Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Minister's Forum on Health and Social Services was a good documentation of what the concerns were out there in terms of the consultation that took place. Where it might have been a little weaker was in terms of providing any new ideas as to how we could accomplish those recommendations, in terms of the structure of the system. Concrete types recommendations are what we will be looking for in the Cuff review. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Mr. Krutko.

Again it makes me wonder exactly, is there a problem that we do not trust the people that we appoint to these committees to go out and collect the information and bring it forth. I believe that with all the people on this committees, they are Northerners. They are appointed by this House to sit on a committee on behalf of this government to go out and get the information and bring it back in the text of a northern perspective about northern problems.

But we are out there doing studies with southern institutions, southern firms to dictate to us in the North what we know best. We have been trying to get out of that cycle with Ottawa for years. Yet we as a government continue to practice that philosophy from the Northerners' point of view. Sorry, your views do not count. We have to use experts from the south to tell us what is good for us.

So I would like to ask the Minister exactly why is it that we as a government cannot implement reports and studies that we have put forth, we have spent money on, yet we continue to spend money on studies and reports from southern institutions. Why is it that we do not use northern people to give us this northern input on northern problems?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Minister's Forum on Health and Social Services, as I said, did do a good job of identifying what the concerns were out there. It was more of an information gathering process, whereas the Cuff review is intended to provide recommendations that can be readily implemented and this does require a fair amount of expertise. The Minister's Forum on Health and Social Services, although the participants in the panel were very good and they received a lot of feedback from Northerners, they did not themselves possess the expertise around the areas of accountability, frameworks, governance, clinical issues, practices. Some of the people who were on the Cuff team are actually formally health care administrators and professionals in this specific area.

So that is basically a summary of the difference of what we are expecting of the Cuff review versus what we got out of the Minister's Forum on Health and Social Services. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I for one have not seen an improvement in the health care system in the North, especially in regard to the last year, in which I think these recommendations were fully implemented and probably would have seen an improvement in the health care system.

But to date I continue to see problems in regards to closures of health clinics, health centres and also people having problems accessing health care. I think, for one, the so-called experts because they were not part of the ministerial forum, at least they had a hands-on knowledge of the problems that originate in our communities. And for us as a government to not take the communities comments seriously when we are always talking about community empowerment and bettering our communities, and dealing with community problems and community issues, here we are again today realizing that we are not getting the services that we are supposed to get or that there are some boards that are not administering the dollars that they were given on particular programs.

I for one have seen enough people in my riding die because of problems and this government's inability to move on recommendations and continue to do studies and studies until we are blue in the face. We are not seeing results and I, for one, hope that we have some legal counsel or some firm up here who will take on some legal challenges, because I think this government needs a good law suit to wake them up to the reality that we are not above the law, we are not God. For myself, I have raised this issue so many times in this House and nothing is changing in the health care system.

As a Minister who wants to do good and look at the health care system, if we are not moving on the little things, how do we expect to deal with the big things? Communities were asking for this report. We have had some 800 people make a presentation to a committee, and yet what do we tell them, "Sorry, your input does not mean anything because we are going to go and do another study anyhow" and that is exactly what we are doing.

In this day and age when people are dying of diseases that could have been prevented, and are preventable, there is something wrong with our health care system. I for one feel that continuing to pass the buck or blame this group or blame that group, is not going to get us out of this mess. It is action that is going to get us out of this mess. The action that the communities are asking for. They want to have more say in their health care system. They want to have more resources so they can deal with their problems in the communities with respect to alcohol and drug problems, mental health, community well-being. But the nickels and dimes that you throw at the problem, that is what it is. It is going to be a problem until we put some real resources into it.

I would like to know from the Minister exactly what are they doing to improve the health care system in the small communities, with regard to the resources that we are spending on health boards and other agencies of this government, and we are not seeing the improvement in the communities, where a lot of our problems originate, because we are lacking the resources or the people in our communities to take care of our own health problems. Could the Minister tell me, where is that miracle coming from, because another study is not going to do it.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Madam Minister.

Mr. Chairman, the Member mentions the hands-on knowledge that was provided to the Minister's Forum on Health and Social Services. Mr. Chairman, we do recognize the value of that hands-on knowledge that Northerners have, that first-hand knowledge that they have of the reality of the system that we have in place right now.

