Mr. Speaker, we all know that each child born with FAE or FAS faces a life of physical, emotional and mental challenges. Often, Mr. Speaker, the physical defects will be less serious than the overall intellectual and emotional hurdles. In one study of older adolescents with FAS, researchers found reading comprehension was below a grade 4 level, arithmetic scores were at a grade 2 level, and the social and intellectual behaviour averaged that of a seven-and-a-half-year-old child. Reasoning, judgement, self-control are severely impaired in an individual with FAS.
Mr. Speaker, I have heard anecdotal information that in some classrooms in the Northwest Territories there may be a population as high as 60 percent of people suffering from this. Even if this situation is only half as bad, we are facing a situation of crisis proportion in the decades to come.
Prevention will be an important component of our overall plan, but we are also compelled to deal with the people who have already been affected. The victims and families of FAE/FAS will need early diagnosis and treatment so children can reach their potential. We will need assistance in the classroom and the community for children and adults with FAE/FAS.
We will need structured residential facilities for adults who cannot live in a home setting. In short, Mr. Speaker, we will need a continuum of care for decades to come for people who suffer from FAE/FAS. Using jails, medical long-term care facilities or institutions to warehouse adults is not acceptable today and it will not be in the future.
Additionally, Mr. Speaker, the government should take the lead to destigmatize this situation at the territorial, community and the family levels. Here is the key, Mr. Speaker. Whereas we admit there is a problem, we are finding ways that we can develop solutions. Fort Simpson and Lutselk'e, as we have heard, are two communities with recent progress in this. As my colleague has mentioned, the Department of Justice has introduced a program at the Yellowknife Correctional Centre to help inmates with just this kind of innovative programming.
Mr. Speaker, through the Early Childhood Development Action Plan, health care and educational professionals are receiving additional funding, but I have yet to hear the actual dollar amount that will focus on FAE/FAS. I seek consent, Mr. Speaker, to conclude.