Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess part of the difficulty, too, with the repayment scheme was that as the student went through the paperwork -- and actually

agreements were signed -- SFA didn't really say that they would be penalized for the whole year. I am just wondering if the department can provide me with a copy of the actual guideline, rule or FMBS guideline that specifically states that failure of one term will apply to the whole year's worth? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will make sure that we provide that in a letter to Mr. Menicoche very quickly.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this morning are for Mr. Dent in his capacity as the Minister for Education, Culture and Employment and specifically to the responsibilities he has in the income support area. Mr. Speaker, the newly elected Conservative government is, we are told, going to be acting very quickly to implement its election pledge to give $100 for each child under six to assist families with day care and childcare requirements.

Mr. Speaker, our government, in a couple of other areas, also has a way of handling this for income support clients, especially where impact and benefit agreement awards may result in some cash or the national child benefit, for instance. Our government's practice for people on those programs, on income support programs, is to claw this money back. Mr. Speaker, will this government also be clawing back this $100 per child allowance that the newly elected Conservative government has pledged? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a bit premature to answer that question because we haven't seen the details of the program. As I understand how it has been talked about, the funding will flow to somebody who is on income support. Under our current regulations, that money would be seen as income and, therefore, would be counted in the assessment of income that the person has for that month, which would then impact on the amount of money that we would provide to them.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Okay, Mr. Speaker. The argument is always out there. Low income people are already at or below the poverty line. Some cash would certainly make a difference in their hand, but we have the other argument here that it costs money to make childcare programs available and accessible, and therein lies the dilemma. Mr. Speaker, in the review of our overall income support framework, will the government be entertaining a new policy and a new outlook on how we are going to treat low income and income support clients in relation to outside cash awards that they might receive? Is this something that we'll be able to look at and hopefully come up with some kind of long-term answer? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, that is one of the issues that will be up for consideration as we work through the process of re-examining our income security programs. It is an area that I have talked to the standing committee about that we will certainly be prepared to listen to advice. But when we come back and take a look at the package, it has to be something that we take a look at as a whole part of the package and whether or not it is appropriate or not. The short answer is yes, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, recognizing that it is early days and more details of the program have to come out, if this materializes as we anticipate, $100 per child under six, that could be a lot of cash. Does the Minister have any idea of what kind of new money that would result in? Under our current policy, what kind of new programs or enhanced programs could people look forward to? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, we have not done that level of assessment. I can point out, though, that our healthy children's initiative, for instance, is funded with monies that are reinvested from the national child benefit. So that is the sort of programming that we have right now that is funded with those sorts of programs and could be an example of what we might look at should we decide that this money does count as income. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement today, I talked about the fact that this is NWT Mental Health Week, and I touched on some of the areas that this week is intended to draw attention to. No one likes to talk about addictions, mental illness or depression, but I think it is important that we do have weeks like this that do recognize the prevalence of these things in our communities and in our society because we need to do things to address them.

I mentioned in my statement, Mr. Speaker, that the Department of Health and Social Services did commission a plan in 2004 and that this has been getting rolled out. Some of the areas and challenges they identified was the need to emphasize prevention and promotion programs at the community level, increased accessibility to community mental health and addiction services, increased clinical support and supervision for frontline workers, increased training for frontline staff, and increased access to mental health and addiction services after hours. The commitment in that was to employ 77 new mental health and addiction workers throughout the NWT over a three-year period. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, what is the status of this undertaking? How is the implementation of this piece related to addictions and mental health rolling out? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was a three-year plan, as the Member has indicated. We have completed the first two years. There has been a lot of discussion in the House about what is happening. As well, we thought it was an appropriate time to take a look at work that had been done. To that end, we did ask Dr. Chalmers to come back to take a look at what we had responded to in terms of her initial report back in 2001, the State of Emergency. That report will be tabled in this House and presented to committee members here before the rise of this House.

Basically, Mr. Speaker, we have 77 positions to date. There are 45 community wellness workers that are now in place, 24 mental health and addiction counsellors, as well as eight clinical supervisors. Mr. Speaker, a quick and important note is that, at the national level, there has been an agreement finally. The Member, in her statement, referenced mental health as the last taboo. There was an agreement at the FPT table in support for the setting up of a national mental health committee similar to the health council to provide an oversight and an ability to look at what is happening in mental health services across Canada, because it is recognized that it is an area that is fragmented, under-recognized, under-represented, and there is a need for us to collaboratively, at the national level in all of the provinces and territories with the federal government, work together. The hope is that the new federal government and the Minister of Health, Minister Clement, will honour that commitment, if we can move forward, not only with the work we are doing here but with that very important move to get a national approach to mental health services. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that the commissioning of the report and the undertaking to increase the services as I have outlined in the challenges here is a very good step in the right direction. I quoted some statistics here: 36 percent of all hospitalizations are alcohol and drug use related; 30 percent related to depression. How are we going to measure the outcome of our investments that are being made? What is the process for ensuring that we are making progress and that the numbers are going in the right direction? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on the addiction side, very clearly, the record of some success would be the amount of alcohol consumed in the Northwest Territories as going down, that the reliance on shelters and folks going to jail because of alcohol-related crimes are going down, that the number of alcohol-related accidents are going down. These are some of the specific ones. On the mental health side, it is much more difficult to quantify because there is not, as the Member indicated, a black and white issue that you can easily measure. The issue is going to be how coordinated are we and how able are we to respond to an unmet, pent-up demand that is out there for these types of services starting at the community level in all communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.