Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I would like to thank our witnesses, as well as the Minister, for being with us today.
In terms of the relationship between First Nations and the H1N1 virus, I believe the problem goes much deeper than that. Right at the outset, you indicated that there is an issue in terms of the social groups that were most affected. We are talking about people between the age of 16 and 25—the Aboriginal population is younger, on average, than the rest of the Canadian population—pregnant women and people with chronic diseases.
You mentioned something several times that caught my attention: access to water and basic sanitation in First Nations communities. Some communities—for instance, some north of the Abitibi region, in Quebec—live in third world conditions. They have an issue with access to drinking water. So, it is all well and good to engage in extensive awareness campaigns to try and prevent problems, but there is a serious lack of facilities in these communities. They do not have the basic things that would allow them to adequately protect themselves against H1N1 flu. It's fine to tell them what they have to do in terms of prevention and how to prepare themselves, but if they don't have access to those basic things, it will not amount to much.
I would like to know whether the federal government intends to do something in that area.