I would be delighted to address this question. When I listened to the debate during the last election campaign I was at a loss as to why a clear answer could not be given to this question.
Health Canada runs hospitals that serve the first nations communities. We therefore do have staff working in hospitals. We also employ nurses who work on reserve and who should, as a rule, be able to provide services in both official languages. A good half of Health Canada's budget is spent on providing these services. In addition, another significant chunk of the budget is spent on regulating and testing new drugs, and so forth. That explains why we have such a large staff.
Allow me now to address project selection. The Société santé en français, which has a very small team and modest offices here in Ottawa, depends on 17 networks. All of the networks are represented on the steering committee. The committee started by defining its project selection criteria. They then asked the networks to develop and submit project proposals. Bearing the criteria mind, the networks went to work in the communities to try to develop sound proposals for the Société santé en français. The selection was made based on the criteria developed by all stakeholders. Some projects were rejected and others were approved.