Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  We're a primary care organization. So in addition to all the other disciplines I spoke about, we have family physicians who are salaried. They're providing family physician services out of our three locations. We do have a strong partnership, as I mentioned, with the local heal

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Well, at this point the federation has four different community clinics. They are four separate organizations, but they come together as part of the federation. There's the Saskatoon Community Clinic, which I'm executive director of. There's also a community clinic in Regina. The

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  You're absolutely correct. We've actually had some great success in recruiting physicians into our model of care. I think one of the great attractions is the opportunity to work in a team environment. It's the opportunity to work with a number of other professionals of similar

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Yes, we believe that is a critical part to the development of new co-ops especially. Once they get established they are very much self sustaining. But it's that initiation support to get them rolling that's critical, to build the business plans, and to get some start-up funds to

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I'm not as familiar with the primary care development model in Alberta. Certainly there's been a similar push in Saskatchewan towards development of primary care teams. Historically they have tended to focus on physicians being paired up with nurse practitioners, and it's really

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  If we talk about our own federation and our own individual cooperative health centres in Saskatchewan, they are very strong financially. They've been around for a long time and have built that maturity over time through very strong relationships with the Ministry of Health as wel

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  But I think the federal government does have a responsibility to support co-op development by making sure there's a model in place to support education about and awareness of it, and to promote it, even through start-up grants and start-up opportunities. Even though they don't di

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I think it's really a way of showing leadership to say that this is an important model in delivering health care in this particular instance. It's really a way of showing leadership to say this is important and you should be paying attention to it. Exactly the format of how that'

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  We also generate some revenue through partnerships. We have a federal grant to address diabetes prevention, through the aboriginal diabetes initiative, for example. We generate some revenue through a pharmacy that we own and operate. We also generate some revenue through some mem

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  A vast majority of our health professionals are employed just by us, but we do have a few physicians who work part time and provide services through other programs.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  That's a good question. The biggest reason to become a member of the co-op is that you believe and ascribe to the philosophy of a cooperative, and you would have a say. If you're a member, you have a vote on who sits on the board. You have a say in how we offer our services, whi

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I can address that. We have a formal partnership agreement with the Ministry of Health. We actually get the majority of our core funding through the ministry, about 72% of our funding. We also have a strong partnership with the local regional health authority. We are surrounded,

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Essentially, we believe that what health care is looking for and what the cooperative model is so strong at providing is a patient and family-centred approach. Based on the core values and principles of cooperatives, organizations that offer health services through cooperatives a

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Yes. Can you hear us?