Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure really what the Minister's sense of urgency is, but, to me, I think this is a very urgent matter, and I think it is something that should be a real priority for the Department of Health on healing facilities and treatment programs that are available to residents, especially residents of Yellowknife that already have a large influx of people coming in all the time every year and the population is steadily growing. With regard to one of the facilities that does offer some kind of assistance to people who are looking for treatment for their addictions, there is the Salvation Army. I know that the clients who are treated over there are treated through referrals by corrections services and the self-admitted people who are going there for treatment on their own is double that, but there is no funding allocated for that and there is no funding provided by this government for the self-admitting program. I was just wondering if the Minister could let me know and the other Members and the public know why, if he is looking at outside sources of treatment and not a standalone system, why doesn't the government provide more funding, or any funding for that matter, for that program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in fact, we do have arrangements with the Salvation Army. In fact, the Salvation Army now is approved for medical travel as well, which it hasn't been in the past. I would be happy to provide the Members the detail of the various contractual arrangements we have with the Salvation Army. I would also like to acknowledge the work that they do, and that they are a very valuable resource. We are relying on them more and more because of their skills and abilities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't know what kind of new contractual arrangements the government made with the Salvation Army, but I was speaking with the program director yesterday. She just informed me that all of the people who are self-admitted won't get any funding for this and neither does the Tree of Peace. There was an announcement in this House last year recognizing the Salvation Army as a legitimate treatment centre, and they even received a letter just confirming that recognition, but I would be glad to see that the Minister is going to provide some information with regard to what kind of contractual arrangements that they have been ironing out over the past year.

Just with respect to the Somba K'e Healing Centre that was shut down in 1999, Mr. Speaker, and has been closed for a few years now, I know that this government still pays the mortgage on that facility, which has been sitting empty for a number of years now. I was just talking with the ex-manager who used to run that place. He was given assurances by the Department of Health and Social Services that this place wouldn't close. They closed it six months later. I just want to know what the Minister is planning on doing to maybe revisit the issue and revisit the possibility of renovating it, not spending an exorbitant amount of money, but I think that it is something to consider.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my recollection of the history of the Somba K'e is that they had an arrangement with

Corrections Canada that was severed and that they were looking around for an alternate way to get funding. We did look at the facility. We did have people take a look at it from a technical and structural point of view initially for the possibility of a childcare facility. What came back was a number to bring the building up to appropriate code both structurally and from a program point of view of over $3 million, which exceeded the budget we had available to do renovations at the current facility. So we did take a look at that. I had a number of meetings with the Member for Weledeh and the board members from Somba K'e to look at an alternate use and what could be done to try to assist them in putting that facility to productive use. So we have made our efforts. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. A very short supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess maybe what I am looking at with the new funding arrangements this government has been coming across now with this new election in place and stuff, I am just wondering if the Minister can give the public some indication as to his commitment to see that this problem is near epidemic and is not going to escalate any more than what it's coming to right now and that he will look into the possibility of having a standalone management facility that deals strictly with that drug addiction. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the term "near epidemic" has been used a number of times. I have seen it in the press, as well. The suggestion is that our response is going to be to just try to fix people once they are addicted. I would suggest that that is an incomplete response, that, very clearly, with the influx of drugs, there has to be a comprehensive response, trying to limit access, trying to convince people not to use it, trying to crack down on the people who are selling it as opposed to just focusing the attention on accepting the reality and let's just try to fix people once they are addicted. I don't think that is the intent of anybody in this House. I think we need that kind of broad discussion to look at that kind of comprehensive response. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask my questions to the Minister of Health in his capacity and his responsibilities as Minister of Health and not a fixer of everything. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about the addiction and not necessarily just on the preventative measures, which is important as he has indicated, but I want to deal with the fixing side of it, which I believe the Minister is responsible for. Mr. Speaker, given the amount of problems we have with drug use and alcohol addiction, I really believe that we should be at the forefront, and we should have our own treatment centre and treatment program that should be used as an example around the world and the country. Nobody really knows what we have, Mr. Speaker.

