Thank you, Madam Chair. We know the number, of course, but we don’t have that info with us.

I wonder, I know the Minister is aware, having been on the Social Programs committee and our review of the act, that these are important statistics to monitor and I’d appreciate it if he could supply those numbers to committee. They are important for monitoring and seeing how well we’re doing. They’re relevant in this case. Another number is for the children in care in the Northwest Territories, what number are in their own home communities versus which number are not. I wouldn’t expect the Minister to have those at the tip of his fingers, but again, I know he understands the importance of those numbers and why they’re relevant. I’d appreciate those numbers if possible.

I’d like to move on to the community child and family service committees. I’d like to find out what the department will do different, given the failure to establish any last year, and recognizing the challenges that the Minister has spoken to, what will be done differently? What is the total number of committees that we’re trying to get on the ground this fiscal year?

We will provide youth in care outside the NWT and youth in care within the NWT to Standing Committee on Social Programs.

The child and family services committees across the territory, the main thing we are doing different is we’ve hired a coordinator, who starts this month, who will be going to the communities. We’ve had our staff going into the communities and right now we’re trying to get the one committee that was working during our review of this child and family services committee in Fort McPherson. We feel that is going to start up again. We are fairly enthusiastic about the results when we had our staff member go into McPherson to work with them. This coordinator is going to be working in the child and family services and our target will be the five additional to the Fort McPherson. We’d like to do five additional. If possible, we’re going to try to do as many as possible.

We have the task of dealing with health and social services authorities at the regional level and we have advised them that we are interested in seeing those child and family services committees getting off the ground as soon as possible. So there may be more than five, but our target is five at this time.

Thanks for that information. I appreciate that. I know the Minister is aware that there is quite a range across communities and if it happens that we can focus on those with the greatest interest and concern, that would be great. Just one specific, I know my community of Detah did express an interest to the interim Minister of Health and Social Services for a presentation with respect to this. I don’t know whether this Minister has had a chance to follow up, but hopefully that didn’t fall through the cracks. I just thought I’d mention that.

I guess, just sort of continuing on a similar vein with respect to the review of the Child and Family Services Act that was done, will we be seeing legislation coming forward to address the recommendations that were made by that Social Programs committee on the Child and Family Services Act during this fiscal year?

Our intention is to go to the community, working with the authorities to go to the communities where the need is greatest, where there are most kids in care. Also, in as far as Detah goes, we have a meeting set up for fall. In fact, I’m personally going to be meeting in Detah with the CEO from the health and social services authority from YK for this specific item. I will just have the deputy minister respond on the work that we’re hoping to do in the revision to the Child and Family Services Act.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. DeLancey.

Thank you, Ms. DeLancey. Mr. Bromley.

Thanks for the comments from the executives. I will look forward to that. There were quite a number of recommendations made at the operational level as well. I know the Minister is aware. From things as mundane as the prehistoric computer system that our social workers are forced to use and deal with, to their despair, to even recommendations related to foster care and so on. Where are we at on those and can we expect some of those to be addressed this fiscal year? Thank you.

The department is willing and prepared to provide our response to the report,

and I’m not talking about the initial response, but any actions that we have taken in relation to the 73 recommendations made by the committee to the committee.

One specific: Did they replace the prehistoric computer system?

I don’t think that has happened yet.

I know this department has a really good anti-smoking campaign. I would suggest that one of the biggest things they could do, having observed social workers, is replace the prehistoric computer system as an effective anti-smoking mechanism.

I’d like to move on. This committee made recommendations on a community model for an addictions treatment process, relatively recently, that has a high potential for success in our communities based on its northern design that was tried out in I believe it was Old Crow in the Yukon and so on. Will this budget be supporting the application of this process in our communities this year?

That is not likely. We have evaluated the program and the success rate is low. Only three individuals that had attended the treatment were still sober after 12 months.

Of course, there is a second number that’s important there, three out of how many, and that needs to be compared to what I understand is a 4 or 5 percent success rate for other programs. It would be interesting to hear those numbers. Thank you.

There were 12 people that attended that treatment. It was only given once in 2004, I believe.

I’d say a 25 percent success rate, five times our current success rate, would be nothing to sneeze at. I don’t know how fully it was applied in that case, but it seems like it would be a worthy investment to at least try a demo project or two.

I think it’s well acknowledged by this Minister and this House that this is a serious and challenging difficulty. I know there’s lots of work being done in the mental health and addictions area and so on, but I’m continually frustrated when suggestions are brought up that there seems to be a willingness to prove they’re wrong before trying them out. It would be nice to have a can-do attitude sometimes with some of these things, recognizing we have to be objective and go with the data.

I guess my last question is: I believe the Minister knows Ms. Cindy Blackstock, and she is bringing a national suit about the failure to fund properly especially Aboriginal children in the sense of child and family services activities. Can we get an update

on the status of that and its applicability to our situation in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Going back to the Old Crow treatment, we are prepared to relook at the principles, re-examine the principles of that treatment. A good point, you could look at it from the perspective that 25 percent is maybe better than some of the rates that we have been achieving. I apologize for that. We will look at the principles of that again.

We also have the Matrix program that we’re looking at in Fort Smith. We found that had a fairly good success rate, so we’re prepared to look at that.

On the Cindy Blackstock lawsuit, we don’t have an update, but we can get an update and provide a written update to the Standing Committee on Social Programs.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Mr. Bromley, your time is up. I can put you back on the list if you need to be there. Next on the list, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It was brought up earlier today, but I’d like to bring it up again, on the elders’ long-term care. It always seems like we run into barriers with the wording. If it’s not wording, it’s policy. It seems like we have to find another definition to be suitable for the communities and their needs, referring to maybe an elders care facility that is needed in the Mackenzie Delta. Without the need of a nurse on hand 24 hours a day, but you know, that’s what the communities want, as the Minister mentioned. But I think that we need to start planning. We have over 300 elders over the age of 60 in the communities, and we can’t be depending on Inuvik’s facility. There’s already a backup for people from Nunakput and also Inuvik. There’s a clear need that we need to find something that’s suitable, whether it’s Fort McPherson or Aklavik. I’m hopeful within the next year here we see something that’s in the budget to meet the needs of the elders. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Beaulieu.

The next item I’d like to ask about is home care. At the moment we have one part-time person in Tsiigehtchic and I believe only one person in Fort McPherson. That’s not adequate for the needs of the communities. I’d like to ask the Minister if there are plans to make a full-time position in Tsiigehtchic and add one or two more people in Fort McPherson. Thank you, Madam Chair.

We have asked the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority to work with the community through what we refer to as a Primary Care Team. Included in that is the home care workers, and to re-evaluate the needs in both of those communities of both Tsiigehtchic and McPherson to see if they can provide home care to the residents that need home care. I think if we’re successful in building in this elders daycare, it will be the home support workers that will be working with the adults in Fort McPherson. I think the authority would have to increase the amount of home support workers that they would need for Fort McPherson.