Mr. Speaker, I have met on two occasions since January with the chiefs in Manitoba to speak to them about the challenges we face in delivering health services in those communities.
It is not just in aboriginal communities but it is in all rural and remote communities that we have difficulties recruiting and retaining health professionals, both doctors and nurses.
We formed a working group in Manitoba, as we have in northern Ontario, to deal with these issues. Those efforts in common with aboriginal communities themselves, taken together with the additional moneys provided in the recent budget, will help us toward solving these very difficult problems.