Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services in regard to the alcohol and drug programs in the Northwest Territories. As he knows, in the history of the questions I have raised in this House about the closure of Delta House and the Tl'oondih Healing Program, Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister is, my estimates, since April 1, 1997, and it cost the government in the range of $200,000 to send 62 people from the Inuvik region south for substance abuse treatment. Those people could have received treatment in their own home town and region. My question to the Minister is, will the Minister reconsider the options that may be available to ensure that substance abuse treatment is available to people in the Inuvik region?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is great to send people to the closest detachment, but I see we are still sending people to Edmonton and High Level which is, I believe, south of us in Alberta which is the next jurisdiction next to the United States. In regard to his comments that the closest place possible which the cost of sending these individuals to southern institutions is in the range of $11,000 per individual. I would like the Minister to tell me exactly why is this practise continuing, yet we can offer the same service in the Inuvik region?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In light of the commitment by the federal government to look at the whole question out of the Royal Commission of Aboriginal Peoples on the whole area of health and healing, will the Minister consider to reopen and look at the Tl'oondih Healing Society Program in light of the possibility of federal funds at this time?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to the responsibility of this government, I believe there was a motion

passed in the committee of the whole in support for Tl'oondih Healing Society. Also, I have, I believe, a verbal commitment from the Minister and the Premier to work with the society to try and find ways to resolve it. Regarding the commitment the Minister made, is he still fulfilling his obligation to that commitment?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, historic weather patterns give us some assurance that a freezing rain storm like the one that occurred in Quebec and Ontario would not happen in the Northwest Territories or around Yellowknife. Having said that, I am sure that Hydro Quebec officials were also saying that before their storm struck. A similarity to our system is that all of our hydro power comes along one set of lines from the Snare system to the city of Yellowknife, and if an ice storm were to cause those lines to collapse, it would mean a significant amount of work, probably months of work to get that line back up. The one area that is different about the Yellowknife power source is that we have almost the same capacity in diesel generation available to us here within the city. Thirty-two megawatts of power is available by diesel at the Jackfish generating station that is sufficient to provide all of the needs of the city for power on a mild winter day down to, say, ten or 15 degrees below. Should the problem occur and then the temperature drop, we would have to bring in extra generators and transformers to deal with the situation. Apparently discussions have taken place between Northland Utilities and the Power Corporation. Northland does have access to generators in Alberta that they could ship in within 24 hours to have available to make sure that there was sufficient power. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.