Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, I have to commend our Minister of Health and Social Services. He's got some real big challenges in the next term of this government to maintain the current level of health and social services within the NWT. Just to touch on a topic that the honourable Member for Hay River North was referring to with the retention of employees in the health and social services area, the Hay River region in particular, just for the very fact that a lot of my constituents from the Deninu K'ue use those services and rely heavily on health and social services out of the Hay River hospital and through the Hay River board of health and social services. I hope the work the Minister will be doing with the Hay River Health and Social Services Board with the new cash injection of $800,000 will alleviate some of those problems.
Just to comment on some of the remarks, as far as what some of the other Members are alluding to as far as the drug and alcohol awareness programs in the NWT. I know there are a lot of issues that surround of drug and alcohol awareness and addiction that are not directly related to the use of alcohol or drugs, but basically a lot of families have a lot of social issues and community issues.
I know the last term of this government, there have been some treatment programs or treatment centres available for alcohol and drug problems in the NWT and whether this new budget is going to be revising those institutions that were basically, from what I gathered from people who used to work there, they were given the guarantee that the funding for some of these centres and facilities would not be affected and in less than a year later that they were given that guarantee, they were given the notice that there would no longer be any more funding for a lot of these institutions. I just want to ask the Minister if on any of these new monies that the government will be moving around to supplement the different programs, if any of these dollars will be expended or allocated or possibly revising and reopening, rehiring, alcohol and drug counsellors to run these centres.