Thank you, Madam Chair. It's general comments, so one comment I would like to offer is that I've been more and more impressed, Madam Chair, with the information flow and communication that this department has demonstrated with committee. The Social Programs committee is where most of that exchange takes place. I just want to put out a compliment here on their style and their responsiveness to committee and to a request. It's really a very good relationship and I want to thank the Minister and his people for that. That's not to say that there aren't differences on issues, as there should be. But when we do take something up with this department, I go into it with a pretty good sense of trust in that we're going to be able to get something done.
The whole area of addictions and treatment and the kinds of pressures that are on society these days has really captured quite a bit of attention in the news, in our dealings here as MLAs and, I'm sure, certainly in the clinics and the front lines of justice. This is something that's everywhere and the signals are that it is going to become even more of an issue. There is always a plea for more facilities, especially because we don't have a lot of dedicated facilities that say addictions treatment centre on every other street corner in the Northwest Territories. Quite the contrary. I would like to be able to look more at the design and delivery of programs at the street level, at the community level, as a way that we can really turn this corner.
Mr. Chairman, one of the things that I've come to look at with a very jaundiced eye is the tendency that we have to send people to addictions treatment facilities in southern Canada or outside of their community and the local environment here, and then they're declared treated or dried out or they've done as much as they can. They come back to the same familiar scenario here in the North and their community that probably had a lot to do with them falling victim to an addiction in the first place.
I'm coming to see, Mr. Chairman, my own bias is not to see that we build all sorts of institutions and treatment facilities. There's a place for that kind of thing, of course. But if we really want to make a difference, it has to be at the community level, the street level, in the schools, in the workplaces. That is my belief, Mr. Chairman. If there's an aspect of this that I'd like to get the Minister's view on or of his officials, where does best practice and current thinking in this area go? Are we better off to build these institutions or facilities and have things done on that basis, or does my way of thinking have some relevance to it, as well? Which way should we be going? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.