Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Recently I have inquired with the Department of Health and Social Services to follow up on some costing and focus on what we do for the Quitline and that would, of course, be people who have quit smoking. As many of us know, I guess it is a cessation phone line you call to speak about your woes of smoking cigarettes. I haven’t called it myself so I don’t specifically know, but I believe it’s set up in that context.
As I’ve learned from the Department of Health and Social Services, the response from the Minister, I believe $24,000 has gone to radio advertising and there’s a contract, I believe an Ontario company called Sykes. I guess they take the phone calls. Now, I realize some of this is federal money, if not all of it is federal money. Under this heading of healthy programs, has the Minister looked at setting up phone lines here in the North that could deal with people to take their addictions calls in the same manner of in a follow-up treatment?
Now, I know there’s a mental health line. You hear that on the radio, where people can call if they’re having trouble, which I think is a great service because, obviously, it wouldn’t be up if people didn’t need it. I certainly hope that that’s the case, obviously, that it wouldn’t be there if people didn’t need it or use it. But that said, I’m specifically looking for the area of addictions treatment where
people can call and talk about their addiction problems and hopefully avoid a relapse. Has the department set anything up or followed through on any particular follow-up treatment process in that type of regard? Thank you.