Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I don't have the most up-to-date response on the child and family services, but there was an audit from a couple of years ago. I would just like to ask the Minister how the response to the audit report is coming along at this point?

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. This is in relation to the item on page 189, child and family services. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as a result of the audit, as well as the recommendation from the 16thAssembly, we moved forward with Building Stronger Families, which was a fundamental change in how we are providing childhood family services here in the Northwest Territories. We have brought forward changes to the legislation that passed late in the life of the last government. Those changes have gone live. I mentioned them here in the House the other day by way of a Minister's statement. We responded directly to a number of the recommendations in the audit immediately as far as accountability, tracking, and reporting. We changed it so that the directors or the CEOs of the health centres are actually accountable under the legislation. They are associate directors, which requires them to provide additional data information for tracking purposes. I do believe, Mr. Chair, that we are going to be providing a briefing to committee on where we are with building stronger families. It is a significant amount of detail. We have come a long way. We are in a five-year implementation plan, and we are halfway. I think we are starting to see some good things happening out there. Still, a long way to go. We are turning that ship. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I recognize that a lot of the recommendations are long-term and difficult to carry out. On the question of foster homes, I would like to ask the Minister if there is progress made in the area of having Aboriginal foster homes, more Aboriginal foster homes, presented into the process or more Aboriginal homes allowed into the process. As we know, about 95 per cent -- or in that area, maybe 93, I don't remember the exact number -- of the children in care that were actually receiving services out of their own home were Aboriginal. I just want to get a feel from the Minister if there is some progress made in approving some Aboriginal homes for foster care.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. I just want to remind all the Members just to let us know when you are concluding your statements so the audio guys can switch us over. Just a "thank you, Mr. Chair" would work. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we do provide money to the Foster Family Coalition of the Northwest Territories, who actually does a lot of work to encourage and get people signed up and vetted to be foster parents. The number is constantly changing. It literally changes weekly, monthly, the number of the individuals and the individuals who are officially on a list to be fostered. We recognize that in some of the smaller communities, someone might not have put their name in to be a foster, but then something happens in a family, a relative -- we have a bit of an expedited process where family members can be quickly vetted. It still needs to be appropriate vetting. We still need to make sure that people are safe so that they can become foster parents.

One of the things that we are working on right now, we are almost done, is arranging for insurance for foster families, working with different groups to figure out how to actually provide insurance for foster families. We have heard from some people that that is an issue, that if they don't have insurance, they are cautious or nervous about being foster parents. So we are addressing that. We are really close. What we can say is, as we move forward with Building Stronger Families, the number of children who are receiving care outside of their parents' home or outside of their parents is actually decreasing. We have actually had an increase of the number of children who actually were able to receive care in their family home. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have no further questions in this area, thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Back on page 189, under contributions, child and family services, this year, the budget is $128,000, but if I look back to 2014-15, it was $173,000. Can the Minister explain why there's been this reduction in funding from 2014-15? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there has been no reduction in this area. That might have been a one-time expense or one-time cost. I will get that detail and share with the committee and Members.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.

That's it. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Further comments or questions on page 189 or page 190. Seeing none, we can move back to page 188, operations expenditures summary. Comments or questions on this page? Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am wondering if the department can give a little explanation on what adult support services for the amount of $1,289,000 consists of? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will go to Ms. Mathison.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Mathison.

Thank you, Ms. Mathison. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate the detail. I wonder if the Minister can maybe explain a little bit on what those services actually are? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister.