It is very important for you to know that we are focused on primary health care for aboriginal communities. It is one of the most important aspects of our mandate in remote communities situated far from locations where provincial services are dispensed, for instance. There are communities that are very close to cities, whose members can access provincial services. Several of our communities are located very far away from urban centres and we must ourselves provide primary health care in those communities. We work with the aboriginal communities.
I can assure the committee that there is no budget decrease in that area.
I'll just mention that we have in some cases supplementary estimates. In fact, before the committee today are both the main estimates for the following year and also supplementary estimates (C), which are the last set of estimates for this year.
Because the primary care services are very important, we sometimes adjust them from year to year, and we would typically review those. Those would come later in the supplementary estimates. Just as last year I think the committee raised the question, not all of the moneys for our primary care nor some of our initiatives were in our main estimates, those are things for which we review the precise need levels and then we make adjustments.
We can assure the committee that there is no reduction planned for primary care service levels. This really reflects the budgetary process rather than a diminution of service.