I would like to begin by saying that I have visited St. John's many times and it's a great pleasure to be back. I only wish we had a little more time, so that we could see more than this room today.
I want to focus first on rural doctors. To me, this is a really important issue. I think that as our colleague Michael Ignatieff has emphasized, there's an inequality in the distribution of hope across this country. Hope is concentrated in the bustling, booming metropolitan areas, but notably absent in some of the rural areas. While access to doctors won't solve every problem in rural Canada, lack of access will kill initiatives that could benefit rural Canada. I'm going to keep your recommendations. I think they're really good.
My question is, what is the federal role? One of the disagreements we have with the government is that they seem to seek jurisdictions in water-tight compartments—health care is provincial, full stop. I don't see it quite that way. But with respect to the recommendations you have made, what would be the federal role, as opposed to the provincial role, in addressing this problem?