Thank you for being honest, Mr. Delorey. Mr. Villeneuve.

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.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am not quite clear what the Member is referring to. I know in the 14th Assembly, we had Nats' Ejee K'eh, which is still operational. We have also been doing business with the Salvation Army and have increased the amount of business we are doing with them and using the programs they offer on a per bed basis. We continue to use services down south on a required basis in places like Poundmakers and Henwood and Bonnyville and those different places. We've invested all the money I talked about earlier into trying to improve and beef up and better support the alcohol and drug workers, now community wellness workers at the community level. I am not quite sure what the Member is referring to. The budget is clear, we are looking at maintaining those services and trying to move ahead where we can with the funding that's available, both ours and federal money.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Villeneuve.

I was just referring to the treatment centre that is located outside the capital here in Yellowknife, the one that is on the Detah highway. In my discussions from the previous manager and one of the coordinators of the programs there in the last couple of months, he was talking about how successful the programs were and the level of funding was pretty secure for that facility. Being a facility that is close to the capital of the NWT, which is experiencing the highest rate of alcohol-related incidents and problems with drugs, I am curious why the facility was suddenly closed down.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in political terms, it goes back in history sometime to the 13th Assembly, I believe, where NAS was initially down on Franklin, if my memory serves me correctly. Then they moved it out into the building at Somba K'e where it experienced enough program and financial issues, if memory serves me correctly, that a decision was made in the 13th Assembly when we were dealing with budget issues to close that one along with I think it was Delta House in Inuvik, keeping Nats' Ejee K'eh

as the primary alcohol and drug facility in the Northwest Territories, which has since been supplemented by the Salvation Army.

The most recent discussions with that particular facility have involved housing. We initially looked at in terms of its child welfare potential, but it was deemed to be too expensive to renovate for the money we had. So we ceased having an interest in the facility. I understand that the Salvation Army is considering looking at that facility for possible use, as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Minister for that explanation. Just getting back to the opening comments on the increases in the investment in our physician and specialists workforce in the NWT. I know it's always on the rise with the collective agreement increases and higher costs related to the cost of living and just northern expenses in general. I know that the NWT does have a hard time to retain a lot of specialists and physicians. I'm just wondering what types of monitoring tools the department has in place to ensure that the physicians and these specialists that they hire and try to retain, that we are actually getting value for the money that this government is putting out for all these specialists. When I go through the lists of specialists in our workforce, there seems to be a lot of specialists there in my view, but I'm not too up on all the social and physical issues that northerners are dealing with. But looking at some of the specialists, I can say for sure that a lot of these positions wouldn't be required to be working every day, day in and day out in a lot of instances where we have specialists like orthopaedics and really specialized physicians in the workforce. I'm just curious as to how we measure the value for dollar that this government and the residents get out of a lot of the specialists.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Specialists act in many cases as consultants to general practitioners, and the patients go from a general practitioner and get referred to see a specialist. As you've seen by some of our indicators, our aging population and some of the prevalent issues that are affecting us in terms of the cancers and the other health issues, there are lot of issues in terms of orthopaedics, and a lot of colorectal cancer issues as well; lung, heart, circulatory because of diabetes, that the specialists do provide a valuable service. We, as well, track the number of patients the doctors, especially specialists, see. As well, we have arrangements -- since we can't provide all specialist services in the Northwest Territories -- with Capital Health in Edmonton where those services that we don't provide here, patients are referred south.

So it is, without a doubt, a very high end, expensive service. The average salary for a specialist is over $400,000 a year, but it's a service that is important and one that we want to make sure is as efficient and effective as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Villeneuve, thank you for your comments. Your time is up and I will ask now for any additional general comments on the Department of Health and Social Services.

Detail. We'll move now to page 6-9, directorate, operations expense, total operations expense, $6.296 million.

Agreed. Page 6-13, program delivery support, operations expense, total operations expense, $31,789 million.

If I could, I would like to, in the absence...I'm not supposed to say that? Mr. Menicoche.

Mr. Chair, as each department is aware, there was a requirement by Committee of the Whole to get more detail under other expenses. I was just wondering if the Minister can provide that for 6-13 and, begging the committee's indulgence, as well as 6-9.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There is $167,000 for travel and transportation; $108...I'm doing the directorate. Was that the question? Sorry; okay. Travel and transportation, $167,000; $118,000 for material and supplies; $61,000 for purchased services; $642,000 for contract services; $79,000 for fees and payments; $11,000 for other expenses; computer hardware and software is $32,000; for a total of $1.109 million.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Just for clarification, we're on 6-9, Mr. Menicoche. Was that your question on 6-9? Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Menicoche, anything further?

Yes, Mr. Chair, as well as on 6-13.