Health committee  First off, specifically with regard to activity-based funding, I think the promise of that mechanism is certainly aimed at improving access to surgically based care. There are limitations to it that are associated with the often increasing physician- and hospital-based costs with regard to an increasing volume of care.

Health committee  Yes, and cataracts and cancer. There's a number of the five that I would deem to be almost Cinderella services that have benefited from the additional contracting on that. It is a mechanism that can be expanded essentially to all elective surgeries quite readily.

Health committee  Thank you. I'd like to take the first couple of minutes to introduce myself. I'm a faculty member at the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where my specialty lies in evaluating the organization, delivery, and funding of health care systems.