Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there has been a lot of discussion in the area of health and social services in the Northwest Territories for many years. It was always hard to see if we were making headway in the area of improving the health standards for residents of the Northwest Territories. It was not until the recent report on the status of the health of the residents of the Northwest Territories, almost ten years prior, before we saw any statistics. It was good to see that report out, and see that, in fact, in the Northwest Territories, our health as individuals is improving.
But yet, there remain many hot topics out there that continue to plague this government and the department, demanding more resources to try and deal with the ills of our society, in a sense. I refer specifically to the area of drug and alcohol funding. Mr. Chairman, it has been brought to my attention that concerns have been raised in my community, and it was raised at the Beaufort Delta Leaders' Conference in Inuvik recently, in the area of expenditures in the area of drugs and alcohol, and where they are going. I had questions posed to myself by a few people in my community, and I believe the town council has written a letter to the Minister about funding. There seems to be a concern out there that there are some new dollars going into the area of drugs and alcohol, whether it be in the programming side or the capital side.
The concern is that there has not been proper discussion and potential placement of those capital dollars. In my community, it has been a sore point since the 13th Assembly when Delta House was closed down due to the funding shortfalls of this government. We hear that there is the potential of new dollars being spent on drug and alcohol facilities in the southern part of the Territory, where in the northern part there are no actual facilities for drug and alcohol programming. I would like to get some information from the Minister in this area. When are new dollars identified in this budget, because as I go through here, I cannot see any specific dollars being identified. I would like to know if there is somewhere in the budget where there is an O and M, where they are coming up with new dollars for new initiatives, whether it be in the O and M side or the capital side with drug and alcohol funding. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.