Hallelujah!

Mr. Hardie:

The result has been that the incidence of tuberculosis has dropped and there is no need for extra beds, except in places where there are no hospitals. We need the national hospital plan and we need to be brought into this scheme but I am sure that the Minister of National Health and Welfare and the Minister of Northern Affairs and National Resources or his deputy would not allow the territorial council to come into an agreement with this government on a national hospital plan where 5,000 or 6,000 white people in that area were providing the revenues for the total population.

If my hon. friend from Calgary North is worried about this, I say he has nothing to worry about. This government will look after that problem. If this bill is passed, then I imagine this proposal will be discussed by the territorial council when it meets in June of this year.

Mr. Harkness:

Mr. Chairman, I would just like to say to the member for Mackenzie River that I did not make any mention whatever of nursing station services or anything along that line. Where he got that from I do not know but, of course, he has an active imagination and so I presume that that is the answer. As far as the statement he has just made is concerned, I am sure that the people in the Northwest Territories would be much more comforted in their minds by an assurance from the Minister of National Health and Welfare as to what is the definite policy of the government as far as this health measure is concerned, than the panegyric of the member for Mackenzie River in regard to the present government and the health services it has or may provide in the Northwest Territories. I wonder if the minister would now answer these two very definite questions which I have asked him four times tonight as well as two or three times the last time the subject was brought up.

Mr. Nicholson:

Mr. Chairman-

No, no.

Mr. Harkness:

I think the minister was on the point of getting up, Mr. Chairman, and again I would like an answer.

Mr. Martin:

I will give you the answer now for the third time. The government policy is to treat the Northwest Territories exactly as it is treating the other provinces of Canada and it will be up to the territorial government to make the decision, as it is up to each provincial government to decide whether it is prepared to enter into negotiations with the federal government.

Mr. Harkness:

Mr. Chairman, the minister has misapprehended my question. I asked him what would be the plan in regard to the Northwest Territories and what would be the position of the people of these territories in regard to the contributions made by the white population. Are the Indians and Eskimos to continue, if the Northwest Territories come under this plan, to be the sole responsibility of the dominion government or are they not?

Mr. Martin:

My hon. friend obviously has not read the act.

Mr. Harkness:

Oh no.

Mr. Martin:

The principle of universal availability must apply; the Indians are properly included in the phrase universal availability.

Mr. Harkness:

Mr. Chairman, do I take it from that then that if the Northwest Territories come in, the white population, who would be the only taxpaying part of the population, would have to pay the entire costs or 50 per cent of the cost-whatever it may be-for the hospitalization for the two-thirds of the population which are now the sole responsibility of the dominion government? In other words, is the minister's interpretation of this matter that if they get the territories to come into the scheme they will get rid of a certain proportion of the federal responsibility for taking care of the Indians and Eskimos, or is the minister not prepared to answer the question?

Mr. Knowles:

If that province of the Northwest Territories agrees will it be the sixth province under the Prime Minister's formula?

Mr. Martin:

That must follow.

Mr. Knowles:

In other words, the answer is yes.

Mr. Martin:

I answered that several times the other day in the affirmative.

Mr. Knowles:

I suppose the affirmative means "yes".

The Deputy Chairman:

I would like to draw the attention of the committee to the fact that the hon. member for Mackenzie has been trying to rise for some time, but about five hon. members have preceded him. I have given him the floor.

Mr. Nicholson:

I yielded to my hon. friend because he had a particular interest in this territory. It would seem to me that the answer to this discussion would be for the Minister of Northern Affairs and National Resources and his colleague the Minister of National Health and Welfare to agree that the Northwest Territories and the Yukon and the Mackenzie river district should be the sixth province, as a result of which this national hospital program could be introduced immediately.

Mr. Martin:

I take it the hon. member is not suggesting that the ministers of the federal government should interfere with the government of the Northwest Territories. Is he saying that? That is a serious thing to suggest, because we do not believe in dictatorship.