the role of doctors, Stanton, the appropriate mix. The Member is correct. The facilities that were designed going back a number of decades now like Fort Smith, Hay River, the usages have changed, specifically on the acute care side. The occupancy rates are very low. How service is delivered has changed over time, too. The small hospitals that are full service are disappearing, if not an extinct kind of entity at this point. There has been a move to the larger centres where there's been a consolidation of services. The other issue that has gone on is there is greater and greater difficulty in recruiting GP family doctors, rural doctors. There has been a tremendous growth in the area of specialists. We have attempted to quantify that.
The Member is also correct that there has been a lot of services delivered centrally that at one time possibly were delivered in the communities. But we are making efforts and setting the stage to move things out. I can specifically speak to the issue of midwifery and the issue of dialysis where it was delivered in Yellowknife, but we've made the case and shown that it can be and should be delivered where there is a need close to the people, like in Fort Smith and we're working on that kind of service in Hay River. So those kinds of more outpatient services working in conjunction with Stanton and Edmonton is where there is a need. But very clearly, the facilities as they were designed initially, the usages have changed and that's going to be part of the renovations that are done at the various health centres and hospitals is to look at the
changed use and how do we put to use the space that is there in the best way possible. Thank you.