Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Handley, you are referring the question to Mr. Voytilla.

Thank you, Mr. Voytilla. Mr. Krutko. Not previously authorized, $434,000.

Health services programs, special warrants, $2,067,000.

Not previously authorized, $2,038,350.

Page 14, special warrant, community health programs, $434,000.

Not previously authorized, $1,289,000.

Total department, special warrants, $3,217,000.

Not previously authorized, $4,373,000. Mr. Krutko.

I would like to ask the Minister if he could give me a breakdown of that $650,000 for the Inuvik Regional Health Board and where those expenditures were expended, in which communities?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do not have that level of detail but I can get the information from the Inuvik Regional Health Authority and I will provide it to the Clerk.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, that is a large amount of money that is being expended in the foster care program. I would like to ask the Minister, exactly what are we doing to ensure that we try to find a system to reunite families and try to keep children in their homes by offering programs and services to their parents instead of strictly taking their children away and not offering any family support by way of counselling and whatnot.

I would like to ask the Minister, we are spending $650,000 in foster care in our different communities, what are we doing to deal with the real core issue which is ensure that the family stays together and that we deal with problems with their parents?

In most cases in our aboriginal communities the biggest problem we have is dealing with the social problems related to unemployment, alcoholism, low income. People, for who they are, regardless of aboriginal or not, are dealt with differently because they are at the bottom of our social wage scale. We are looking at them as just another problem to the government and the easy way out is to take their children away.

I think that as a government we should learn from previous experience. We have paid millions of dollars in regard to compensation because of court cases and I for one am totally against the idea of pouring millions of dollars into the foster care programs when we should be doing more to encourage family programs such as family counselling, healing programs in our communities and in the regions. Instead we are in the process of making major expenditures in taking children out of their homes and putting them elsewhere. I for one feel that this is just another form of assimilation of aboriginal children.

In the past they took the children out of their communities and put them into hostels for many years before they went back home again. I think that earlier today we heard comments from Mr. Nitah and I have to agree with him that we are not doing anything to deal with the core problem which is the social problems we have in our communities.

We do not have major economic opportunities by way of tourism or infrastructure, facilities, diamond polishing facilities or looking at the different... the biggest problem we have in our communities is that the social dependency in our communities is there. One of the biggest areas is dealing with the social uncertainties of people being unemployed, people being at the low end of making very poor wages and also that those opportunities are not there.

As a government I would like to ask the Minister, what are we doing to curb this major expenditure in this area?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we have done a number of things. A few years ago we revamped almost entirely the legislation as it deals with children in care and child welfare issues. We have put 20 new social workers into the communities to deal with families and children. We are in the process of trying to revamp the alcohol and drug programs and to enhance the community focus to work at the community level with families and individuals at the community level.

We, as well, are trying to improve on the way we deal with family violence issues. Across the board we have put in grade extensions in the communities, we have tried to improve housing. As well, on the economic side, we recognize as we will see in the next few days with the response to the Social Agenda, it is very clear that there is an impact of major resource development that we have to recognize in communities and work with the communities to try to deal with those issues as well.

We are spending a considerable amount of resources trying to deal with communities. A lot of the issues we deal with unfortunately start with personal choice so we have to be there, provide resources and work with the communities and individuals. Those are some of the areas we are trying to do it in. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, can the Minister pinpoint exactly where the core problem is, where you see a major expenditure in one region, the Inuvik region, for $650,000 yet you look at the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Board it is $375,000. Population-wise, the Inuvik region has less of a population but it seems like they are almost doubling the expenditure compared to Yellowknife.

I would like to ask the Minister, what is the problem with the Child Apprehension Program and why is there a major increase in that expenditure?