I want to assure the Members again that the Cuff review will take that information that was gathered. That information is not being discarded and it is not being disregarded. It is being taken by the Cuff review now, and helping to establish a plan of action so that we can have the best quality of service possible.

Mr. Krutko refers to the fact that people have died, and without speaking to that specifically, Mr. Chairman, I just want to say that we do have a responsibility as a government to ensure that we do take action to make sure that our people have access to quality health services. We are moving on putting that kind of action into place. We have done it in many small ways and hopefully when we receive the results of the Cuff review, we will be looking at the overall structure to ensure the sustainability for the foreseeable future. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Madam Minister. We are on general comments. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just in other areas of the department, I would like to know how far will some of these -- I guess it is hard to tell right now -- but I am trying out find out how far things will go or what kind of changes are being looked at. There have been a lot of changes through the 13th Assembly, drug and alcohol changes. We went through a huge reduction cycle

In the last year of the 13th Assembly, there was discussion on trying to come up with another model for drug and alcohol treatment, children and families and that area. To date, I believe there hasn't been a firm area done and I know as a previous Member of the Social Programs Committee when we talked about a task team working on drug and alcohol reform, there has not been, to my knowledge, a final position or statement out there. We know it is in flux because there is all this other stuff happening when it comes to drug and alcohol facilities and programming out there. Right now, we are talking mobile treatment and I would like to get some ideas if the Minister thinks that the Cuff report will go into that detail or will it be more overview and more of a governance area? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With respect to the Cuff review, we will be looking at the roles and responsibilities of the department, the delivery of all of those kinds of services that the Member refers to.

With respect to the ongoing activities within the department to address some of the other issues that the Member refers to, we have continued to work on the initiatives that he's identified. Next week, we've offered to provide a briefing to Members on our addictions and mental health framework and we have sought input as we go along, but certainly the Cuff review is not the only activity. We are not completely focused just on that. There's the ongoing work of the department, which continues in consultation. There will be a document ready for public consultation in March specifically on the addictions and mental health framework the Member refers to. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On the same line of questioning, as we all know, there is lots of economic opportunities in the diamond industry, oil and gas industry, but there are also alcohol and drug policies that are being implemented by a lot of these companies who are doing work here in the North. One of the big problems we are running into, especially in a lot of our communities, is that a lot of people aren't passing these tests because of the alcohol and drugs that are in our communities within our society. We continue to cut the alcohol and drug programming where it is inefficient. We are down to basically one provider in the North.

We keep talking about FAE/FAS, but we all know where that problem originates from. As a government, we can continue to say it is a problem, but unless we do something about it and realize that in order to make those positive choices we, as a government, also have to ensure that our residents have access to alcohol and drug programs and also have access to ensuring that when a person fails a drug test or an alcohol test, that they are able to go to a particular clinic within their geographical area and be able to deal with the problem and be able to come back into the workforce and meet the goals this government is setting.

We are talking about economic opportunities that are out there, but again I come back to the thing with the resources that are going into alcohol and drug programs. Right now, because of the cuts or the way the dollars have been allocated, we are not seeing results. I think it is important that we do seriously put more resources into preventive programs such as alcohol and drug programs. We cannot be the providers of all the jobs, but if we can make it easier for people to access these jobs by programs that we assist them on to make those changes, it will help us as a government to meet the goals we set. We can set all these goals, but at the end of it all, if people are not being hired or not being able to meet that requirement, then it is all for nothing. Are there any plans in the future of improving the alcohol and drug programs or expanding the facilities that are out there compared to what we have today?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Madam Minister.

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.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Mr. Krutko.

Can the Minister tell me exactly how many treatment beds are there in the Northwest Territories to date?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe there are 27. Just one second, I will get the exact number. Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Centre in Hay River is a 30-bed facility, so that is a residential treatment centre. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, so we put all this money into programs and what not, but I think what's needed is we do need facilities for people to go to. We can go out and have these resources going to different groups, but it is not serving the whole Territory as a whole. When you are limited to one facility, it restricts the community or people in the different regions, especially the region I come from where people at one time had two facilities with regard to Delta House and the Tl'oondih program. Now we are down to a big zero. What is the Minister doing to find new facilities so we can increase the amount of treatment beds that are in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Madam Minister.