Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. On my statement today on alcohol addictions, I would like to ask the Minister what the Minister sees as the best treatment alternative if you were not to consider residential treatment in the south. Thank you.

Mahsi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member, when he was actually the Minister of Health and Social Services, conducted the Minister's Forum on Mental Health and Addictions, which I think was a very important process. The forum went out and talked to residents across the Northwest Territories and got their feedback on what they wanted to see when it came to mental health and addiction treatment here in the Northwest Territories, so I do applaud the Member for his leadership in that area. The number one, best solution? There isn't one. What we heard clearly from the forum is that different people have different needs at different times, and we need to be able to address those needs and have a variety of programs and services available to our residents in the Northwest Territories. We heard about on-the-land programming. We heard about more local, community-based programs. We heard about mobile options. Treatment centres are an option, and they have to be available. We are providing a much broader range of services than we have previously, with the Matrix Program, which is out-patient, community-based programming. We have community counsellors. We do have access to more treatment facilities with better services than we have ever had before. Just recently in Fort Resolution, as a matter of fact, we ran for the first time our mobile treatment option pilot, which is the first delivery of a mobile treatment option. We are doing a number of things so that we can provide our residents with the options they want and need when it comes to addressing their individual mental health and addiction challenges. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would ask the Minister: What does the Department of Health and Social Services have in place in the communities for individuals that have gone to treatment, whether it's through a program on the land or residential treatment down south? What is available to the individuals once they return home?

If we are talking specifically about individuals that are coming back from a treatment program, whether it's in the South or whether it's one of the on-the-land programs, one of the requirements to participate or to utilize one of our treatment facilities in the south is that the individual actually has appointments set up with community counsellors when they return to the Northwest Territories. We have community counsellors in 19 of the 33 communities in the Northwest Territories, and where we don't have counsellors, we have access by phone or other sources. Everybody is required to have a follow-up treatment program or follow-up appointments booked. But we also have, as I've already indicated, on-the-land programs throughout the Northwest Territories. A number of these on-the-land programs, some of them are after-care programs, some of them are prevention programs, and some of them are actually individual treatment programs. There is a variety of different things that we do. Some individuals want to access things like Alcoholics Anonymous. We've made our facilities available after hours so that individuals can go and participate in an AA program. If there aren't enough people in their communities, they can actually hook up with individuals in other communities. We are trying to provide lots of options. We know we need to continually learn and we know that we need to continually explore new opportunities to provide treatment on return. We are open to that, and we want to have those discussions with committee and others across the Northwest Territories.

I would like to ask the Minister what the plan is to expand counselling to the other 14 communities that don't have counselling services.

Community counselling is a key community-level component of the continuum of mental health and addictions treatment. We have, as I’ve indicated, community counsellors in 19 of the communities in all the regions of the Northwest Territories, and where we don't have them in individual communities, we do have telephone counselling and fly-in services that are available. We want to continue to provide these services. We have actually developed new guidelines that our community counsellors can use when assessing and providing treatment, and when individuals are in immediate or crisis situations, we are able to get immediate access or connections to community counsellors. This is an area that we are always looking at. We want to make sure that, across the Northwest Territories, our residents have access. In total, we have 64 community counsellor positions providing these incredibly valuable services to the residents of the Northwest Territories.

Mahsi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if there is some ongoing work between the Department of Health and Social Services and the Department of Justice. Yesterday, I made a Member's statement on correction facilities and services that may be available. I am asking the Minister if there is any work between the two departments on returning offenders, so individuals that are committed to incarceration for crimes they may have committed while suffering from addictions. I would like to know if there is anything in place between the two departments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Department of Justice is leading some work on collaborative services across the Northwest Territories where all the departments can work together. As an example, with Wellness Courts, our staff are available to do individual case planning with individuals who are going through the Wellness Courts. As well, individuals who are leaving the corrections facilities, also have access to probation officers who have a pretty decent relationship in most cases with some of the social services programs that exist. A lot of it is on a one-off basis, but on a bigger scale, the departments are working together to try to find ways to enhance collaborative services for the people and the clients of the Northwest Territories.

At this time, I would just like to remind Ministers and Regular Members that we've gone over 15 minutes with only two questions, so I would like for Ministers and Members to be clear and concise and to the point. Mahsi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Earlier, I was referring to the issue on the Sahtu region decentralization. Recognizing our physical situation for this territorial government, the current decision, as it stands now, is being made elsewhere to govern certain different departments in the Sahtu. As I mentioned earlier, I have two questions, so I'll just make it two long ones. The best approach here to make it short is: I am asking the Premier on the view of restructuring the current model. I'm not taking him to account and requesting additional funding and so on, but the restructuring approach on making decisions more decentralized to the current government structure in the Sahtu.

Mahsi. Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our government had decentralization as a priority for a number of years. As a matter of fact, we are now in the third phase of decentralization. Over the three phases to date, we have decentralized 170 positions to the regions and communities outside Yellowknife, and I'm pleased to say that we've decentralized nine of those positions to the Sahtu region.

My next question is the second and last one. I would like to ask the Premier if I can propose and identify the positions that are governing the Sahtu region elsewhere, would the Premier move those, and when, back to the Sahtu?

We have had quite a number of iterations in the regional structures in the Northwest Territories. Before division, we had five regions. After division, I think we had three regions and two districts. As programs were devolved, we eventually now have five regions. We used to have five regional directors, as well, and the previous government saw fit to bring that back to two regional directors.

The way it's been working is the government allows the government departments to structure themselves in a way that is more effective and efficient, and certainly if the Member is prepared to provide his proposals, and it's not going to cost money, we would certainly consider it.

My next question is: After submission of this decentralization restructuring proposal, is the Premier willing to have a meeting with the Sahtu leadership?

We're always prepared to meet with the Sahtu leadership. As a matter of fact, we have an MOU on a government-to -government basis. We are committed to meeting on a regular basis with the Sahtu leadership. I think we meet every six months. If they want to meet more often, we're prepared to do so.

Mahsi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. As I mentioned in my statement earlier, access to post-secondary education is crucial for many people to move forward with careers of their choice. That's challenging in our territory, where many people come from small isolated communities. The success of individuals and families as well as the economic growth of our communities and territory rely on access to education. Can the Minister describe the options that are available to Northerners to gain a post-secondary education in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do agree that education is very important, especially post-secondary education in the Northwest Territories. There's many options that we have. Obviously, going to one of our Aurora College campuses. We currently have three campuses in the Northwest Territories. We also have 23 community learning centres, so when the Member brings up that in our small communities it is tough, we do try to accommodate. There's also private institutions such as the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning. As the Member mentioned in his member statement, the College nordique francophone as well as the Sub-Arctic Leadership Training, and there's also various distance learning training that we do support. We also have a good funding model through Student Financial Assistance, where students can actually apply on that. That's all the options available to Northerners that are wanting to seek a post-secondary education. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The one accredited northern post-second institution, Aurora College, provides a variety of programs for Northerners. Understanding that some people may want to pursue a career outside the programs that Aurora College can offer, what are the choices for post-secondary in the NWT outside of Aurora College, if the Minister could elaborate.