Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is exactly what we were trying to get away from in order to empower communities and also allow communities to take on more responsibility in regards to the well being of the residents of the communities. Now we are back to leaving the power to a committee to make recommendations to what they see fit on behalf of those people we are trying to maintain the service for.
The mental health workers in the communities are there because they have been identified because there is a problem in the community to deal with mental health either in relation to suicide or sexual abuse or alcohol and drug related incidents. They are there to support the community. When you take that support mechanism away, where else do you go? In my region, we might as well say come in with the bulldozer and plough everything away all that related to treatment facilities such as the Tl'oondih Healing Society program, also Delta House and now the mental health workers in the communities. It seems like the power we understood was there to empower communities and give more responsibilities to the region, seems not to have touched home base. It is flowing down but it has not got that far yet. There is a lack of consultation with the communities to ask exactly what the caregivers want or what the community band council or hamlet council feel about these programs. That process did not take place. It was left to a special committee to state what their views were, which was a few individuals out of Inuvik. They did not even make an attempt to go into the community to consult the people on what decisions they are making.