Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this is the section where there's community counsellors to deal with mental health and wellness. I've said many times in this House that, not just the Northwest Territories, but Canada, doesn't treat this area of health with the respect it deserves. I think that, if you put resources into this, you reduce costs elsewhere; in income assistance, in sick days, in addictions, in youth pregnancies, and in all of these other areas. The way it stands right now, it's difficult if someone has mental health issues to go and get an appointment just to see a counsellor. It can sometimes take weeks to get in to see someone; and then maybe, you'll get a once-a-month, once-every-two-weeks, sort of, appointment schedule. I've seen it first-hand. It almost seems like, when you call up to get an appointment, they almost want you to say that you're suicidal. That's sort of the metric that they use to determine if they're going to help you or not. I think that we are greatly underfunding this, not just by, you know, a few percentage points, but to a fraction of what it should be. So if someone is having mental health issues in the community, they don't want to say they're suicidal yet, but, I mean, it is detrimental to their daily life. How many appointments per month does the Minister think is adequate to treat someone like that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I do hear the Member and I do know that, in some communities, we have longer wait times than in other communities. We're certainly trying to find ways to deal with that, whether it's through processes or other means. We are moving forward with the creation of more youth mental health counsellors for kids, to get children when they're young, so that hopefully we'll have been able to address problems before they reach adulthood, which we hope will give us exactly what the Member is talking about, about people being able to function normally.

There are also other parties out there. The GNWT is not alone in providing this service. The federal government has funded a significant number of contracts in the Northwest Territories to help people who are dealing with residential school or the trauma of residential school and others. I think they have 57 people on contract to travel to different communities around the Northwest Territories and provide support.

As far as how many visits or appointments an individual has, I'm not a clinician by any stretch of the imagination and I know that a clinician will work with a client and assess what they think an appropriate schedule is as far as the number of visits, the number of meetings that they need to have. I would suggest that there is no one model that fits all. Some individuals might be good once a month, whereas other individuals might need something daily, depending on their crisis. We did put forward a new Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan in the last government and we are very close to going fully live with our Mental Health Act, which gives us some resources and tools we can use for a small group of high-risk individuals in the Northwest Territories.

So I hear the Member. We are coming out with a new mental health action plan for adults. We just did one for youth. We're also coming out with an addictions action plan for adults. So work has been done in this area, and we're always trying to find ways to improve flow and contact. As a note, if someone identifies as an emergency, and I guess this is the point the Member was talking about, you know, somebody feeling like they have to identify as suicidal even when they may or may not be, but if somebody is in an emergency situation, we can get them into the system immediately, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, and I know what the Minister is saying. He can get someone in when they're in an emergency, but if we could stop 99 per cent of people from reaching that, I think that would be admirable. My next question is: Hay River has a constant shortfall when it comes to counsellors. It seems, they're always hiring, they're always training, there is never enough to go around. What active steps are they taking to remedy that? This is not the first time I've mentioned this. I've brought this up multiple times in the House. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, just to the Member's comments from the last question, there's a large number of things we're also trying to do as far as supporting some prevention work around suicide, and I think that's where we're going with some of the money that we got from the federal government to do some of that work, so that we can help some of our residents earlier on, before they get, maybe, in a very dangerous situation. When it comes to recruitment and retention of qualified mental health and addictions counsellors, it's hard, Mr. Chair. I mean, we've got a national challenge in this area. We do go out through our HR unit there to do recruitment drives to try to encourage people. They've reached out to universities. We know we are going to have a challenge to fill the positions that we're creating for the youth mental health counsellors, and our staff have already started reaching out to universities to try to get some of these individuals to look to the North. We're helping people understand our compensation packages. We have some of the best compensation packages around, and we're actively trying to create awareness and recruit. We do know it is a challenging area. We're committed to continue that work, and we will get these positions filled. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, and this sort of ties into what I was talking about earlier, and that the human resources division of Health is out there doing all this stuff to recruit these mental health counsellors and Hay River not being part of the authority, although they do have access to some of that, is sort of left on the outs. We need to fill the positions we have now, never mind the dozens of new positions that are being created. So that's my concern, is: what's going on to fix Hay River's situation right now? Are there any active steps being taken? I know there are shortfalls everywhere, but that's the section we're on and that's the question I'm asking. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, although Hay River is still technically out of the authority, they're a separate body. We've been trying really hard to cooperate and work as a single system, and they've been very cooperative with us. I do know that they go out and they do their own recruitment. I'll ask the deputy to have a conversation with the CEO on how we might be able to join forces on some of these recruitment fairs that will help Hay River, obviously, control their costs, while allowing us to get some economies of scale. I think they'll need to be there as well because they're better positioned to speak about the collective agreements and the terms and conditions of employment than somebody who's not in that board. I will certainly see what opportunities there are to share some of our time and resources to get them down there, as well. We want to fill all these positions in the Northwest Territories, not just Hay River. I hear you, I hear you loud and clear, and I'll have the department work with the authority to see what opportunities there are to work together a little bit better here, to partner. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you. I appreciate that response. Nothing further.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Next, we have Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have another bit of a shopping list here of things to ask about. I'll start with the grant to the YWCA for the Rock Hill Apartments. It's been at $443,000 for quite a number of years. It's now $74,000 in this main estimate. Can the Minister tell us why this has changed? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we had this discussion in the last budget, if I remember correctly. The lease on that is coming due. The Department of Infrastructure is doing some physical assessments on those buildings, trying to determine what, if any, life is left in that building, so that we can make an informed decision on next steps. If it is determined that there is still life in that building and the Y can stay in that building, we will certainly be coming back with a supp to make the appropriate adjustment in this line. I do remind the Member that this is a grant in kind, so it is not cash. Should that building be fit to continue, we will do an adjustment. If it is determined that it is not fit to continue, we have a different problem, and we will have some tough decisions in front of us as an Assembly, but we will find a way to make sure that we are moving forward. We really need to wait for that assessment to come back, Mr. Chair, so that we can have that informed discussion. I understand that it is coming shortly. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. What does $74,000 represent, then, in this context? I'm not clear about that. I realize it is a grant in kind. I am familiar with the arrangement with the "Y" but I'm not sure what the 74 represents. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Technical conversation, but it is considered forgone rent for the period of time from April 1st to the end of May in anticipation of the report coming back from Infrastructure, and then working on a way forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am going to move on now to the Anti-Poverty Fund. In this current fiscal year, the Minister had a study of the process of applying for the Anti-Poverty Fund money, and he committed to sharing the results of that review at the Anti-Poverty Round Table at the end of November. I don't recall seeing that social development. My question is: can the Minister share the results of the Anti-Poverty Fund process review with the standing committee? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.