Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will just build on the point that the chair of the standing committee made. Other immediate advantages to southern treatment include privacy where people are not among a group of people who they may live in the same community as or be related to, closely or not. They are able to have a certain amount of anonymity in these facilities. That seems to be something that they desire.

Secondly, the facilities have large capacities, so it is possible to get a bed for treatment almost immediately. There is no need to go on a waiting list and to wait months for a treatment option. The treatment is available in very short order.

Another point is that there are gender-specific choices in the options the GNWT has contracted. Women can seek treatment among women only. Men can seek treatment among men only. Then there are the co-ed facilities. That is important to some people, that their trauma is related to the opposite sex and they are happy to have the healing opportunity where they are in a gender-specific facility.

Fourthly, the different facilities have professional staff. They have linkages to other professionals in those larger communities, such as Edmonton, Calgary, and Nanaimo. That means that, if the person has a medical condition that is complicating their addiction or their mental health, that there is a resource available right in the community where the treatment facility is based, so there's no need for them to be flown out on medical travel, and of course, the waiting times would be less.

I also want to mention that the programs have follow-up options for people. They are able to continue their treatment in a transitional setting, and some of the people who we met found that very useful, that they really wanted to cement their sobriety before returning to their homes.

Also, there was the option for family counselling. Often people have family members who are addicts or have issues of their own, not necessarily with addictions but with the trauma that the addiction of their family member has caused, and they have trouble with boundaries, with appropriate communication, and so on. These treatment facilities all have some level of interaction with family members, who can both heal for themselves and support their family member in healing.

It's my firm belief that offering a suite of options to the residents of the Northwest Territories is going to, first of all, meet their needs and give them maximum choice in how they want those choices met to obtain and retain their sobriety. Thank you.