Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we were out discussing this with the different Aboriginal Governments we heard that they didn't want a cookie cutter approach. They wanted to be able to do things their way based on the realities in the different regions. However, we recognize that, you know, there are great things happening in different regions, so we've been pulling together the best practices and highlighting, and demonstrating, and showing the different regions what's happening in the other regions so that they could steal good ideas and things that work. We were also making clinical staff available should the regions request it during some of their on-the-land programming. So we are able to participate as asked and as wished by the different groups that are pulling together.
This isn’t the only thing that's happening in the Northwest Territories. What we heard clearly during the Minister's Forum on Addictions is that people wanted options and they wanted to be able to make choices in the Northwest Territories and on-the-land program is an important one that people were asking for. But we were also providing community counsellors in every region, most communities in the Northwest Territories. We've got different programs like ASSIST, we've got the Matrix Program which is outpatient community-based treatment as an option for individuals. We're able to do some things by Telehealth. We've got contracts with four facilities in the south. Now, that we have an expedited process, we finally started to see some increased usage of those southern facilities, more so than we ever had in the Northwest Territories when we had a local facility here in the Northwest Territories, so we're starting to get more people going to these facilities because the facilities offer a wide-range of programs and options that never existed in the Northwest Territories before.
We're providing on-the-land programming, we're working with Tides Canada to see if we can get, you know, more interest, help invest in more programs. We have more services available today for individuals that are struggling with mental health and addictions than we ever have. I'm not saying that it's perfect. I'm not saying we're meeting all the needs. A lot of work still needs to be done. We're doing that work through our new Mental Health and Addictions Framework, but today we have more options available than we have before. I think we're on the right path. More clearly needs to be done. I take the Member's point. Beyond the land program, it is proving to be popular and we're getting really positive, you know, anecdotal feedback that it's helping people.