Mr. Testart, if you can, add clarity to that question.

Yes, that's correct. The Mental Health and Addictions contribution in the amount of $450,000, and it's described as "funding to support organizations in the delivery of mental health and additions programming." I note that it is in the 2014-15 Actuals. It was $277,000. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some of it, $100,000, is going to Mental Health First Aid and ASSIST. $300,000 is going to addictions, aftercare, youth addictions prevention, youth detox models, mental health, and some into the Akaitcho health curriculum.

To break it down into more detail, $17,000 is going to Beaufort Delta, $25,000 to Deh Cho, $5,000 to Fort Smith, $13,000 to Hay River. Now the lines are starting to blur. Sorry, those were last year actuals, so that sort of shows how it breaks out across the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Testart.

Nothing further, Mr. Chair.

Recognizing Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Similar questions but a little different on the On-the-Land Healing Fund. I know there's a few programs that went on in Aklavik, but there's a couple -- I think it was a year or two ago they had sort of a regional on-the-land program. It was sort of tied to residential school, but I know it was, I believe it was, down at Reindeer Station.

A lot of elders really, really enjoyed that. You know, it really helped them a lot, and they'd like to see more programs like this, whether it's down at Reindeer Station or, you know, at the Gwich'in Healing Camp which isn't being used. You know, it's a shame. They have this facility set up out there for on-the-land programs, but there's just no funding to go.

I know that you say you're giving funds to the land claim organizations, but I'd like to know: what is the breakdown by region for funding out of this million dollars? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To the Member's point, I mean, I agree. We provide these dollars. We don't dictate what program they design. In some cases, regions have actually pooled it with other money to do bigger initiatives. We offer every region $125,000 of the $1 million. Some have better uptake than others. I can give you some breakdown of the 2015-16 Actuals.

The Akaitcho Territory Government utilized the entire $125,000. The Deh Cho Friendship Centre took $40,000. The Gwich'in Tribal Council got $144,000. The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation got $325,000. The Inuvik Community Corp got $39,000. The Sahtu Dene Council got $125,000. Somba'Ke Dene Band got $62,000. The TCSA got $125,000. That was our million dollars.

There's a lot of different groups working on on-the-land programming. I mean, Justice has done some. I think Education has funded some different aspects of on-the-land programming. It's going on at the different regions. The Government of the Northwest Territories is participating in an on-the-land collaborative to bring different stakeholders together so that we can lobby other stakeholders for money that might be able to be used for more on-the-land programming. I'd like the deputy minister to go into just a bit of detail on the on-the-land collaborative.

Thank you, Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Recognizing Deputy Minister Delancey.

Thank you, Deputy Minister Delancey. Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know it's been two years since this program has been sort of going in this direction from having the treatment centre here in the NWT, and you know I can appreciate, you know, us sending people to the south. With what the Department is saying they want to sort of move towards more on-the-land healing programs. It's pretty clear we need to fund this more here. Mr. Chair, a million dollars just ain't -- it's not doing enough for our people that have a lot of needs in the territory, you know we have to have better programming in place here.

As I've said before, we have to have some sort of template that the communities could follow because it seems like they're developing their own programs here. You know, we need some sort of template for people to follow and more funding 'cause in my riding a lot of people are telling me the elders want more programs at the Gwich'in Wellness Camp, but we're just not getting the proper funding here. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Minister.

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.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. There's still time for another question, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just under the Community Wellness Initiatives Fund, you know during my last visit to Aklavik a constituent thought it'd be a good idea -- and I'm not sure if this is proposal driven whether, you know, the department would be open to a proposal that the community could put into a -- you know, work with a lot of the elders that have arthritis. There doesn't seem to be much programs to help them exercise or you know to -- right the only solution they have is to give the elders Tylenol it seems. You know, there has to be something more in place to help the elders, whether it's exercising or finding other ways to help our elders cope with their arthritis. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean without seeing the details, we can't say sure, but that sounds like that meets the criteria for this particular fund, and obviously we'd love to see a proposal, but I mean until we see the detail it'd be impossible to say whether it met the criteria or not. We could share the criteria with the Member, he could share it with the community and I mean we'd be happy to see a proposal.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Blake. None? Recognizing Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of rounds of questions for the Minister. The first one is on page 184, under contributions, there's an early childhood development action plan. I see that there's actually a reduction of $100,000 there, and I'm just wondering if the Minister can explain that because I understand it early childhood development is one of the best investments we can make as a government, so I'm just wondering what the reduction is all about. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Minister.