Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to make some general comments on the Department of Social Services. I would like to inform the Minister and her staff that the social services provided in my constituency is very good. The people who receive the programs and services in the communities are satisfied with the people who are involved within your department. There is no problem with them at all. The only problem I see in that department is that there is a great deal of work for only a few people. There are not many resources available to them. My concern with your department is that there are a number of unfunded positions in my riding. These people are vital to the services which are provided to the people at the community level. The job of this government, and particularly this department, is to provide programs and services to the people who need them the most. That service is provided, however, it could be done better if there were more PYs allocated. One specific area of concern is that we have a specialist who is both the alcohol and drug specialist and, at the same time, the community mental health specialist. She has two areas which she specializes in. It should actually be split up to allow for two positions in that area. She has quite a large work load to do both jobs, and to do both adequately is a real challenge. As more services are provided into the communities, there are more social problems being identified. Because of the work and the level of services provided in my riding, this is a concern. I wanted to make this comment. The people we have in our area are very good and they work well with all of the communities. The leadership in the communities are totally satisfied with this working.

The other things which I wanted to mention is that in Social Services, in the area of the senior citizens' home, there is an area which overlaps. Once you get into level II and level III care, it switches from Social Services to health issues. We have a senior citizens' home in Fort Simpson. The elders are getting older. There are more of them coming in. We have to start looking at another level of service to provide them with the care which is required. There again, we are looking at extra funding for them. There is a situation in Fort Simpson where three years ago when this home was first opened with $292,000, to date the budget is still the same. There has been no increase in the last three years. As the elders get older there is more and more level III care provided. The level of funding has not increased with the amount of care which is being provided.

It is getting very difficult to operate. I have nothing against the other communities I am going to mention, but I just want to compare some numbers because there is going to be a new senior citizens' home on the Hay River reserve. I think it is a good thing there. All the communities should have senior citizens' homes. I want to compare the funding levels. There are going to be five elders in this facility in Hay River. I understand the budget is $345,000. As well, there is a home in Rae that has eight elders. The amount of beds we have in Fort Simpson is 12 and we have $292,000. If you start comparing it, I do not know if you have a criteria for funding senior citizens' homes. How do you base the funding in each home? I know there are other facilities around the north. Does the Minister have a criteria in her department to determine the level of funding that goes to each senior citizens' home? On the Hay River reserve, there are five beds and they are getting $345,000. We have 12 beds in Fort Simpson and we have been getting $292,000 for the last three years. I think there are centres around the north. I wonder if the level of funding is to the number of beds, or what? Is there a criteria that you follow? Thank you.