Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, a couple of years ago there was work done on a mental health and addictions family violence strategy. As well, there was a report done on the alcohol and drug services in the Northwest Territories called the Chalmer's report, titled a State of Emergency. It clearly identified that that area of program delivery was very weak, suffering from many things, one of them probably being benign neglect. The attempt we have made is through a number of things we are doing, one of them -- the integrated service delivery model -- is to bring addictions workers into the fold, as it were, of the health and social service workers that we have at the community level. We also recognized, and one of the things that was pointed out very clearly, was that addictions workers, alcohol and drug workers had worked for years often in isolation at very, very low pay with no real job description in very difficult circumstances. Many had worked for years just because they were very dedicated to the issue. So what we have done and what our first focus has been is to get a decent job description, get some money for some decent wages and benefits for the workers, add some mental health workers, re-describe the alcohol and drug workers to become community wellness workers, as well as putting into place some clinical support for them in terms of some mental health supervisors at the regional levels. That has been the first major step that we have taken in terms of trying to enhance and better use the services. Keeping in mind that the focus is to work at the community level, trying to deal with prevention. Waiting until people are in facilities or waiting, as we talked about earlier on other areas, until they are sick, often we are too late. We have to continue to invest at the community level and we want to focus on the young people, we want to focus on pregnant mothers, and we want to give the community wellness workers that are in alcohol the tools and the training to in fact be more effective, recognizing that when you are dealing with alcohol issues, you are not just dealing with alcohol issues. There are usually multiple issues that come to the table and we have to give them the skills to be more effective.
So that is the thrust that we are on. It started a little over a year ago, and we are looking at trying to get it fully implemented. As a Minister, I can tell you I remain firmly convinced that our salvation lies at the community level and working on the ground there with the people and the services there. Thank you.