Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have the exact figures with me, but I’d be more than happy to provide those to the Member when I do get them. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I just wanted to make the point that it was exceptionally dry this year and the highway was in good shape. I’m pretty sure that the tourism numbers are up on Highway No. 7. I just want to make the point that with continued effort and working on Highway No. 7 with reconstruction, we can continue to have a good highway system with Highway No. 7.

I’d like to ask the Minister if he can give me those tourism numbers as well as a commitment about some kind of strategy to advise tourists about Highway No. 7. Thank you.

I thank the Member for bringing up Highway No. 7 again today and I also thank him for earlier this summer the trip we had between Liard and Simpson on Highway No. 7. Certainly, it was a dry year and all indications are that travel on that road by tourists was up. Again, I’ve committed to get the member some figures on the numbers and I will do that.

But certainly, we have to ensure that there’s a long-term plan for Highway No. 7 and I believe that there is. We need to look at some capital dollars going forward for the maintenance and rehabilitation of that road and I’ve mentioned it before in the House. It’s in the magnitude of $250 million. That is what would be required to totally rehabilitate the road. Obviously, we don’t have $250 million today, but what we can do is come up with a plan to maintain and rehabilitate what we can over the next 10 years or so and we plan on doing that. Thank you.

Thank you very much. The Minister spoke about a long-term strategy. I’d certainly like to see any of that preliminary work that he has, if he has any. Thank you.

Again, I will provide the detail to the Member, but we also recently signed an MOU with Canadian Zinc and the Prairie Creek Mine on how industry and the government can work together on improvements to Highway No. 7 and the Nahanni access road, and that’s certainly something we also look forward to completing as well. I think that’s an important step forward, too, as we realize some resource development and some jobs and some opportunities in the Deh Cho and the Nahendeh riding. So we’ve got some things in front of that that look very, very good and we intend to keep moving forward with Highway No. 7, its maintenance, its rehabilitation and the future of that road. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I think part of the strategy, of course, is to include Highway No. 7 in the Tourism Strategy, if the Minister can also work toward that. Mahsi.

It is there, it has been there in the past with the Deh Cho Connection, the Deh Cho Trail. Certainly, it is part of our highway system here in the Northwest Territories. We have some beautiful parks located on there and some beautiful communities as well. So, certainly, that is part of the Tourism Strategy as we move forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just going to follow up to my Member’s statement that I made earlier today in terms of treatment centres. I had mentioned all the infrastructure and services that are in the capital of Yellowknife here, and all of those groups do a lot of really good work for the Northwest Territories and people that do come into Yellowknife. My question for the Minister is for the Minister of Health today.

Can the Minister provide me with a list of any infrastructure, if any at all, in the 32 other communities outside of Yellowknife that do provide treatment for addictions? Can he provide me with that infrastructure? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I would be able to provide that information for the Member. Thank you.

Yes, specifically, can the Minister let this government know of any other programs, specific programs outside of Yellowknife that are being offered in any of the other communities, the regional centres and the small communities, specific programs that he can let us know today in the House that are going on in the 32 communities outside of Yellowknife that deal with addictions and treatment? Thank you.

We have a treatment facility on the Hay River Reserve, Nats’ejee K’eh. The department spends about $2 million annually on that facility to run it. Including Yellowknife, there is a counselling program, a community counselling program where we have $6 million. Then we have the on-the-land programs, which their allocation is approximately $25,000 per community. So off the top of my head, those are the programs that are available today. There is no other infrastructure outside of Nats’ejee K’eh that’s available for residential treatment. Thank you.

Under our priorities for the 17th Legislative Assembly, one of our priorities is to enhance addiction treatment programs using existing infrastructure. Can the Minister inform us if his department has gone out throughout the Northwest Territories and identified any existing infrastructure that can be used for treatment programs throughout the Northwest Territories outside of Nats’ejee K’eh and any new infrastructure that he’s recognized.

The department has not identified specific infrastructure that could be used for residential treatment; however, it is one of the mandates of the Minister’s Forum on Addictions to

look at as they travel from community to community having meetings with the communities. One of their other mandates is to determine what type of treatment would be required in which location, and once they’ve made that recommendation to the department, the department will look at trying to match the infrastructure that exists in those locations.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I heard is there is this group that’s going throughout the Northwest Territories and their mandate is to identify infrastructures. So if they’ve already travelled to some of the communities, I don’t see why we wouldn’t have some infrastructure on the list already.

In terms of the priorities that we do have, enhancing addictions treatment programs using existing infrastructure, when can we start to see this taking place, as we’ve already completed one full year of this Assembly? When can we start to see this taking place and a timeline in getting this addressed, as it is a big priority in the Northwest Territories and our big cost-driver in Health and Social Services?

As the Member is aware, we essentially started the new budget three months into this fiscal year. Within that budget is where we are funding this forum. The forum has not travelled yet. Their first function will be to come together in one central location. From then on they will travel to two or possibly as many as four communities in each region, the four different forums, and they will come back together with their recommendations. Once they come with their recommendations, we will be matching what is needed. In addition to that, we are reviewing the one residential treatment centre that we do have for its effectiveness and how well it fits into what is needed as far as residential treatment goes.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

When you replace a facility like a hospital, one of the main reasons for replacing a facility is not for what you see physically, it’s for how the building functions and how the building operates. The guts of the building are what get outdated and have to change. That in the H.H. Williams Hospital has gone beyond its date of good economic use. That is one factor. However, we would be prepared to take a look at using portions of that building if we thought that a treatment facility located in Hay River was the best value for our money.