Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, first of all I would like to thank the Member for recognizing the work of the department on the anti-smoking campaign. I have also seen the ads and I think they are very good and quite a few of them feature young people who are recognizable. I think that our young people are a really good target audience because I think it is more difficult for people who have smoked for many years to stop smoking. Certainly if we can get the kids to not start, that will be quite an accomplishment. That is something that I would like to continue to expand on. I think that it is good to have young people, people recognizable around the North as role models, speaking out on this issue because it does cost the Department of Health and Social Services a great amount of money which could be going someplace else if we did not have to spend it on the results of tobacco.
With respect to the alcohol and drug treatment issue, the Member asks, where do people go for treatment? Presently, there is the Nats'Ejee K'eh facility on the Hay River Dene Reserve. It is my understanding there is not an extensive waiting list of people to get in there, that they are handling the requirements quite well. Now, there are instances where people do go to southern institutions because they may require specialized treatment where they may have dual addictions and other complicating factors. So, I could not tell you exactly how many people are in treatment at any given time in southern facilities, but that opportunity is also available to Northerners if it is deemed necessary.
Part of the alternative programming initiative that has been undertaken is looking at how we can more effectively deal with the issue of alcohol and drug addiction. A number of non-government agencies and stakeholders have been meeting for some time now trying to address where the priorities should be in terms of treatment and a plan has been developed and we hope to soon be able to get started. I am just looking for my briefing note on this.
The boards and the department provided approval-in-principle for a women's territorial treatment program and a youth addictions program and, as you know, a lot of this is hinged on what was going to happen with the infrastructure that was potentially available depending on what happened with the Northern Addiction Services.
So, we hope to have resolved that situation as soon as possible and get these additional bids open. The facility at Dettah would turn into a youth treatment centre and there are potentially 20 beds there that would include some component of family treatment as well.
That is an area that we see as a priority as a department. There are quite a number of youth in southern institutions because there are only 16 beds at the present time available for youth in the Northwest Territories. So, we see that as an area where there is a gap at the present time. Thank you.