Thank you, Madam Chair. I didn't get to a couple of other questions I had, so I'll take a few more minutes of your time, Mr. Minister. I was quite happy to hear your last comments. Thank you.

This may be a complex issue, but the disposition of the facility on the Detah road, what is the current disposition of that facility and what might the Minister see that we can do with that in the future? What are we going to do with it? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I don't want to slag off the Member of put him off, but that is a facility where I understand the Housing Corporation carries the mortgage. Health and Social Services has no interest in that building at this point and we are not involved in any of the discussions anymore at this juncture related to its possible use. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will raise that question with the appropriate Minister at the appropriate time. I know Mr. Villeneuve talked earlier about the availability of detoxification facilities in the Northwest Territories and I know the one here in Yellowknife was shut down a few years back. Given the fact that we are experiencing what I believe is a very high level of persons that are suffering from the addiction to alcohol, we are getting many folks moving into Yellowknife from the regions and they bring their problems with them, Madam Chair. We don't have a facility here in Yellowknife to effectively treat them. I know there are some programs at the Salvation Army, but I think we are missing a step if we don't have a dedicated detoxification facility, not just for alcohol, but for drugs. I mentioned earlier what a problem drugs are becoming in our society here in the Northwest Territories. I think it's very important that we have a facility in place to help people get their lives back in order. Madam Chair, I would like to ask the Minister what it is costing the Department of Health and Social Services to send people to places like Henwood and what these facilities charge the Government of the Northwest Territories to look after our citizens.

As an aside to that, I think it's enough of a difficult time for an individual who is having problems with alcohol abuse and the family problems that come as a result of this alcoholism, and then they have to leave the Northwest Territories and any support mechanisms that they have in place are not there. They are not here. They are on their own in Edmonton or Toronto, wherever the government sends them. I have some difficulty with that, that we are sending our residents south for treatment when I think they should be treated here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the Member is correct; the Salvation Army offers a social detoxification program. Stanton, as well as Hay River, Smith and Inuvik, as far as I understand, can do medical detox but they don't have a separate standalone program. They can respond on a case-by-case basis and provide that particular service. We have an alcohol and drug facility other than the Salvation Army at Nats' Ejee K'e where they have a $1.6 million budget. Down south we currently spend about half a million dollars a year on southern addiction treatment costs. Madam Chair, I would also point out as we talk about facilities, one of the other areas we have to take a serious look at is Nats' Ejee K'e which offers a very specific, narrow, 28-day program and runs at about 25 percent occupancy. We have to work with them as well to come up with a type of program or programs that are more responsive to the needs so we can try to keep as many of our citizens in the North as possible for that type of service.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks to the Minister for getting me that response. The next question I would have for the Minister is how would he see the city of Yellowknife, given the fact that we have a definite problem here in terms of alcohol abuse and the problems associated with it, how does he see us getting a dedicated detoxification centre established here in Yellowknife? Once again, is it not on his radar, or is it? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the issue of building a separate detoxification centre, another facility, is not high on the priority list at present. We have some services in terms of detoxification that are meeting the need, as far as I can see. At present, we have some other more pressing issues to deal with. It is something that we are aware of, but it is one of the issues where we have more problems than resources. When it comes to any kind of separate detoxification facility in Yellowknife, as the Member will notice, it is not in the capital plan. We have other issues; for example, in Yellowknife, the Yellowknife Association of Concerned Citizens for Seniors has a strong initiative for a dementia facility. We have dementia issues in every region and community where we have long-term care facilities, where we have to try to look at making some possible infrastructure adjustments to make them more user friendly for that type of clientele. So just on the infrastructure side, those are some areas that are very pressing. We have also a number of communities, one which comes to mind is Wekweti that doesn't have a nursing station, where we have communities that don't even have nursing stations. So we have a lot of issues. Detox is there, but there are other issues in the queue that are above that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am not 100 percent satisfied with the answer that there are other more pressing issues. I know the Minister talks of the development of the dementia facility here in Yellowknife. As far as I am aware, that project will mostly be publicly-raised funds to get that building up and running. There might be some operational money associated with it at the end of the day, but I don't know if it is going to be a big capital outlay by this government. I don't think that is the plan. I might be mistaken on that, but I would like to know what are these pressing issues? I know the fact that some communities don't have health centres; which communities are they? Maybe the Minister can let me know once again. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, with the dementia unit, what is being proposed is that the lease costs are covered under their O and M budget, and their O and M budget is a few million dollars a year that is not in any budget at present. So ongoing costs, that addition to our budget base. We have 12 communities that don't have any kind of health or nursing station. We have a number of communities that only have lay dispensers. We have some communities that only have one nurse, which is no longer an acceptable level of service, it is not acceptable for the RCMP and it is not acceptable any longer for the communities that we have to budget to upgrade to at least two nurse facilities. We have pressing issues in terms of other infrastructure in the actual construction, and we keep coming back for forced growth items as a matter of course, but things like unexpected meningitis costs...I

