Like I said, we would on the elders’ side and the Elders’ Council. I recognize that we need to engage the various seniors’ societies across the North to try and put this together and pay for all of this. I need to be able to find the funding to do such a project. Also, if we are going to engage the youth to find the funding for that as well.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I asked the government if they would put the challenge, the same as us, out to our communities, talk to our youth right through this forum right now, in this time, and ask if they would help us get help in our region to support the Minister and themselves and to put a challenge out there so that the youth can also help with this forum. We don’t have to do things for them. Let them do things for themselves. I put the challenge out there.

Would the Minister put some form of challenge to the people, along with us to our young people, that if they want to live, they should be working on things like this that will help them with our elders who are waiting to pass on the good words.

Certainly, one of the good opportunities for youth and elders alike to speak on health issues and addictions issues is going to be during the Minister’s Forum on Addictions when they travel to the various communities across the North. Having said that, yes, I would work on something with the Minister responsible for Youth. It may not mean that we need to get some money together. It could mean as simple as the Member indicates, just challenging them to come to such a forum or conference to have an opportunity to hear firsthand what the elders have to say about the situations in the communities.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Other than counselling, other types of things including the people like the physicians themselves, dietitians, psychiatrists, mental health counsellors, nutritionists, internal medicine services and those types of things. We don’t have any other type of program. We are working with, I believe it’s the Alberta Health Services. They are willing to provide some of the modules they use to address the issue of morbid obesity.

I was part of that program and the Alberta program and their demand is very high. I think they have kind of limited the amount of use that we have on their program. I’d like to ask the Minister, has the Department of Health in the past funded weight loss programs such as lap bands or gastric bypass programs?

There is no indication that Health and Social Services has funded the laparoscopic adjustment band surgery in the past. What I do know is it is not an insured service in the NWT.

I’d like to ask the Minister if he would commit to looking into the funding of lap bands surgery to help those people who are morbidly obese.

Interestingly enough, I believe that there is an actual cost benefit to this type of surgery in the system. As the Member indicated, all of the reduction in medications and healthier life for individuals and everything, I believe that there is a cost benefit to this type of thing. Weighing those options, I would look into what it would take to see if the system can take a serious look at the laparoscopic adjustment band surgery.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to also see if the Minister would commit to looking into setting up criteria of who is eligible, along with a complete weight loss program similar to other jurisdictions such as he indicated, in Alberta. Can we have a matching type of program

that will assist our people in the Northwest Territories to have healthy living?

I think we can do that. Since 63 percent of the population of the Northwest Territories considers themselves to be overweight or are considered to be overweight, we couldn’t do everyone, so I would say that we would have to have some other indication that these individuals would be eligible should this ever become part of our system.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask some questions further to my previous questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services. The Minister responded to my questions in regard to the Minister’s Forum on Addictions that they will go out to the community and ask questions. But I understand from the Minister’s comments that this forum is going to communities with a blank page and basically saying, tell us what to do, fill up this page for us. I would like to ask the Minister if in his experience – it certainly is mine – is it better to go with a plan and ask for critical analysis of a plan or is it better to go with a blank page and say fill this up?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

The initial meeting, which starts tomorrow and then will go all day tomorrow and Saturday, they are going to sit down and this is going to be their very first initial meeting. This is a new thing. They’re going to determine what is the best method of getting information. It’s possible that in some cases they will be seeking a lot of recommendations and a lot of information. I think they’re also going to put some stuff together that will provoke discussion in the right direction.

I’m still a little confused. The Minister says that they’re going provoke discussion in the right direction. Well, what is the right direction? The Minister is saying that he’s going to go and ask people to tell him what to do.

My second question to him would be if we’re going to visit communities – and I have to assume there’s an opportunity for all 33 communities to have input – what if he gets 33 different solutions? How is the forum or how is the Minister going to take these 33 different solutions and turn them into something that we can actually implement and work with?

We know that the general right direction is to try to reduce the amount of alcohol that’s being consumed across the territory in the communities. That is fairly general. We’re

hoping that we’re not going to get 33 different types of recommendations or sets of recommendations from the communities. Firstly, we’re probably going to go into about 18 to 20 communities. Secondly, there are going to be four or five different groups. I guess, one, two, four different groups that are going to be travelling. They’re going to have a little different set of skills that they’re going to bring to the table. They’re going to have the right general direction, but at the end of the day, each of these groups are going to try to come up with what we think would be the best bang for our buck on each of these areas that are being recommended by the communities.

I wish this group luck, because I think they’ve got a very tough road ahead of them.

The Minister’s indicated there is an opportunity for input. I’d like to ask the Minister about opportunity for input from the general public. I’m sure there will be people out there in the general public who would like to provide their opinion, whether or not they meet with the forum or not.

What is the Minister doing to provide that opportunity to the general public? Is there an on-line component to this Minister’s forum? Will there be an opportunity for people to e-mail? Any of those things.

We didn’t think of on-line questions to work in alongside of this forum, but it’s a good idea. I’ll discuss that with the forum in the morning when I meet with them.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.