Mr. Chairman, the telehealth coordinators in the operation of that service by Health, I want to let the Minister know that it’s been very successful. I have witnessed it myself personally. I have seen people who have used it and are not quite sure if it was there. I had asked the Minister how we get the information out to our communities and it’s done in their own aboriginal languages, I understand. So I want to say this has been one of the successes of this program, because they had some good feedback from people I know that use this program. I just wanted to let the Minister know this is a good program and I am glad to see it and continue to see it in the Northwest Territories in this fashion here.
Probably like any other program, there is always room for improvement, but I hope to see some type of evaluation in areas that could be expanded in terms of this type of service. I want to say to the Minister and the House I congratulate the people on the other line who have been very patient and understanding in terms of this service to people who I know who have used it.
My one comment I have is through the Arctic Health Research Network. I am very surprised that there are no dollars committed to ’09-10, especially with the research that you are developing with aboriginal people in various areas of wellness or services and engage aboriginal people in terms of how they view health or services in the communities. That’s what I am making the assumption about. This organization could be one that could help with issues that I have heard from Mr. Krutko in how we start engaging different forms of support for communities using the strengths of our culture and our beliefs in terms of wellness in our communities.
So, Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister if there is any type of other areas her department is looking at in her engagement with the federal government in terms of this organization receiving a new mandate or some additional dollars that would take on some of the concerns and issues that she’s heard over the last couple of days regarding aboriginal health specifically.