Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister: what is the expected economic impact on Fort Smith if the Teacher Education Program is eliminated? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don't know that at this time. As I mentioned, this is a program that is going to be phased out. June 30, 2020 will be the last day of this program. In that time, we are working on developing a strategic framework and strategy coming forward that might replace it with another program. We are going to see what that strategic plan says, while we are also going to be working with the Thebacha campus on the next steps as we move forward. We cannot make any predictions at this time on the economics that this will bring to Fort Smith.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Sorry, Mr. Speaker. I got lost with my conversation with my colleague here. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I spoke about mental health and the work that FOXY and SMASH has done in my region. Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Health and Social Services has spoken about the work the department is doing on the Mental Health Action Plan in the stages that they are presently. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please advise this House what the department is doing in the meantime in this area for the youth? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have been asked a number of these questions similar to this over the last couple of days, but I will try to provide a fulsome answer for the Member. The department is taking a holistic approach, the development of a Youth Mental Health Action Plan to address the challenges that we are facing here in the Northwest Territories, but at no time have we stopped providing services to youth.

Community counselling is available to youth throughout the Northwest Territories. If it isn't located in your community, we have access to it through other means. The department funds a number of on-the-land programs, run and organized by different Aboriginal groups and organizations. Many of those groups and many of those on-the-land programs are focused primarily on youth, so there are opportunities there. We do have specialized treatment options for youth through a number of out-of-territory treatment programs that individual youth can go to when they're struggling to receive some of the services, whether it's for addictions or behavioural issues or other mental health issues that a child or a youth may be having.

We are continuing to move forward with the action plan. Other areas, when it comes to an organization like Stanton and the design of the new hospital there, we've actually created a section for youth which didn't have a designated section in the old hospital, so there are a number of things that we're doing. More needs to be done, Mr. Speaker, I think it's clear. The Members have said it; I've heard it. The public have said it; I've heard it. This action plan will hopefully allow us to move forward in making enhancements and improvements and increasing the services and bettering the services we already provide. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for his answer. Mr. Speaker, in the past I've heard the Minister speak about how they have been involving FOXY and SMASH as they move forward on the Mental Health Action Plan. Can the Minister advise this House if they're getting this organization to engage the youth across the territories about the plan when they do the community tours?

In moving forward with the framework which was already tabled in this House, we did engage with FOXY and SMASH who helped us through the validation exercise to make sure that we were on target on moving in the right direction with the framework. We've also indicated and have talked to them about being part of the validation exercise as we move forward with the development of the specific action plan for youth mental health and addictions, and we're looking forward to having them as partners, as well as other groups like youth ambassadors who have a pretty good insight about what's going on across the North as a whole. So we're absolutely looking to engage and we have already engaged them on the framework. We're excited to engage them on the action plan as well.

I thank the Minister for his answers. During the past two weeks we've heard the Minister talk about funding the department has been giving FOXY and SMASH. Can the Minister advise this House if the funding was for a specific project or a program that the department runs?

We funded FOXY and SMASH in a couple of different ways. We've given them money in previous fiscal years. I think it was in 2016 -- 2015-16 we gave $50,000 and I think last fiscal year we gave them $90,000; that was for some specific things they were doing in the organization. Their engagement in the validation exercise, we provided them with $25,000 so that they could reach out and we're looking at providing them $25,000 so they can reach out again this year. So there are multiple ways that money can flow to FOXY, but this $25,000 was to help engage in the validation exercise.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that answer. It's actually really encouraging and kind of answered my first question about reaching out to the communities.

Mr. Speaker, in the past I've heard the Minister speak about how they are working with other departments to address this issue. Can the Minister please provide this House with some examples of collaboration with Education, Culture and Employment, Justice, and MACA? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the government has been working really hard to break down silos across the departments and I think in some areas we've made progress; other areas, it's certainly taking longer to reach that progress.

In this particular area -- and I'll just refer to the work on the Child, Youth Mental Health Act or, sorry, action plan. We're taking a real whole of government approach and we're making sure that Education has stakeholders in there and Justice has some stakeholders from within the department to help us develop this plan. They're also going to be included in the validation exercise to make sure that we haven't missed something, as well as other stakeholders like FOXY and youth and some of the Aboriginal governments that are out there as well. So we're really trying to make sure that we have the right people at the table in the design and implementation of this action plan.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to correct the honourable Member just a little bit. There are a multiple number of programs available to residents in the Northwest Territories. We have community counsellors throughout the Northwest Territories, we've been running on-the-land programs across the Northwest Territories with our Aboriginal partners. We have piloted and we're looking to do more pilots of a mobile treatment option, which is a treatment-type program that can move from region to region rather than relying strictly on a particular facility. We travelled throughout the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker, and heard from residents across the Northwest Territories who said one option is not enough for people in the Northwest Territories; we need lots of different options. Dealing with addictions is very personal for some people and a facility-based treatment is not right for them. So we've worked hard to create options.

