Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I must say that way back before the 2004 health accord, when among the objectives were e-health and telemedicine and the use of these new mediums, everyone knew what it could do because there had been discussions about what it could do. I want to say that the presentations here today have shown us that the evidence proves that it actually does work.
Looking at chronic care management, as you talked about it, when you don't need a physician, but you can get your digital MRI, you can get quick work done to be able to say what should be done in an immediate manner in isolated areas. We've talked about aboriginal health because many aboriginal people live in isolated and rural areas, so that is obviously important.
The ones that really impressed me were the education and information and the incentives that go to the patients themselves. I think the youth incentive is extraordinary, with the apps and giving them IT for whatever...that was a real incentive to get young people who don't tend to take their illnesses seriously to be able to do so.
Again, the ability to get acute care in a timely manner—when you talked about the digital MRI, whether it allowed people to make a decision with regard to their chest X-ray, etc., I think all that tells me that this is important. One thought it would work in 2004 when the premiers and the Prime Minister decided to bring in the accord; one thought it would work when one put money into the accord over ten years. You have shown through evidence that it is a good way to save money, in terms of delivery and management of health care, which can be put into other things that we need to look at.
Money was set aside within the accord for this as a prime objective, so why don't we see all provinces moving to this? Having put the money aside for this, why don't we see more work done through direct care for aboriginal peoples? What are the challenges and the glitches that are preventing this from being done?