Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  This particular example I'm giving you is a collaboration with the regional hospital and the local public health nurses. On the medical front, we are talking to FNIP, the first nation information project, about the idea of medical telemedicine models married up with local clinics.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The one I'll come back to is the idea of a pharmacy technician. We actually have set up now in Tuktoyaktuk, and we're going to move into, I think, Paulatuk and Aklavik as well. Out of our Inuvik pharmacy, we're doing remote prescription fulfillment. You can do that with an automated dispensing device, but the key here is that you could upgrade—this is import substitution—the skill and the salary of someone locally, not all the way to a pharmacist.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  This is a federal program administered by the state, so we also have it in our stores in Hawaii and in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In Guam we have three stores. Any remote U.S. territory has a food stamp program that's federally funded.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It was just announced in the U.S. that they're now accepting food stamps. It's a major thing, and it's expected to continue even if stimulus spending starts to get curtailed. It's an ongoing program, but it was enhanced in the U.S., and it will likely continue to be enhanced. That's a recession counterbalance effort, but the mechanics of it have been established for years.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'd like to think it's a strategy. It's not getting away from the cold. It's just what you said and what I said in my remarks: there are skills that tie to remote-market logistics. We've been to Greenland and done some business there. We've looked at Russia. Hemispherically we're not deterred.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's an electronic benefit card. It's means-tested. It's not indifferent to income; it's on a means-tested basis. I believe it's also determined by the size of the family. That card is loaded at the first of the month, and food stamp-eligible product, which is identified on the shelf of the store, is shopped by consumers.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The everyday price that everyone pays.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It would be a lot. It would be in the $20 range--$20 plus.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  You have a monetary value. Also, the value of that card would be means-tested and it would be cost-tested. The northern living allowance would be a lot more valuable on a family basis in Pond Inlet than it would be in, say, northern Manitoba, where there's all-weather road access.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's really only applying in Nunavut before the split of the territories. This is part of the Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., their birthright agreement with the federal government. It's been politicized into regulations and procurement policy. In fact, prior to that we had the status of a northern business and we were fine with our role competing across the Northwest Territories as it was then.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It has not been, no.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, and it's the latest iteration of it. We have stores from Iqaluit to Inuvik that run refrigeration on ambient temperature, so the coolant is recycled through the exterior of the building, and that goes back many years. The current version is our best step forward. We're looking for paybacks of five years or less.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's correct.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The answer I was trying to give before is that if it had to be that, it would be better to load a benefit card than have.... The retailers have already pointed out—and we'd probably be the least affected—that it's a multi-million dollar task to change the point-of-sale system, to track these savings by item, if that's what you're referring to, at the cash register tape.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, I don't think so. I think the answer there is to ask who is going to track all this, who is going to keep track of the amounts. If I understand the report that's being reviewed, or the analysis being provided on it, there is going to be a regime of people looking at your profit margins per item.