Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Another area that I would like to see us talk about is community wellness, but I do not see any money in this interim appropriation. I think that is one area where we have to give communities the ability and authority to take on some initiatives to do things. We have to give them adequate resources to do it. The resources that we give them now are not enough. I think we should do more in that area, especially looking at the programs that we see in our communities. We are talking about increasing the amount of money and education.
I think we cannot just deal with the classroom problems and leave it in the classroom. The problem also originates from within the community, at home and also with the lifestyle the people live in our small communities. People have to have the resources to realize that we have to deal with these problems in conjunction with each other. Not just say, "put a bunch of money over here, the problem is going to go away". I would like this department to seriously consider increasing the amount of money in the Community Wellness Program.
Also, allow the communities to take on more of those responsibilities. We seem to always be stuck in the process of reacting to problems, usually after they happen, such as suicide, a death in the community, someone being murdered or find a lot of young people being institutionalized. We should be able to deal with that problem before it gets to that stage.
We have to make sure that the communities have the resources, so that when they take these on, they know best because they are dealing with these problems day in and day out at the community level. Yet, people at the regional centre or even in Yellowknife, the only time they react to something is when they get the phone call.
In the communities you are dealing with these problems day in and day out and we have to allow the communities to identify and find solutions to their own problems and also give them resources to carry them out. I would like to ask the Minister, are they planning to increase that amount and when will we see money going into communities for community wellness? Thank you.