Yes, we don't have a facility-based treatment facility in the Northwest Territories, but we have contracts with four very reputable, high-quality institutions or facilities in the South. Earlier or later last year I had an opportunity to travel to Poundmaker's with some Aboriginal leaders from the across the Northwest Territories as well as some MLAs. We got to meet Northern residents who were participating in the Poundmaker's program who gave us very, very positive feedback and input on their stay and their experience in Poundmaker's, indicating that it was some of the best facility-based treatment that they've ever had, and some of them had attended facilities here in the North.

I'm not saying our system is perfect, Mr. Speaker. We've clearly got work to do. We've talked about moving forward with a mental health and addictions action plan which will hopefully address some of these issues, but the people told us clearly they want options and today they have more options than they've ever had. We can do better, we will do better, but we're moving in the right direction, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister has answered a number of my other questions. Of those options -- as he wanted to do. Out of those options, have we established a criteria for assessing these and what is that? Is it based on the number of people who are reporting successful treatment? Is it the number of patients processed? I'm just wondering how we're really understanding these options and how effective they are.

It's a good question and the answer is yes, yes, no, yes, no. Bottom line is there's a multiple range of programs that are out there, on-the-land programming being one. We don't currently have an evaluation mechanism to let us know or help us understand how effective these on-the-land programs are, but we're currently working with a stakeholder group who is helping us design an evaluation program for on the land. So yes, we're going to get there.

When it comes to treatment programs, what I can tell you, facility-based treatment programs, is traditionally our number in the Northwest Territories has been a dozen. We've had about a dozen people attending facility-based treatment from the Northwest Territories, whether that was Nats'ejee K'eh or one of the other facilities that failed here in the North.

What I can say is for the first time ever with an expedited referral process to these treatment centres with the high-quality program the word is starting to get back to individuals who are struggling with addictions, and we're actually for the first time seeing our numbers go up. I had a briefing last week and we were able to confirm that over the last little while it's been on average of 18 people from the Northwest Territories enrolling in treatment facilities, so we have seen some increase.

Then when it comes to community counselling, we can provide numbers. One of the difficult things with addictions is somebody might come back from a facility or from an online programming or from a community counsellor and they might be good for two years and then they relapse; is that success or is that not success? It's a hard thing to assess. We're trying to find a way to assess that so that we can continue to provide high-quality programs and enhance programs to our residents.

Thank you to the Minister for that answer. Certainly it is difficult to create a perfect program, and that's part of the concern with the Nats'ejee K'eh facility. One of the issues that was raised about that is there was a bit of credentialism creep that imposed very high standards of training and credentials that were required to provide treatment at that facility, and potentially limited our options to provide that treatment. Can the Minister speak to that? Would it be possible to design something that is based not in Western understanding of addictions but more traditional, Indigenous-driven process that could be facility-based and potentially could be a service not just for our territory but for the entire north and Indigenous peoples across Canada?

Just before I go to that question, I would just like to point out that, in the Northwest Territories, following up on the honourable Member for Yellowknife North, we are looking to put in a sobering centre here in Yellowknife, which I know is not a treatment centre, but it is certainly a step in the right direction to providing a local facility-based type support to those individuals that are struggling.

The Member is right. We have facility-based treatment programs that are available that can tend to be very clinical. Poundmaker's is really fantastic in the fact that it provides a lot of cultural-based supports. Nats'ejee K'eh, I think, well before my time, so I obviously reserve the right to not be a hundred per cent accurate on this, but, when it started, it was more of a cultural healing, more focused on traditional medicine, traditional healing, and it evolved into more of a clinical-based model.

The clinical-based model does not work particularly well in the Northwest Territories due to economies of scale. They can be effective when they have a psychologist or a psychiatrist. A small institution with a low demand can't retain that type of professional.

We have been in conversation with the K’atlodeeche, the leadership in K’atlodeeche there, and we are looking at having them take over that facility to provide wellness programming and wellness-type focused healing to help people deal with some of the root causes of addictions, but it wouldn't be a traditional treatment facility. We think this is a huge opportunity for the community. We think this is a great opportunity for our Aboriginal residents who might be struggling with addictions or impacts of colonization or residential schools, but it wouldn't be considered facility-based treatment, so there is a distinction between the two.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Minister raised a key component of this work, which is trauma-informed care and trauma-informed therapy. When we are evaluating some of these alcoholism and addictions issues, they are symptomatic to the abuses of colonization and the residential school in particular. Is the department or is the Minister's staff working on a trauma-informed care model to address addictions in the Northwest Territories, whether or not that is working with Indigenous partners or the southern facility-based care we have? Is trauma-informed care becoming the lens that we are focusing this effort to bring wellness and safety to our people? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Essentially, yes. I don't think that is the exact terminology that we are using, but we are looking at a holistic approach, recognizing the impacts and the reasons an individual might be struggling with addictions or mental health issues and building upon those. So, essentially yes, but we have been using different terminology.