Mr. Chairman, that will leave a building here in Yellowknife of some potential future use and I would like to see what plans the department has for continuation of the existing TTC building for any potential further community program use, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At this point, we have no identified use for that building, given the majority of the building's condition. We see it, at this point, as surplus to our requirements and it will go on the government inventory as a government property, but we have no clear identified use for that that we are pursuing. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Anything further, Mr. Braden?

Mr. Chairman, it is a residence with some classroom and cafeteria facilities in it. This community is hard pressed to care for or to have alternatives for the homeless, for treatment facilities for other kinds of illness or addictions. If we are going to be vacating this building by next spring, wouldn't it make sense to see if there is potentially somebody out there who can take it on and use it for continuing good community sense? It's kind of disappointing to hear from the Minister that I am not getting a sense that they are even interested in seeing whether this could be done.

Does the department plan on putting this building out for tender or proposal to see what kind of idea could come up, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are fully allocated, I guess, is how I would phrase it at this point. We have projects on the list in Yellowknife that we don't even have funding for, and I speak specifically about the consolidated clinic initiative which we think is very important and very valuable that we are trying to move on. We don't have, in our planning schedule, an alternate use for this building, and one of the reasons or one of the factors that was considered when we looked at the move of TTC was the general condition of this building. That is not to say that if someone or some group was going to make the case for some type of program, that we would not look at that. The expectation being, of course, that there are going to be plenty of requests, providing we can give them the O and M funding to run the building. That's where the struggle comes for us.

So what is happening now is that facility is following a normal disposal process that happens in government. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The community health programs, I want to ask the Minister in terms of the...He's acknowledged a few of the community wellness workers the last couple of days in the House here in terms of their training. I want to ask what type of training programs are the counsellors receiving in terms of the residential school issues? I know they've been trained on several fronts on addictions, wellness and prevention. Is there a specific training that these frontline workers, social service workers, mental health workers, addiction workers, drug and alcohol counsellors that have some idea as to working with survivors of residential schools and where they could point them to for treatment centres or wellness programs to help them and their families? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The training that wellness workers take part in is geared to giving them an expanded skill level to deal with a number of presenting problems and concurrent issues that may be there. Clearly, in the environment that we live in, the issue of addictions and residential school impact are all part of the landscape when wellness workers are learning about developing these skills and, included in that context, when people come to your door into your office with issues. What do you do and how do you do it? What are the referral agencies that you can draw down on? Should somebody, in your opinion, require that that wellness worker or mental health worker may not be able to apply or supply?

Case management becomes an issue with the clinical supervisor, the mental health worker and the wellness workers, as well. In our environment in the Northwest Territories, the residential school factor is one that is prevalent in all this type of work. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Minister is correct that residential school is prevalent in all areas of the small communities. Again, I support the Minister in terms of continuing to support his frontline workers, social workers, mental health workers, addiction workers in terms of dealing with this issue. We are just scraping the top of the iceberg on this issue here.

In terms of funding to the authorities for community social service workers in the areas of prevention, assessment, early intervention, counselling and treatment services related to children, youth and families, what type of funding that's given to the health authorities in terms of some flexibility where communities would be empowered to design their own programs under one of these topics in terms of helping the children, youth or families? Is there a type of discretionary funds that the authorities can give to the communities and say here, design your own program for you, your children and your families, without following some of the policies that are in place by the Health and Social Services directive? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are very few pots of what the Member referred to as discretionary funding. The funding we have for the authorities in the communities tends to be fully allocated when we get it. There may be specific program funding pots that we can request funding for for conferences or for those types of generally one-time events. In terms of just money that can be given to the communities to design their own systems, that kind of flexibility is not currently there. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, these one-time conferences sometimes get into the space where we had a conference, we had some good discussions, now we have to follow up. In terms of some flexibility in terms of discretionary funds to have the communities come up with their own design to work with the family, the youth or the children, would the Minister look at some of his funding policies or criteria, what things he needs to do that would make it so that the communities can have some discretionary funding, so people can design their own programs which makes sense for their own community members? I would ask the Minister if he would give some consideration to reviewing some of the funding guidelines. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, just so that it's clear to the Member -- and I apologize if I am not being precise enough -- out of our $260 million budget, about $190 million of that goes to the different authorities right off the top for all the program areas. They have latitude with that money with the board which is made up of community representatives, both in the Sahtu and every other authority, to make some program decisions on those areas that are not mandated or there is not a legal requirement to deliver things a certain way to work with communities to try to structure their arrangements. For example, some communities have chosen to have the regional centre provide service on a rotational basis from the regional centre to the communities. Some authorities or communities have chosen to try to do it where they have the staff in their communities, so there is some latitude there. When it comes to the type of structure and program services at the community level, the resources are already there. So if there is a desire to look at how those resources can be reprofiled; there is capacity to do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Villeneuve next.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of quick questions about the community health programs. Just to touch up on some of the stuff that Norman mentioned last week about the community wellness workers who graduated through the program this year and now they are all certified and going back to the communities. I am just wondering with the funding that goes into the health authorities, how accountable does the government ensure that the authorities are when community wellness workers seem to be overworked and underpaid and the salary levels haven't changed for

community wellness workers for quite some time? Is the government actually making sure these community wellness workers are treated fairly and equitably with respect to the Union of Northern Workers and any other government employees in the health industry? Are their salaries comparable to other jurisdictions? Are they at a level that's fair? Do they get a northern living allowance? Do they get all the indemnities that other government employees get in any other health service industry? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Villeneuve. Minister Miltenberger.