This is the situation. The government is paying for maintenance and the mortgage of Somba K'e. The government is paying $600,000 to $800,000 a year for southern treatment. The government talks about strengthening their mental health and addiction workers. I tell you, this has been a complete disaster. The bureaucratic tape has made it so that this position has not been filled in many communities. Second of all, the clinic unit in Stanton is severely short staffed. They have talked to the administrative managers of the hospital about it. They are not recruiting. They have stopped their advertising. This is the kind of commitment the Minister has in terms of dealing with addiction. Could the Minister indicate why he is failing to even staff the division at the hospital? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The Minister of Health and Social Services, the Honourable Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my job as Minister is to try to come up with some plans to, in a careful way, implement those plans after there has been proper consultation. We have done that with the mental health and addiction strategy. We responded to a fairly damning report in a state of emergency. We have committed to following the plan. We have implemented year one, year two. Year three is on the books. The Member now stands up in this House to say it has been a disaster. Let's change that. I am saying, okay, if that is what you are thinking, then let's have that discussion; an informed discussion. Let's get the statistics. Let's look at the need. Let's get past the political rhetoric, the extreme adjectives, and take a measure to look at this. We are talking about a process that is going to require time of committee to do that. I've made that commitment before, and I just restate that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister keeps talking about let's have this debate. Well, I don't know if he is trying to have this in his dreams or not, or in his sleep. I am telling him, Mr. Speaker, the debate is right now. I am asking him very specific questions. I am not making any political rhetoric. I am telling him, Mr. Speaker, that his time for planning and his favourite words and careful measured steps to plan are over. I am telling him, I am not saying the whole strategy is a disaster, but his implementation of it, we do not have mental health and addiction workers completed because of the way that it was done, and there are vacancies at the Stanton clinic. The Salvation Army and the Tree of Peace need these professionals at the hospital to deal with this clinical

situation. They are suffering from vacancies. They are asking the Minister and the administrators to hire them, and they haven't. So why is the Minister not doing anything about that? These are very specific...

Thank you, Ms. Lee. I heard a question there. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member makes comments that tend to diminish the work of people in the communities that have been working for years in the field -- wellness workers, addiction workers -- writing them all off as a disgrace, a waste of time, a disaster, it is not happening. Well, it is happening. Yes, there have been problems unfolding this and rolling it out and staffing all of the positions, but we have had more success than we have had failure in terms of staffing, and we are going to continue to work at it. We are going to continue to work at staffing all of the positions that are funded. If the Member is saying build us a new facility now because she stood up and said that is what she thinks should be done, I am prepared to talk about that, but there is a process, as she well knows, as the Members well know, as they have just taken us recently to severe task about how we spend money. I am prepared to look at it. If there is agreement and there is a planning process that leads to a facility, then I am prepared to engage in that discussion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unless the Minister is mixing me up with the Member for Tu Nedhe or the Member for Kam Lake, I have not mentioned a word about building a treatment centre. I asked very specific questions. There are at least two key positions at the clinical mental health unit at the hospital that are vacant. They have stopped advertising for those positions. They are not recruiting, and the recruiter is no longer in office. As far as I am aware, there is minimal effort to rehire those units. I am asking a very specific question about service delivery here. I think the Minister knows this; my understanding is that the Salvation Army and the Tree of Peace are doing most of the delivery for the government and the professionals there. So why is the Minister falling behind in keeping that staff intact? I am not saying anything about the building to Almighty sitting over there.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to assure the Member that I would never ever confuse her with anybody else.

---Laughter

She doesn't have to refer to me as Almighty; Michael is fine.

---Laughter

She has raised a very specific issue from her information that she has obtained, so I will commit to follow up on the particulars of the two positions, but I would once again suggest that it is not because people don't care, we have written it off, it is a waste of time. I would suggest that efforts are being made. There is funding for those positions for a reason, because those positions are needed. As the Minister, I am going to commit that they are needed and we will take the necessary steps to staff them, if they are vacant.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Ms. Lee.