Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, alternative programming initiatives will continue to be developed through the addictions and mental health framework and be overseen by the Addictions and Mental Health Steering Committee. There are a number of initiatives out there right now. The women's mobile program has been delivered in Rae by the Dogrib Community Services Board; in Fort Simpson, by the Deh Cho Health and Social Services Board; and in Lutselk'e, by the Lutselk'e Health and Social Services Board. The Dogrib board has also held a three-day follow up session for the women who participated. The Inuvik Regional Health and Social Services Board will pilot a women's mobile treatment program in March and the post-trauma healing and recovery program for women and children sponsored by the YWCA in cooperation with the Yellowknife Women's Centre is underway now.

I shouldn't fail to mention that the youth mobile program has been piloted in Fort Providence and Fort Simpson by the Deh Cho and Dogrib boards. The Inuvik Regional Health and Social Services Board has also submitted a proposal for a youth mobile program. So these are ongoing programs within the department. The funding to the area of addictions drug and alcohol treatment has not been reduced. I do not disagree that we could always be doing more, resources permitting.

Just to outline the areas where we do spend our funding now. Community-based alcohol and drug funding is $2.197 million; alcohol and drug treatment services, $1.625 million; southern treatment, $329,000; federal funding $262,000; and, alternate programming funding, $1.350 million for a total of $5.763 million. So this is a fairly significant contribution or allocation that we make to the area of drug and alcohol treatment.

Mr. Chairman, I just also want to stress that we as a government can put on all kinds of programs, but we really need people who want to find work, who want to recover from these kind of addictions and take the initiative to access these opportunities and these programs which are in place for them. I also agree with Mr. Krutko that a lot of the work that is out there right now with various companies are subject to things like drug tests and we are encouraging Northerners to access these jobs. We want them to.

We've discussed the Maximizing Northern Employment Initiative that we want to undertake as a government and I really encourage proponents in the private sector to, together with NGOs or health boards, bring forward proposals for how they think they might be able to help address this issue of employment readiness by being able to address their need to be free from alcohol and drugs. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.