Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Premier for that answer. It’s a win-win for everybody. It has the potential to offset the high cost of living in the North. It has the potential to be the impetus for development in these mining operations that the Premier refers to. I hope that the Premier will really run with this and keep us apprised.

We need a development like the Taltson expansion in the South Slave. We need something. We need devolution to mean something for our people.

Will the Premier take up this particular project with his Cabinet colleagues and report back to us on significant progress in the near future? Thank you.

Thank you. Very pleased with the support, and we see this hydro development and the transmission line as probably the biggest project that we can start in the next two years, or in the remaining life of this 17th Assembly.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement earlier today on addictions and the closing of the Nats’ejee K’eh. This is the first opportunity I think the public has had to hear some of the rationale behind the Minister and the department as to the closing of this addictions facility, and really what is the plan of action for addiction treatment to follow in the Northwest Territories. We all know the issues. I’m not going to go into a long preamble because I do have a long list of questions, which probably will require a couple of times of going up to the table here.

So the Minister’s press release on July 11, 2013, cites, “The department decided not to renew the” Nats’ejee K’eh “contract based on strong recommendations flowing from the Minister’s Forum on Addictions and Community Wellness...”

Can the Minister point out the page number or paragraph in this report that supports this press release statement? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister’s forum didn’t exactly advise us to close Nats’ejee K’eh. What it says was that we need to find alternatives for treatment such as on-the-land treatment, mobile treatment, treatment targeted for youth, so we’re moving in that direction. This also pertains to what was happening in Nats’ejee K’eh. The closure of Nats’ejee K’eh was largely to do with what was happening within Nats’ejee K’eh at the time of the closure, or the elimination of the contract. Thank you.

So we just heard from the Minister that it’s quite clear that there were no recommendations flowing from the Minister’s forum clearly indicating the closure of this facility. This was another approach that the Minister and Department of Health have come to on their own, in terms of what they were going to do with this facility. So, again, I think the public needs to hear that up right and centre.

I guess to lead into another question based on my Member’s statement, what is the plan now for medical detox? This is a clinical intervention that is required during the early stages of the pyramid of treatment. So what are the plans for medical detox in the Northwest Territories and when will it be offered and where? Thank you.

Thank you. There wasn’t medical detox occurring at Nats’ejee K’eh, number one. People were on a waiting list and they had to wait for six weeks in community counselling before they get to Nats’ejee K’eh. So there was no actual medical detox occurring in Nats’ejee K’eh.

Medical detox is available at the hospitals and individuals can be given hospital beds for medical detox based upon requests. At this time if individuals need medical detoxification outside of the hospital environment, then our option is to send that individual or individuals who are requiring medical detox to the southern treatment facilities. Thank you.

Thank you. I concur there was no medical detox occurring at Nats’ejee K’eh, but the question of medical detox has been asked many times in this House. We’ve been promised here that there will be beds put aside we’ve heard in Yellowknife, we’ve also heard in Inuvik. But you go to the hospital and you ask the question, can you take me to the medical detox bed, and they’ll say we don’t know what you’re talking about. There is no sign on the door that says “medical detox bed”. There are such beds put aside in the event of capacity issues, yet are never used.

So, leading to another question here: What is available to help people addicted to prescription drugs, to crack cocaine or solvents? What are we doing with those types of individuals who require that assistance? Thank you.

What’s available are the contracts that we obtained or signed with southern institutions in Alberta and British Columbia. So if individuals are suffering from addictions, whether it be crack cocaine, prescription drugs, alcohol, marijuana, or anything else that they may be addicted to, there are options for them to go to the four southern treatment facilities that we have contracts with now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the Minister has kind of led into my other question here where he talked about the southern four providers that are now currently under contract. Can we maybe get an indication as to how many residents have used these southern farmed-out services, and of those who started the program down there, how many of them have actually completed it?

I don’t have the number of individuals that have taken advantage of the four treatment centres that we have contracts with in the South; however, I do know that when individuals have approached Health and Social Services, whether it be through a wellness office in their community or through the department or through one of the authorities, that it’s been fairly quick. The process is very quick and the individual is able to go out for treatment in a very short time basis, and that is what we were trying to achieve. But the numbers of the people that went and the numbers that had completed the treatment facilities, I don’t have those numbers here with me today.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is that the communities have a contract with the water service deliveryman, and as far as I know, that contract is still in place. He, in turn, would get his water from the community

of Hay River. As far as I know, the contract, unless things have changed, is still in place.

What measures does the department have in place in the worst-case scenario that the tap of water is actually shut off for the communities receiving trucked water for Kakisa, Enterprise and the Hay River Reserve?

We would work with the community to find other sources of water, be it bringing in water from another community, but again, my understanding is they do have a contract with the deliveryman who buys his water from the community of Hay River. But we would work closely with the community, and I think there have been some preliminary discussions as to one of the communities possibly looking at acquiring their own water treatment plant.

It’s quite clear in this budget that they really amass a lot of effort in ensuring that the public, especially the communities of the North, receive vital infrastructure projects, especially in the Deh Cho where a water source is very vital and, of course, an intrinsic value that is given to the public.

My question to the Minister is: Would the Minister commit to entertaining, at least his department, supporting and facilitating a dialogue among communities to look at some immediate alternatives in terms of striking the possibility of doing a business case analysis of building their own water treatment plants?

Since the gas tax and the community infrastructure money were introduced a few years ago, a lot of the communities have built their own water treatment plant. There have been a few communities that have teamed up and did a bundled water treatment plant where, with economies of scale, they would get it a little cheaper. But we have money that’s allocated for this particular type of initiative. It’s $28 million that we divide amongst the communities across the Northwest Territories, and then they determine that a water treatment plant is a priority, and they do have the tools in place to make it happen. A lot of the communities are doing that again.

We will work closely with the Member’s communities if they wish to have our staff come in and start the dialogue as to how they best can acquire a water treatment plant using the experience we’ve had with many of the other communities that have put their own water treatment plants in.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has publicly stated that, indeed, it is up to the communities. The concern from the communities is getting caught with the… If they do build water

treatment plants in their communities, their concern is in terms of the operations and maintenance.

The Minister, at this point, has indicated yes, he is quite willing to support the idea of having his staff go into the communities to ensure that there is some dialogue amongst the communities.

Can the Minister commit to ensure that happens, that indeed his department officials will perhaps go to Kakisa and Enterprise and see if responsibilities of developing a business analysis, in terms of a cost analysis of whether it’s viable to perhaps have a water treatment plant in either one of those communities? Would the Minister commit to that? Yes or no?