Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have taken what we think is a comprehensive approach to try to deal with addictions. We're focusing on the community level. We've put our resources in with wellness workers, mental health workers and clinical supervisors. We have some services available through Nats'ejee K'e for treatment facilities. We also have connections and facilities available down south that we have and make access for and to. We're working on a proposal to bring and repatriate some services back to the North that we think can be delivered in the North by northerners with some assistance through some local consulting groups and for service providers that now exist up here. So we are doing a number of things. We've invested millions of dollars. We've broadened our approach to include setting up a ministry responsible for youth, our involvement in the schools, the education programs that we've delivered for healthy living, active living in a whole number of areas, Mr. Speaker. We are working and it always comes back to the fundamental issue of personal choice and of working with the families, as well. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister, what does that have to do with addictions? I'm talking about real addictions that families are faced with. What programming is available for youth that are addicted to drugs, alcohol and other things? What programs are available? Back in...

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. We'll let the Minister answer that question. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's clear from the work and the research that now exists that addictions is no longer seen as a single presenting problem, that it is only one of many of often concurrent presenting problems, and that's the way it's being treated. Addictions by themselves are not the only problem. They come with other presenting problems that tie into maybe FASD, maybe family situations, maybe behavioural. So we have to look at all those and we're trying to do that. You can't look at the youth separate from the community and the family and we do have facilities down south when it comes to residential treatment. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that. Back in 1998 when the program was shelved and shut down, the deputy minister at the time, or the assistant deputy minister, said it's expected that youth would have to be referred to programs or that were referred to the program would either be sent down south for treatment or offered services in the NWT on a case-by-case basis. This new program was supposed to be up and running on April 1st of 1999 and it wasn't. So we're still following the same edict from the Department of Health and Social Services seven years later, Mr. Speaker. It's unacceptable and I think we need some type of residential program to treat youth addictions here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in 2002 we came out with an action plan, very shortly after that we came out with a Mental Health and Addictions Strategy. The Member seems to see residential treatment as a panacea for all the issues related to addictions and I'm saying it's not the only issue, it's not a panacea, its one piece of a service delivery system. We have access to it, but it's clearly tied to the communities first and that's where we've invested our resources to date. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Oral questions. The honourable Member from the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can speak in general about our approach to dealing with circumstances where we want to inform communities, and I'd be happy to do that. I'm not at liberty, in this House, to speak to a particular case or a particular patient as referred to by the Member and, unfortunately, I can't do that. But very clearly, when there's general circumstances where we have to inform the public, we work with our chief medical officer and the deputy and the communities to make sure that we can take the steps necessary to inform all the people that need to be informed about what is happening and how it's going to be dealt with, and to provide them the knowledge and information and reassurance they need to deal with whatever situation we may be dealing with at the time. I'm not at liberty to speak specifically about a particular patient. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I apologize for putting the Minister in that situation. So what can he tell small communities in the Northwest Territories that have similar situations such as meningitis, that the communities can be assured that they can sleep at night and not worry about any type of situations that may call into question of the health service that we have in the Northwest Territories? Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can tell the Member that in terms of dealing with the community of Colville Lake and making sure that they are properly informed and are apprised of what's happening and are reassured in terms of the circumstances, that I have met with the deputy, I've met with the chief medical officer and the acting CEO this morning at 7:30 to go over the circumstances, to talk about what needs to be done and to lay out a plan to, in fact, do that. When the Member has time, I'd be more than willing to have him fully briefed, as well, on that particular circumstance and we're going to make sure that the family is contacted, as well as the community, and get the necessary information given to them. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do, in fact, look forward to sitting down with the honourable Minister and going through some of the finer details in Colville Lake. I wanted to ask the Minister in regards to the authorization or some authority given in Colville Lake in terms of the medevac situation because of situations where communities do not have health centres that really they rely on the lay dispenser who has to call another community who has nurses in that situation. It's really hard, Mr. Speaker, to say who do you believe, the nurse, or do you believe the community members with a situation right there in terms of asking for help? Is that going to be changed in the future? Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are in the process of doing a step-by-step review of the process, what happened, the time frames and sequences so that it's very clear to everybody. That information will be looked at and reviewed, and I'd be happy to share it, once again, with the Member so that we can collectively take a look at what happened, how it happened and ensure that the system worked appropriately, and if there's areas where it didn't, then we will look at taking the steps to address that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I look forward to the Minister in seeing that hopefully we could see some things that are changed. It may be different in other regions and other situations, maybe it's working for them, good for them, but I wanted to look at our region in terms of our whole health care system in terms of the department or the government looking at investing some real dollars into our health care system or any other region that has a similar situation like Colville Lake. Put the money into the health care system and then other things will take care of themselves. We've got to do first things first, Mr. Speaker. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger.