Hello, and thank you very much for being here. I think it's really important that we hear from you.
Some of your feedback has been quite interesting to me, and you've indicated some of the resources that you need. My riding itself is made up of 17 first nations and very many rural communities, and I understand some of the concerns that are being experienced in the area.
My first question is to you, Chief Ron Evans.
Previously, questions were raised by first nations as to whether health funding arrangements were flexible enough to allow communities to direct program resources in order to address the influenza outbreaks. From talking with some of my first nations communities, I know they've indicated that they have very few resources to redirect and they had difficulty even to have someone as the main key person to deal with H1N1 without additional funding from the federal government.
Given that this would actually be an extraordinary cost to first nations, I'm wondering how it has impacted. Have you been able to get additional dollars from the federal government to deal with this situation instead of dipping into your own resources, whether it is for communications or whether it is to ensure preparedness within the community? Could you elaborate on that aspect?