don't want to minimize the concern of detox, but there are some facilities that are available, however rudimentary it may seem in some eyes, it is adequate. I don't have the numbers before me but the demand for a full-sized detox centre, medical detox if that is what we are talking about, I don't think are high enough to warrant a separate facility. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Next on the list I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the suggestions by my colleague are good ones. The issue of Nats' Ejee K'eh is going to go on the table for the authorities and the department to look at as a collective. It would seem to me that one of the possible options is being able to deliver two or three different kinds of programs over the course of a year that would deal with a number of issues, be it youth or families or men. Clearly we have to look at where our need is, southern placements, what the communities are telling us, and how do we in fact gear up that facility. It is a very good facility, it is a northern facility. It has a very good aboriginal component, it is culturally appropriate, so I think this is one where we have room to move. So I agree with the Member, we have to sit down as we will be with the authorities, as I indicated with the department, to look at the best kind of programming that may be possible to make the best possible use of this facility. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. What the Minister says is very encouraging for myself to know that there is some consideration being looked at for Nats' Ejee K'eh for family programming. In the Sahtu region we talk lots and I work with our families, so I hope it comes to reality that we have some family programs for the northern people here and we can use Nats' Ejee K'eh as a facility for such a purpose.

The other point I wanted to ask the Minister, Madam Chairperson, is the facility we have in Deline is abandoned. There is a facility there that's abandoned that we think could be used by the people of the Sahtu and maybe by the people in the Northwest Territories. A lot of people are recovering in hospital or in other institutions, and lot of them just want to come home to the Sahtu region to be in recovery and to have a place where they can get help and take care of themselves. Deline has such a facility that is just sitting there and we want to see if that could be used sometime in the future. I think the Minister was made aware of this in our tour of the Sahtu region. The members of Deline made a presentation to the Minister on that facility and it's there already, you don't have to build anything. It could be used for long-term recovery or things like that. The facility is already there, Madam Chairperson, so it's not adding any cost to the department. It would be a matter of possibly some reprofiling. I want to ask the Minister to see what would be his consideration to the Deline request when he was on the tour there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger.

Madam Chair, I am aware of the Deline facility, I have been in the community a number of times. The last time I was there with the Member, I think every one of the communities we visited, except I think Colville, had a request for a long-term care facility. As the Member will recollect, the challenge has been common. Even though we have the benefit of a Sahtu authority and being able to make those decisions at a regional level, I indicated to the Member it would be impossible building long-term care facilities in every community.

The Sahtu has the benefit of a facility already constructed, and if there was regional support at the community level, then I think there's a potential ability to move this forward in terms of a possible use for that facility, given the statistics we have that show the aging population, the pressures on long-term care facilities and the eventual need for more beds. I'm interested in working with the region and the Member. If there is support in the Sahtu, as I indicated to the Member, then I think we have some grounds to build on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.