Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have no further questions on this side.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Further debate, pages 161 and 162. Do we have any comments or questions? Seeing none, we will move to page 160, the operations expenditure summary. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A couple of questions here. The fees and payments and travel lines seem to be declining over time, and I'm just curious to know what's going on with those two items. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with respect to travel, we have worked hard to sort of control our travel and make sure that we're maximizing any travel that we have to do, and finding other ways to get the work done that may not require some travel. It was part of our reduction plan, and we have found that we have been able to maintain the work necessary even with the reduced travel. The fees and payments, one of the things that has occurred there is the Chief Public Health Office, there's been some functions transferred into the Territorial Authority. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.

No further questions. Thank, you, Mr. O'Reilly.

Further to page 160. Seeing no further questions, I will call the page. Health and Social Services, administrative and support services, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $80,987,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. We will move to ambulatory care services, which begins on page 163. There's activity description on 163, and an information item on 165. Questions or comments to those two pages? I see no questions. I will move to the operations expenditure summary, page 164. Do we have comments or questions on page 164? I see no questions. I will call the page. Health and Social Services, ambulatory care services, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $64,560. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Moving on to community health programs, which begins on page 166. Are there comments on the initial page 166? Questions? Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think it is probably the place where I will ask my usual question about midwifery services, the status of the territorial program, and services in Yellowknife. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm happy to answer the question here about the dollars for midwifery action of the nursing page. It is up to committee.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly, would you like to wait?

I'm happy to wait, Mr. Chair. I might have another question. Is this where there might be some discussion of the action plan on disabilities?

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.

Mr. Chair, we think this is probably the right section.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister give us an update on the status of the action plan on disabilities, where we are at with it? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know I laughed, and it was funny, but just to be clear, the reason that we are not 100 per cent sure it is this section is because there is no budget for the work that we are doing. We are doing it with staff who actually cross a number of divisions and sections, but this seems as good a section as any, given that a number of the staff who are helping with this are in this division.

Mr. Chair, I will admit that I did not anticipate that Health and Social Services would be the first department up when it comes to budget discussions. We haven't usually been the first department, so I did intend to send a letter to committee. We are actually in the process of drafting it. We were supposed to be done the plan by the end of March, and in discussion with some of our stakeholders and our advisory panel; what has been suggested to me is that it is more important that we get this plan right as opposed to right now. We have struggled to sort of get agreement on some of the initial information that we have been pulling together.

I think it is going along well. It's just slower than anticipated. We won't be done on March 31st. I was going to come to committee and ask if we could have a briefing, just to give everybody an update, but we anticipate it will probably take a couple more months, probably three to four more months to get to the point where all the stakeholders are satisfied with the project and the product, before I'm prepared to come and have the discussion with committee on where we are, and where we go next. My apologies. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.