Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I will ask Mr. Ramsden now to speak on the alcohol and drug reform, the long-term care reform and the status of those two initiatives. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. With respect to the alcohol and drug reforms, the department has had a series of discussions and has spent considerable effort working with treatment centre executive directors and boards. There is some element of support directed at the community programs. To back track a bit, there was a set of standards that was developed concurrently or in a consensus environment with the treatment centre executive directors and their boards. The standards were adopted by the department and put forward. The treatment centres are complying with those standards. There is a uniform assessment process now that has been put in place. It is our view based on the evaluations we have done that the assessment tool is being complied with, that it is a practical tool. Obviously, over time, it will evolve, but we think it is relevant tool. It is our view, people who are assessed to both need and be ready for treatment for addictions are getting the access they need. It was our view and we made a recommendation to the Minister which he accepted that we go no further in terms of adjusting the way we pay treatment centres for the coming year. As Members of the committee will recall, we are at a ratio now of 50 percent revenue by contribution and 50 percent by per diem. It was felt by the treatment centres and the department that we could not go any further into a totally per diem environment.

We have made considerable progress in terms of both resourcing and having training for treatment centre workers conducted. In terms of an evaluation of funding for the community drug and alcohol programs, we made a further recommendation to the Minister which he accepted that we not adjust the way in which those community projects were funded for the coming year. We had put forward some amount of change in 1997-1998, and it was felt community projects would not be able, quite frankly, to cope with any adjustments downward. Obviously, communities could benefit from more money but there was no ability to cope with a further reduction, so we stood down that change.

With respect to care reform, the focus of the department, various facilities and boards had been on a couple of different elements. One of them was either the closure or the changing of services provided in smaller facilities. We went through a series of decisions that focused on three and four-bed care facilities. In each case, to the best of my knowledge these facilities are still able to operate as independent housing units but there was no way we could sustain 24-hour care in those facilities. The team went through a very extensive needs assessment with a variety of groups in the Deh Cho about how care could be provided in the Deh Cho and how the facilities needed to be adjusted. In fact, the report was adopted and the design work around the changes is underway with the board. There have been some preliminary steps taken in terms of care reform in Fort Smith. The area that the department is primarily focused on at this time is in the area of care and treatment facilities for children. There have been two meetings. There is an extensive series of discussions going on that are assessing both the needs and the gaps around services for children. This is certainly where that project has taken us now. It is very much into assessing and altering the range and mix of services that over time we will be able to develop for children. Thank you, Madam Chairperson.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, the department, as a government, takes all committee motions and the recommendations that come forward from committee of the whole and try to work with them when we can. Unfortunately, we cannot support all of them because of implementing them to our other programs. Thank you, Madam Chairperson.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, a lot would depend on what type of initiative or program they would be trying to get off the ground. If I can use an analogy, if there was something in the honourable Member's riding, and I know he refers a lot to the Tl'oondih program. If they had a program they wanted to get off the ground and there is a recognized and supported need in the community then they would work at the community level to develop a proposal that could be forwarded to the board. If I use, again, an example of some of the Strategic Initiative Funds that we have in Inuvik, a board will have an amount of money accessible to do mental health programs, for example. If it is chosen as to what they feel is a priority, then they can gear a program toward what could theoretically be run out of the Tl'oondih program or on that site, particularly, if it is supported at the community and regional level, Madam Chairperson. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, first of all we have tried to allow the communities, whether it is at the community level or at the board level to have as much autonomy as possible by giving them the resources and the tools to try to develop programs to address the issues in their service area. A lot of our communities, if not all of them, have interagency committees that bring in the spectrum of health and social services care professions, including the RCMP as a part of that. The boards recently have taken on the committee's supervision initiative through the Department of Justice to provide some of the supervision for some of the individuals who are held in their communities.

We also have on a broader territorial level our social envelope committee of Cabinet that has the social envelope departments. It fits right in hand with what I had spoken on earlier on the socio-economic group and some of the broader cross-departmental issues that we could possibly put together on a longer term to try to address some of these issues in supporting individuals and communities, Madam Chairperson.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, there have been several initiatives, that have been ongoing. This government had the community action plan where we tried to assist communities in developing their own wellness plans. In the past, we know that we did eliminate that funding, or reduced it, through the federal government.

There is the wellness action plan whose work is ongoing right now in conjunction with our government and with the aboriginal organizations through the brighter futures. Our government also has community development funds through Education, Culture and Employment and through Municipal and Community Affairs in respect to developing and training resources at the community level. I think what is important to note as well, in respect of financial resources, we recognize that there is a lot of duplication in administration out there of resources. One of the community empowerment and community wellness initiatives was to try to pool some of those resources to get some efficiencies there; to get some fiscal flexibility to communities at a local level or regionally; to allow them to make decisions so that hopefully they can enhance their programs and break down some of the barriers between agencies and between government departments, Madam Chairperson. Thank you.