Thank you. I am not 100 per cent sure that I understand the question, but I will try to answer the question that I think I understand, if that makes any sense.

---Laughter

Listen to everybody laughing over there. The contracts differ because every one of our residents who is going down for residential care in the south -- this is where people are often going for permanent stays or long-term stays -- really depends on the magnitude of services that they need as individuals, the care they are receiving, so the costs are different for every one of them. We continually, at least definitely on an annual basis, the department is looking to make sure that the level of care is appropriate, that more isn't needed, less isn't needed, and adjusting accordingly.

Every couple of years I ask the department to do an assessment of: do we have a group of individuals with similar conditions that we could look at repatriating? We have not been able to find that group of individuals at this point, but I will be asking them again if I am still here in a year-and-a-half's time.

The contracts are all different. The terms different. The level of coverage and care is different. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Minister has anticipated my question well. My question was the whole idea of repatriating. I know that the department had gone through one repatriation and created a community living complex in Hay River, so the fact that the Minister has indicated that he is looking at that all the time is something that I am satisfied with. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Would the Minister like to respond at all?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No. This is something that has come up for a while, and I know the Member was raising this issue previously. I know that, as a Minister, this was an area that he was also very interested in. I would really, and I think everybody would really, prefer to have our residents home, receiving care as close to home as possible, but, unfortunately, some of these individuals we are talking about are really high-needs and we don't have the resources. We had professional staff in many cases to accommodate them.

It would be great at some point to be able to repatriate some of the individuals with similar conditions in a facility. We would be able to keep the money in the Northwest Territories, employ Northerners. There are so many advantages. We just have not found that group of individuals with similar conditions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, moving on to a different topic, I noticed that the homecare and support services has been decreased a bit. It actually has sort of decreased over the last three fiscal years. Also, that there had been some marginal increase to the mental health and addictions. Like I had indicated during my opening remarks on this department, that's a huge cost driver for the department and I think there should be more funding put into at least those two areas. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Would the Minister like to respond?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, on the homecare line you will see a slight reduction from 2015-16. What it was, was we were actually overspent and we had to seek a supp to cover some of the shortfall. In that fiscal year the budget has been basically the same. It's gone down a little bit this year because we reduced some of our duty travel in the programming to reduce the amount of travel to meet our similar reductions, but we're confident that we'll still be able to provide the same degree of services with that budgeting, with that reduction in travel.

There is a slight increase in community mental health and addiction services. Just for the record, that's the sobering centre and the extended hours. Once again, I agree 100 per cent with Members; we need to invest more in this area. This is our mandate; we're committed to doing so. We are doing the work that will be ready for all of us to review and talk about in great detail when we're doing our business planning to set some financial priorities and some target priorities and program priorities moving forward so that we can start making real differences in the lives of our people that are struggling and those that are looking for continuing care. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we had attended the Anti-poverty Roundtable in Inuvik as a social development group. It was very interesting. The Minister was there, of course, and listening to the group there talking about their work. We felt also that there should be more funds targeted towards the anti-poverty group. So that's just something I would mention here, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the dollars for the Anti-poverty Fund are in the health promotion and community wellness area. I hear the Members loud and clear. This is an area that is obviously really important to the Members, and we're always open to negotiations.

This year money went into different areas to support poverty or addressing poverty in the Northwest Territories. Addressing poverty is a responsibility of pretty much everybody, every organization, every NGO, every government. This year to help address things like poverty we did improve or increase the amount of money going to income support. With the guidance and wisdom of committee we have fully funded JK, and there are other areas that we've made investment and we're trying to get to utilize some of the programs that exist, like Child and Family Services, the VSAs.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That's it for now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Next, I have Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have three questions. The first question is in regards to community clinics and health centres. In my general comment I made the point of an established health cabin on the Hay River Reserve, and I think just recently there was an effort by a doctor to provide at least care on the reserve. I just wanted to have an understanding if my expectation may be consistent with the Minister's in terms of trying to bring more services from the town of Hay River through the Hay River Health Authority in terms of trying to bring services to residents of the Hay River Reserve, whether this section here maybe reflects within a year in terms of maybe making more advanced initiatives of trying to bring healthcare services to the residents of the reserve. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, this is something that we're committed to, and I'm happy to say we've actually had some success in this area. Success that even I didn't actually anticipate that we would see this quickly. Although Hay River is technically not in the Health Authority because of the issues that have been discussed already, through memorandums of understanding and agreement we are acting and they are partnering as if they are.

One of the benefits we had out of that is, although K'atlodeeche was traditionally in the Deh Cho as far as health services, Hay River has been working really hard with K'atlodeeche and the Hay River Authority to make sure that they're extending some of their services in the community. We got really lucky; we had a doctor who was willing to leave the hospital and actually go across the river, across the river in wintertime and around the bridge in the summertime, and actually spend some time in the community providing services directly to the residents of the community.

In a single authority this was something we were never able to work out because of, you know, this is my employee and that's your employee, but under this model we were able to make it work, and I think that's the type of successes we need to continue to build on. There's always some concern it might be incumbent-related, but we've proved that we can think outside the box and find ways to work together to provide services.

We also have a member of the K'atlodeeche Reserve on our authority in Hay River, which means they're actually having some insight and advice on how to expand those services into their community.

There are some good aspects of our healthcare system, there are some bad aspects of our healthcare system, but I think we're moving in the right direction and we finally have tools in place that allow us to make these changes that I think you and others have wanted to see for years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The second part to this question is that -- I like the phrase in terms of bringing services to communities, building upon that relationship and bringing healthcare services at the community level.

My other question is that there are two small communities, Enterprise and Kakisa, and in some instances Enterprise, you know, by geography is closer to Hay River, Kakisa sometimes by geography is closer to Fort Providence. Is there within the plans to ensure that healthcare services in terms of nurse practitioners or even nurses could be maybe brought to the community in terms of bringing healthcare right to the community and within their community? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the Member's vision is where we want to be. We want to be able to meet the needs of small communities, recognizing that, you know, certain communities fall under regional operations, but as a single authority we should be able to have individuals from Hay River come to Kakisa if the people from Providence aren't available. Once we're on a single information system, they won't have to and those sort of things. There are lots of opportunities.

Are we all the way there? No. No, we're not. Do we have the tools in place that will allow us to get there? Yes, and every day they're getting a little bit better and they're getting a little bit more broad, which means we will start to be able to raise those things.

I think the Member's point is really good, and I'll make sure that I share it with the chair, and I know my deputy heard it and we'll share it with the CEO, as well. That's the type of thing we want to be able to do is sort of cross over regional operations to get the services to where they need to be when they need to be there. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Nadli.