Mr. Chairman, the topic that the Member is bringing up is the medical travel escorts. I think that is primarily what the Member is speaking to. As the deputy minister mentioned yesterday, that program is under in-depth review. The government spends about $26 million a year on medical travel. It is one of the highest costing
programs we have. It is in our interest to make sure that it works, it does what it is supposed to do, that the people are served well. Our government has a policy that says that elders over a certain age and those who need physical support, mental support in that defined area and language support can have an escort. That is the policy. Sometimes applications of the policy get complicated.
I think our review should also look at how we make this program better in terms of escorts, because sometimes we have escorts come down and they kind of go missing in action too, so we need to make sure that we properly provide information to escorts as to what the expectations are and that they have to take their role seriously too. We are in the process of reviewing that. I would be happy to share that information with the Member, but I think what he’s talking about is not necessarily the policy but the application of it. Thank you.