There has been an increasing level of gap between the services we provide and the amounts that the federal government recognizes under hospital and medical care for Indians and Inuit. The reason being that the federal government has imposed a 2 percent growth cap across the country. We are a very small player in comparison to, say, I don’t know what the amounts might be with Ontario or B.C. So it’s not even, we can’t even really describe it as a dispute because if it’s a dispute, it’s got to be a different understanding between two parties. The federal government is very clear about their understanding of this. They are imposing 2 percent cap on the growth, whereas our actual expenditures have been growing at a much higher rate than that. Anywhere from 13 percent in one year to about 5 percent in 2005-2006 is the information I have.
I think the important thing that we need to specify here is because some of this got mixed up into debate about self-health as well. I think what we need to understand is GNWT provides health and doctor service and hospital service and every other service to all residents whether you are eligible for NIHB or not. For our residents who are eligible for NIHB, we are able to claim that money with the federal government. That helps us with our expenditure. But whether we get all of the money or not from the federal government, we will continue to provide that service.