Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as a government, I think one of the areas we are going into is seeing the social well-being of Northerners is a priority of this government. As Mr. Roland said, we have to build on the work of previous Ministers and previous governments. When we talk of wanting to address the social well being of Northerners, what makes this government's claims or aspirations in this area any different than any other government?
I think there is an opportunity. That is why I am optimistic. There is an opportunity to take a new look at these challenges. We are driven by our fiscal realities, as well, besides the fact many of these demands for services are growing because of needs. I think we have to do some soul searching and make some very honest admissions about the state of affairs when it comes to some of these social indicators.
The Member is right, Mr. Chairman. We have made some progress. Hopefully, the department will no longer be dubbed the "department of pain and suffering". Mr. Chairman, when thinking about the name of the department, Health and Social Services, I would like to take the first four letters of that word health, which would produce the word heal. When we are dealing with people, we have to recognize the fact that we are dealing with whole people, not just with their physical needs. We are dealing with complex people, and emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual needs. There is a tremendous need for healing in the North.
I think we need to say that and admit that and say it loudly and clearly so our people hear that. Then we should express our commitment as a government to work with people to find the best ways of addressing that. Mr. Chairman, we cannot afford complacency. That is the bottom line.
As for bringing governance structures and problem solving solutions closer to the community, I believe, again, this is an effort that is in progress and there has been some advancement. Sometimes we talk about boards and bringing the decision making closer to the people, but we do not necessarily recognize that in doing that, we are building capacities at the community level within those boards to systematically and in an organized fashion look at the needs of other people and hear directly from the people and respond to that. That is something that happens over a period of time.
For example, the Chairs that come in for representation on the Stanton Regional Health Board spend a certain amount of time on their board business, but they also spend some time on various aspects of training which they then take back to their respective boards and work with them to build that capacity at that level. It is not just something the department can hand off overnight. There has to be the capacity to deal with those issues at the community level.
I do not think that we are going to see all of the results we want to on a quick basis, but the pendulum that swings between devolving and consolidating is a very expensive exercise. I think we need to state a course in terms of developing capacity at the regional and community levels to deal with these issues. The department has a key role to play in that. From what I have seen, I see them responding to that and doing that. Some Members may have concerns about how that looks, but from what I have seen so far, I have been very impressed and was not aware of all that had gone on in the department prior to this.
The Member speaks of the testing on FAS and FAE and the report from Inuvik. I do not know what tests and standardized tests are available right now, for articulating the degree of FAS and FAE in our communities and in our schools. Without committing to any kind of a further study, I think it would be good to have some means by which to measure this. The reality of FAS and FAE is the indicators from surveys are 25 percent of pregnant women in the Northwest Territories are still admitting to consuming alcohol while pregnant. FAS and FAE is something that can overtake us very quickly.
We have heard of an extreme case where the person is requiring specialized care in a southern facility at a cost of $300,000 per year to this government. People in the communities and we, as a government, have got to become indignant. We have to become very concerned when we hear of people being robbed of their quality of life because of these addictions to tobacco and smoking and things like this. It is a big challenge. I do not know if Mr. Roland is on the Social Programs Committee this time or not, but I am pleased to hear that Mr. Bell and Mr. Miltenberger are committed to working together to address some of these issues. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.