Mr. St. Germaine.

Thank you, Mr. St. Germaine. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Within that figure, are there new expenditures on drug and alcohol for the upcoming number of months? As the Minister said, there are no new identified projects, but there are expenditures for ongoing projects from the previous year.

I am aware that there have been a number of shifts in the department when it comes to drug and alcohol programming and how they provide those programs to residents in the Northwest Territories. I am wondering if, within that figure, are there projects that were possibly identified in the previous year but are starting to have dollars applied to them during this interim. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to let Ms. Ballantyne respond to that.

Ms. Ballantyne.

Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can the Minister or her staff identify out of the $7.7 million that is being requested for approval in community health programs, what portion of that is for drug and alcohol?

Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. St. Germaine is looking for that information now.

Mr. St. Germaine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sorry for the delay. The amount is approximately $1.5 million.

Thank you. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Another situation which impacts the community and the region of Inuvik significantly is the Inuvik Regional Health and Social Services Hospital. I would like to thank the committee for making note of it in their report. I would also like confirmation from the Minister so we can put the community and region at ease. As stated in the report, the RFP on that project closes April 28th. We hope to see some construction start this summer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the deadline for the submission of responses to the RFP has been extended from March 31st to April 28th. If the cost comparison indicates this is the appropriate way to go, referring to the public-private partnership, it is expected that the selected developer will be notified by May 26th. The development agreement and lease signing date is now expected to be June 23rd. In terms of substantial completion, it is targeted for spring of the year 2001, with the project expected to be substantially complete in the spring of the year 2002. I hope that information is helpful to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

General comments. The Chair recognizes the Member for the Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My question is in line with the question posed by Mr. Roland from Inuvik. I have always felt this government depleted the area of alcohol and drug programming. Many of the social problems we see today are because of the restraints we have put in place and the cuts we have forced on the communities.

There were several initiatives taken. Mr. Roland touched on the Delta House. In my riding, there is the Tl'oondih Healing Centre. With the closure of many of these centres, we have seen the impact on the alcohol and drug programs in the communities. The minimal funds they receive today compared to what they used to receive is not sufficient.

I strongly feel this government has to do more. We can make a public statement that we like healthy people and healthy communities, but I think it is important that we as a government give them the tools to meet that goal.

In some cases, you are talking about addictions that have been there for many years, if not decades. The situation cannot resolve itself overnight, especially in areas like alcohol and drugs, and physical and mental abuse.

We are seeing that with all of the court cases that have come forward about hostels. I think this government has to take some responsibility for that. We were involved when the hostels were in place in many of our communities as part of the education system. Many of us, myself included, had to go away to Inuvik, Fort Smith, Fort Providence, Hay River or Yellowknife to acquire a high school diploma and move on to post-secondary education.

Communities are trying to deal with it, but they need the help of this government. Help does not mean you simply put a specialist in the region and the problem is going to go away. I think it is going to take a lot more than that. I think we have to deal with what was put in place regarding the Health and Social Services review on the recommendations that came forth in that report to this government. I think we have to put dollars in there to make the goals we are trying to sustain. This government, as far as I am concerned, is spending too much money on the social dependency of people in the communities. Through no fault of their own, they are finding themselves in that predicament because of the lifestyles they live. In order to change anybody's lifestyle, you have to give them some options. You have to give them the tools to realize they can change their lives and also they can do it in a way that will help not only themselves, but their family and the community.

On that, I find it hard to believe that this government is not really making that a priority and putting the resources in place to do that. I think one area that this government can probably seriously look at is to work with those organizations that have made the efforts to develop their own priorities. The Tl'oondih Healing Society or the half-way house in Inuvik are two places where organizations are trying to deal with a lot of the problems.

With that, I would just like to ask the Minister, what have they done to seriously sit down with these institutions and organizations and groups to see how this government can assist them by making available to them resources so that they can deliver that program on behalf of this government, instead of this government always trying to be the means of doing everything for everybody else? Maybe we should allow somebody else to do it who has a hands-on approach to what they want to do and has already made the attempts to get there. I think that we have to look at the resources that we spend and consider the cost of these specialists that we have in our regions and downsizing and what not. We have to allow the professionals to handle it and I think that who can deal with the problems best are the communities, so I would like to see what the Minister is doing to work with these groups and to see where they go. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I wholeheartedly agree with the Member for Mackenzie Delta that addiction is a huge problem in the North and that is something that the department grapples with. When we talk about addictions and we talk about healing, I think it is important that we do work together with communities to develop approaches to bring the treatment and the services as close to the people as we can. A lot of the funding that flows from the department in this area and then subsequently goes out to different organizations does go through the health boards.

Certainly, I see the health boards as one level of government, if you will, that is closer to the communities and closer to the people where these kinds of priorities can be developed and then pursued. What we, as Members of this Assembly, as elected Members, have is a responsibility to keep these initiatives, keep these priorities in mind and do as much as we can to see relief, if you will, for the escalating problems. It seems, in some ways when you look at it, that we have not made progress as quickly as we would like to, in terms of treating these things. On the other hand, we need to develop programs and services that are as efficient and as effective as possible because this is an area where a tremendous amount of resources can be directed, but it will take everybody working together to get the most effective results.

I am just looking at the notes I made of the Member's comments here. I will close by saying that I do agree with the Member. We do need to make sure there are sufficient tools available to people who do want to change their lives.

Certainly on the issue of funding, something that has been talked about and we will talk to the standing committee again in the future, is the whole issue of funding to non-government organizations which do work in the community. The amount of time that they spend securing their funding for ongoing years. If they are core funded on an annual basis sometimes an inordinate amount of energy goes into just ensuring that they have the resources to operate.

We could look at things like multi-year funding arrangements through the boards. That is just one small area we could possibly make things more efficient. The other is looking at communities where there may be some overlap or duplication of services being delivered. There may be an opportunity for consolidating certain aspects of their operations like administration, so that it provides an opportunity for more people who are actually working in the front line positions, as opposed to a number of organizations all having to employ people in administrative roles.

We are open, the department is open to suggestions of how we can improve things. Of course, cost is always a consideration. I agree with the Member that there is room for improvement. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Mr. Krutko.