Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm very interested in the overlaps or cooperation between those working on the issues of aboriginal health and rural health. At our last committee meeting we had a row of experts giving testimony about the aboriginal aspect. So when you are giving us health statistics for rural areas, do the data include aboriginals in the rural areas?
Regarding the issues of recruitment and retention you're talking about, I am curious whether you see recruitment and retention of health human resources for aboriginal communities as a subset of your work, or are these two areas treated as separate areas of study and analysis and recommendation?
I note that among the four main initiatives of the pan-Canadian health human resources strategy, one is health human resource projects, but there isn't a rural component to those initiatives. I'm trying to get a sense of this. Are they completely separate in terms of the fundamentals you're addressing, or how can the work on the aboriginal side be combined or complemented with that on the rural side so that it's more effective overall? Your comments on that would be welcome.