Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if I could just provide a very quick historical snapshot. While we have children in care right now in higher numbers than we would want or wish, we do have a focus on families and communities. All the programs we are delivering and designing are going to try to have that focus.

Mr. Speaker, just very quickly from the early 60s when I went away to residential school there were nearly 10 or so residential schools in operation -- Fort Smith, Yellowknife, Fort Simpson and Inuvik. Mr. Speaker, I can remember my early days in social services when we had receiving homes filled with young babies and group homes filled with young children, many of them permanent wards. We have moved away from that. We have changed our legislation to involve plan of care committees in the communities to involve families and to involve the children, when they are old enough, in their care and custody issues.

Mr. Speaker, we have also put 20 new social workers into the field to try to deal with some of the issues, but the sad reality is that we still consume alcohol five times the national average and many of the issues as they relate to jails and people incarcerated are tied to alcohol. Family violence shelters are fully subscribed to. They are always tied in with alcohol issues, and when those things happen children are affected.

Mr. Speaker, it is an ongoing issue. We recognize that there is a need to deal with families and keep children as close to home as possible, and that is what we are attempting to do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is also for the Minister of Health. Further to my Member's statement about our facilities for dementia care in the Northwest Territories and specifically in Yellowknife, I would like to ask the Minister where seniors are currently housed who do require specific dementia in Yellowknife. Where do we house these people? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Aven Centre currently provides that service. We also have some supported home living arrangements, but not for the particular care requirement that my colleague mentioned. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We know that these folks need specialized and specific level of care. I would like to ask the Minister if Aven's is appropriately rated in order to provide that level of care. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the long-term care facilities across the North are all in the situation where they were not designed to deal with cognitively impaired dementia and Alzheimer patients, which is why we have put money in our business plan and in the continuing care strategy to try to deal with that issue.

As well, we have given the folks who are working with the Aven Centre $50,000 to help pull together a planning document in terms of furthering their suggestion that we have a fully focused and dedicated dementia facility in Yellowknife. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am sure YACCs appreciates the funding in order to help them put together that business case for such a facility. Can the Minister give me some indication for time frame? When is he expecting to be able to deal with this and have his officials look at the possibility of a dementia facility in Yellowknife? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we, through the continuing care strategy, are going to be dealing with some of the immediate issues with the long-term care facilities across the North, including Yellowknife. YACCs has to, in fact, complete their document, and that will be some months from now when that is done. Then we will be sitting down with them to review it and see what is possible and how it fits into the overall systems issues that we are dealing with with this issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a housing question, but if you will indulge me, I would like to direct it to my colleague, Mr. Ootes, in his capacity as the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

A couple of weeks ago, Mr. Speaker, at a Yellowknife constituency meeting, we heard some startling information about the growth and demand for transitional housing. Currently, I believe it is through ECE, the GNWT provides five housing units for the administration of the YWCA for transitional purposes.

We were told, Mr. Speaker, that there are some 61 families, as of a couple of weeks ago, looking for this kind of service. Mr. Ootes, at that meeting, committed to follow up and I would like to see what he could report to us today for more transitional housing for Yellowknife. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the issue of housing is very critical. It is one that we hear questions on in the House on a constant basis these days. Yellowknife is certainly no exception, neither are communities exceptions in terms of need for housing. It is a very critical issue and I did hear the issue being raised at our constituency meeting, where there are 65 families, apparently, as the Member has said.

We provide support, Mr. Speaker, to several agencies in town. One is the YWCA and the other is the Salvation Army, and some support to the Women's Centre for beds. We pay a per-night usage for beds for homeless and transitional housing. But we are not the major supplier of housing, Mr. Speaker. That is the responsibility, of course, of the Housing Corporation.

Some time ago, Mr. Speaker, in this Legislature, it was recommended that we address the issue of homelessness. I suppose we cannot necessarily classify people as being homeless as much as in need of housing, but if we take the point of view, Mr. Speaker, of addressing across the Territory, homelessness and the need for transitional housing for those people, then we can say how are we going to address that?

Mr. Allen was named as the Minister with the homeless portfolio after a recommendation from this House. Following that, ECE became part of a project by the Housing Corporation that also included Health and Social Services and Justice on an interdepartmental working group on homelessness. That particular group is looking at the whole issue of how to address homelessness but also the whole issue of housing, Mr. Speaker, with regard to people in transitional housing and so forth. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is good to hear that the issue is on the radar screen and has captured some attention. I guess I'll be more direct in the question. Is the territorial government able to assist organizations like the YWCA in providing more transitional housing right away for the, as I said, the startling increase in demand? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is a two-fold problem here. One is, of course, should we be in a position to support is the first question. The second question, of course, is where is the housing, because that is a critical problem, Mr. Speaker, in Inuvik and in our community here in Yellowknife. So it is not a simple answer, Mr. Speaker, to be able to overnight say well, we can provide support. There is no housing out there to be able to provide support.

Mr. Speaker, I can help out from my department for a number of people that if they have their own financial means, naturally they should take care of themselves, which we all understand, but those people who do not have the financial means, we can provide support through income support, Mr. Speaker. A number of these people may be in that position, but it still leaves the whole question of where to find the physical rooms, where to find the physical place to live, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Indeed, that highlights another area that we heard about, and this is where for people to become eligible for income support, they almost have to make themselves destitute. Even people in transitional housing would have to get almost thrown out on the street in order to qualify to get up on the priority list, say, for units from the Yellowknife Housing Authority.

What is going on between our departments, between housing, between your departments and others to, I will use the word harmonize, the services to the homeless and the people in need? Thank you.