Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Given that the role of hiring and tracking physicians is going to be a part of the territorial authority, they will be the ones that will be compiling that information. I will certainly, through the deputy, have a conversation with the CEO to make sure that is the type of data we are monitoring and so we can see how we are doing.

I will caution the Member: don't expect to see radical changes in year one or two. We have already recognized some improvements. In order to get real trending data on this, give us a few years to get some trending data. We can give you year to year, but I am not sure that is really going to tell you what you want to know. Trending data will give us better results over time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I believe in transformation, as well, but I have a line item in a budget now that says you are going to reduce the expenditures by $900,000. If FNB doesn't come after you, I will ask the same question next year. Fair enough.

I want to move on to tobacco cessation. I know this is the general area to talk about it. One of the most effective ways to reduce tobacco use is to increase the cost of the product. What kind of conversations has the Minister had with his colleague the Minister of Finance in terms of increasing tobacco cost, tobacco taxes to help reduce consumption and then the need for cessation and health promotion programs and so on? I know we have had one small increase in the time that I have been here as an MLA. Is that part of an overall program or plan for reducing tobacco use, and is this something that the Minister of Health is discussing with the Minister of Finance? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in my opinion and I think the opinion of many people, what we do is a multi-pronged approach on tobacco cessation. It is not just a matter of raising taxes. Raising taxes might help, but raising taxes in conjunction with some of the exercises and programs we are putting in place to increase dialogue and encourage youth to stay off will probably give us better results. It is more expensive, and people understand. We hope to see better results.

I have many times suggested to the Minister of Finance that we need to be number one in tobacco taxes in Canada. I will continue to do that. As other jurisdictions jump in front of us, I will once again encourage the Minister to help us become number one in tobacco taxes. I know last year, we were number two. I don't know where we sit today. I will have a conversation with the Minister of Finance immediately after this and strongly encourage him to make us number one. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That is helpful. I look forward to hearing more information about it from both Ministers. I know there has been some discussion about how we can get the message out better about the impacts of tobacco, particularly to young people and people in small communities where the rates are higher. What is the department looking at in terms of tailoring its communications efforts and overall programming to try to reduce tobacco use amongst youth and in small communities? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Time has expired, but I will allow the Minister to respond.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there are a number of things that obviously need to be done here. I have had a conversation with a large number of leaders in communities across the Northwest Territories and had the conversation about how we get the message out in your community, recognizing that the vehicle in one community might not be the same as the vehicle in the other community. I have had some good feedback. In other areas, I haven't heard too much.

We are trying to reach out. I have directed the authority, through the deputy minister and the CEO, to reach out to the communities to figure out how to communicate information that is important to them in a way that will resonate in their communities, recognizing it may be a different mechanism by community. That is not just about smoking cessation. That is about messaging about when are health providers going to be in your community, who is coming in, when are they coming in, what programs or resources are new to help make sure that our people are informed. That will certainly include work on smoking cessation.

At the same time, the communities have community wellness plans. Many of them have talked about the types of things they want to address. Some communities have chosen smoking cessation as one of the things they wish to address. Frankly, in my opinion, communities are probably some of the best people to identify how information could work. We will give them all the technical data they want. Some have customized it appropriately.

The other thing we are trying to do is: we are working with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to renew the school health curriculum. I talked about that earlier today. I think it is very exciting. We have our Aboriginal Health and Community Wellness division. I think it is honestly the first time that Health and Social Services has actually been actively engaged in curriculum development, so it is very exciting.

In that, they are talking about current and relevant resources that could be available to schools to help encourage children to not take up smoking as a habit. Like I said, I asked the department to do some exploration around "Butthead" and see if maybe there is an opportunity to revitalize or reintroduce it, "Don't Be a Butthead," if it is something the public tells us they want. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Nakimayak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am on page 178. On the first line, community clinics and health centres, I see there is a reduction in that. What kind of service is being reduced in this line item? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the primary reduction in that area is the $900,000 that we expect through the efficiencies of a single physician system in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you. Mr. Nakimayak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the second item, there is community mental health and addictions. I know recently, the MMIW in Rankin Inlet. One of the recommendations from the MMIW to the Government of Nunavut was to have more mental health workers in the communities. I believe the week after that, the Government of Nunavut had started a campaign of putting locals from each community as a mental health support worker. I wonder if the GNWT will look at some type of a model like this. There is such a lack of mental health work in the smaller communities. I am just wondering if there are other plans to look at a model similar to this for the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If the Member is talking about the community mental health and addictions, there has actually been an increase from 2016-2017 into 2017-2018 and again into 2018-2019 for this area. What I think I am hearing from the Member, I think we are working to make improvements in that area through the next section of this budget where we are including the community youth counsellor positions throughout the Northwest Territories. I apologize. We have to make decisions, and we are focusing on Tlicho and Deh Cho as a starting point. We will be rolling through the Territories over the next couple of years. That will also be taking place up in your riding. We are hitting Tlicho and Deh Cho on round one. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Nakimayak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is good to hear. There is also an increase on homecare and support services. I know I made a Member's statement on this last week about the lack of home support workers in small communities and the importance of those positions for the communities. I am just wondering if there are any other plans with the new agreement with the Government of Canada and the GNWT to reinstate positions like that or create positions similar to that across the Territories' small communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as mentioned earlier, we have increased a number of home support and homecare positions by 11, last budget cycle. There's $740,000, I believe, in this budget from the federal government that we're using to do the pilots and the design of the pilots for community and family caregivers, and we're also doing the review of homecare. As I said to Member Green from Yellowknife Centre, we don't anticipate getting that work done in time for the next planning cycle, but we do plan on getting it in the life of this government, so that the next government can make informed decisions on where to roll out more homecare positions; but we did create 11 homecare positions last fiscal year, and those positions that have been created, most of them are filled. A couple of them, we haven't been able to fill yet, but we're still trying. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Nakimayak.

No, I'd just like to thank the Minister for his responses. I don't have anything else. Thank you.