Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the discussion and the interaction that takes place with the Dene Nation is not exclusive to input and information exchange with aboriginal people in the Northwest Territories.

Certainly on the regional and community health boards, there are many aboriginal people and groups represented as well. We have people in various levels of aboriginal government who also sit on health boards who have an opportunity to have input either with the department or with the communities and the constituents that they represent, and this is a fairly comprehensive coordination and sharing of information that goes on with the department at any given time. This particular $143,000 that is earmarked for the Dene Nation is not all-inclusive of the interaction with aboriginal people. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to, as my time runs out, just come back to this issue. I recognize that there is other involvement across the board, but from a budget perspective, it is very clearly identified the Dene Nation gets $143,000 and that is good for them. My question is, now that it has become an issue, if the Inuvialuit and the Metis and the Gwich'in and the people from the Sahtu and the Dogribs come in and say, "We would like some more consideration because we have our own legitimate health concerns", what would be the response of the Minister? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the question posed by the Member is hypothetical and if we do hear from other claimant groups who have specific concerns and requests to the department for some form of interaction that is formalized, we will deal with those requests when they come in. At this point in time that has not been the case. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. The Chair recognizes the Member for Range Lake, Sandy Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. By virtue of the fact that I do not belong to the Social Programs Committee as all Members here cannot belong to both Social Programs and Governance, this is my first chance to address my mind to some of these issues. I do not have a long general comment, but I do want to make a few observations and to ask some questions.

I want to start off by congratulating the department on one thing I noticed the department is doing and I hope it is the Government of the Northwest Territories that is doing it. It has to do with the anti-smoking ads on CBC TV that I have been noticing. They seem to come on right before Northbeat. I think it is very effective as it scares me when I am sitting there looking at them. I find them very relevant. I think if children saw them they would think they are really cool ads because they address how it is not cool to smoke. I hope that it works for the children and young people out there because, as we talked about in the strategy session, we have so many people smoking. It is costing us a lot, not just in money, but in the general health of our people.

I want to start off with that, but then I have to move on to alcohol and drug treatment programs, which I think we all agree is a huge problem. We are probably not spending as much money on it as we could and we do not have an adequate facility in Yellowknife or around this area. The Member for North Slave has been asking the Minister for that sort of treatment and I am hoping that the department could somehow address that. Could the Minister address this need for a treatment centre?

With that issue, I wonder if the Minister could tell me, where do people go for alcohol and drug treatment, given the inadequate treatment services in Yellowknife and this area? I think I will ask that question and then I will talk about other issues which have to do with Telehealth and recruitment and retention of doctors. I am trying to learn more about the state of alcohol and drug treatment programs in our Territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Madam Minister.

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.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a question about Telehealth. I had the opportunity to get a briefing on that at another forum and I found it very interesting. I think it is an idea with a lot of potential, but I have also had people come and tell me that in order for it to be successful and do the thing that it is meant to do, which is not to replace a lack of resources, but to deliver our health system with modern technology and so on. I just want to make sure that if we are going to go with that, that there are enough resources and that the people are properly trained and there is a technological infrastructure in place.

I believe Mr. St. Germaine mentioned that this was going to be expanded slowly on an as needed basis. I would like to know, what is the plan? How much are we allocating for that and how long are we going to take to implement it? I just want to know more about how this is being implemented and where it is at.

My second question concerns recruitment and retention of doctors. I know that the Minister made a statement on this earlier in the last session and I see that there has been an advertisement for a position of consultant or somebody who is to do the recruiting. I wonder if the Minister could just tell me a little bit more about where she is with this issue that was very important to our constituents.

My last point is, I have to agree with the committee report and committee finding that the Early Childhood Program is essential and I know that that is a priority for the department as well. Hopefully we will see something concrete on that soon. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, with respect to Telehealth, as Mr. St. Germaine said previously, there are four or five communities expected to come on stream for Telehealth in the next fiscal year. As far as the resources that it may take to do this and provide training to people and get the programs up and running, perhaps Mr. St. Germaine could elaborate on that and then I will come back to the issue the Member raises in respect to recruitment and retention.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Mr. St. Germaine.

Thank you, Mr. St. Germaine. Madam Minister.

Thank you. In response to the Member's comments on recruitment and retention, the recruitment and retention strategy actually has three components to it. One is to stabilize and enhance the current workforce. Another is to increase the competencies of the workforce that we have and also to develop a northern workforce. There have been quite a number of initiatives associated with those three components which are probably too long to read out, but it is quite impressive the progress that has been made in this area. I would be happy to provide the Member with a list of the various initiatives in the department to address those. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. The Chair recognizes the Member for Great Slave, Mr. Bill Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, Mr. Chairman, a few months ago I thought my hearing was really good and my eyesight was fine, but since then I find myself wearing all these cheaters here and maybe it is because we are talking to the Minister for Health and Social Services. Something that is going to be coming down the pipe is the aging population and what the department is doing about that, however I will not concentrate on that right now.

I am a little more interested, Mr. Chairman, in a couple of remarks that Ms. Ballantyne had about what seems to be a fairly dramatic shift in the way we might be able to see funding going to non-government organizations by way of pooling federal and territorial and perhaps aboriginal resources as a way of getting more efficiency and streamlining funding.

By the way, I applaud that. I think it is great to see that finally happening, but I have a couple of questions. Does the Minister know if this is exclusive to the Health and Social Services area, or are other initiatives underway in other areas, perhaps in Education or Justice, which also have a number of NGOs going along with them?

Related to that, Mr. Chairman, could the Minister give some assurance of just how committed the federal government is to this? Are we really looking at something that could be a substantive change in the way funding mechanisms are handled, or are we looking at something that may be an experiment? Is it going to be short lived? Is it not going to have all that much political horsepower behind it? I will stop there, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I could not speak categorically for other departments, but I do believe that our department has been sharing the template, the format for how we have been working on this with other departments. Hopefully, there would be some progress in that area as well. It is important that the funding be organized in such a way that it will reduce the duplicate efforts if there are more efficient ways of doing things in the communities.

Then the Member asks, will this initiative bring substantive change to how NGOs and community organizations are funded? I am very impressed with the level of cooperation with all parties to date in how this initiative is going. I am going to ask Ms. Ballantyne to elaborate on that a bit, but I do think we will see a very substantive change as a result of the efforts of the department in this area.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Ms. Ballantyne.

Thank you, Ms. Ballantyne. Mr. Braden.