Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are also for the Minister of Health and Social Services. In the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan: A Shared Path Towards Wellness, it states that the Department of Health and Social Services spends $9 million each year to support mental health and addictions, yet there are 11 service gaps that are presented.
I’d like to quote the Minister of Health and Social Services during the TLC, where he states, “When I speak to community health providers, there is a need for alcohol counselling, there is a need for treatment to be close to the people where the people live. We need to have those services at the community level and on the land where the people can work together in healing.” Yet this Minister sent the Minister’s Forum on the road at a cost of $300,000 and he didn’t feel that money could be spent better anywhere else.
My question to the Minister in that sense, some stuff that was laid out in the budget process, he did mention detox beds. Can I ask the Minister of Health and Social Services how many detox beds are there going to be in the Northwest Territories and where are they going to be located?