Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do look forward to working with the Minister of this department to continue to support improvements to the services here. I am still mindful that there are clients in the area of dementia and services that are not delivered at the new facility in Norman Wells but delivered elsewhere. I look forward to working with the Minister on those two fronts here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I look forward to working with the Member as well.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. McNeely.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just for the record, it is dialysis and dementia services for clients that I look forward to working with the department in trying to seek some solution towards. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Member knows, when it comes to dementia, we have one facility to provide services to our residents who have dementia. Obviously, that facility is full, and we are always looking for ways to support our people the best that we can. The long-term care facility in Norman Wells is certainly going to help us with that.

With respect to dialysis, I think that everybody in this building is aware of the pressures that we have under dialysis and the work that we are doing. Having said that, we are not looking at expanding our chairs right at this point. We are looking at exploring other options to provide dialysis, other than providing it just through hospital-based care. There are options there. I think Member Beaulieu has raised some options. I think the Member from Hay River has raised some options. We are exploring those options. That includes things like peritoneal dialysis and other things, so we certainly want to work with the Member and his communities.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As you know, I speak a lot on strategic spending and leveraging of money, and one of the items that I speak a lot on is early childhood development. In this budget, we have an Early Childhood Development Action Plan, and we have an early childhood development breastfeeding fund and a Healthy Family Program. I see there is a limit to the amount of money in those programs. Why is that? Yes, maybe I will just ask the question: why is that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the challenges with the budget that you see in front of you, as I said earlier when I was talking about the expansion of Stanton services and the money that is needed to do that, is a lot of the money for an initiative, call it early childhood and development, is spread throughout the budget in many, many different areas. If we were to look at this page, we would say, "Oh, there is X amount of dollars" and that sounds like that is it, but really, there is more. I think, if we actually were to quantify the types of money that we are spending on early childhood development, whether it is the Healthy Family Programs or many of the other things we are doing, we probably have about $9 million in investment. I am happy to break those dollars out for the Member and provide him sort of a summary of all the areas that we are spending these dollars on, but in a quick conversation with the deputy, we think it is about $9 million. Rather than trying to articulate where each one of those is, maybe I will provide that information to the Member in writing, because it is going to take me a bit of time to break it down and sort of articulate it across all the different areas, if that is all right.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Beaulieu.

Yes, I am comfortable with that. I am also comfortable with just what the Minister is telling me here. I am pleased that it is that much money. I have always indicated that early childhood development spending has a return of 10:1, so $9 million could see a return of $90 million over a period of time on the early childhood or the children who we are spending that money on, so I am happy to hear that. I am satisfied with the response. I don't need anything in writing. If it is $9 million, then I would suggest that we spend a lot more than that. Considering the great returns that we have, I think that setting up opportunities for kids to be productive citizens and graduates, educated people who return into our society, and if we could spend a little more money on them now, I think we would see great returns, but I am happy with that response and I have nothing further. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate the Member's comments. Just for clarity, it is about $9 million through Health and Social Services. That does not include money that is being spent by Education, Culture and Employment or any of the other partners on this file. About $7.9 million of that is GNWT, and the other $1.04 or $1.05 million is actually coming from Health Canada, and there is important work in this area.

Some breakdowns, just as an example so the Member can see some of the areas that we are spending the money on, is pre-natal and post-natal, there is about $2.4 million going into midwifery, the healthy pregnancy program, and regional pre-natal and parenting programs. We have an infant feeding and nutrition program for $344,000. We have some prevention and intervention work, around $3 million. About $38,000 of that comes from Health Canada, and that is the healthy families, traditional housing, those types of things that we are supporting. So there is a pretty significant list to the work that we are doing, and although it doesn't show in this area, but it is related, is the increased investment in midwifery as we begin to roll out the territorial program. There are a number of areas that we are doing work, and there are some really interesting work being done, too, in the Aboriginal health and community wellness division. They have done some incredible work on breastfeeding and those types of things for Indigenous parents. That is some really great work, and we have some great materials that I would be happy to share with the Member or any other Member who is interested in seeing some of that work. It is pretty exciting, solid work. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Next on the list, we have Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask a question, and I don't know specifically where it might fall under, but it is in regard to the itinerant model for the pilots that ran in some communities in the Deh Cho. I could likely make reference to the community of Fort Providence, for it was a shift of resources of guidance counsellors to mental health workers who worked in schools, and in particular in Fort Providence, you know, the positions were created of child and youth care counsellors. I understand that, you know, it was a pilot. There is the move toward expanding upon that whole program initiative and move to other regions. I just wanted to understand whether there have been, you know, some lessons learned, some best practices perhaps that have been analyzed, and whether there is going to be a report to ensure that there is a consistent role for the schools to play, and the community, as well. I just wanted to get a sense of what is the process, what is next for this program initiative. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The child and youth counsellor program that we are rolling out isn't a pilot. I mean, we have done a significant amount of research. We have heard from youth across this territory in what they wanted to see, and we have actually started rolling the program out. It is a four-year rollout. We rolled out the Tlicho and the Deh Cho last fiscal year, or rather the current fiscal year, and there was new one position added in Fort Providence, by way of example. There were other positions in the Deh Cho, as well. Almost all the positions are filled. I think we are still running one supervisor vacancy and one counsellor position vacant, but I believe we are really close to having that other position, not the supervisor, but the other one filled as we speak.

We are rolling out the Beaufort-Delta and the Sahtu in the 2019-2020 fiscal year, so that is a significant number of positions that are going to be created in that region. Although it is not a pilot, we anticipate that we will continue to learn as we roll out, and, if changes are necessary, we are open to making those changes, whether it is changing the types of positions or other things, but at this point, it seems to be going fairly well.

We have memorandums of understanding with the schools that will articulate clearly how much time those counsellors will be spending in the schools, because it is really important for them to be in the schools, not just the health centres. One of the primary differences between what was being done before and what is being done now is we have individuals with a certain skill set, knowledge skills and abilities, and they work year-round because, as we know, mental health issues don't take a summer holiday, like students do, and we need to make sure they have support year-round. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that is the clarity I was seeking in terms of what could be the next stages of this initiative. I don't question the intent and spirit behind the initiatives that will ensure that our youth get the attention that they deserve, especially in terms of mental health counselling, so that was the purpose of my question.

I'm just trying to understand further whether there would be an opportunity to ensure that, other than the memorandum of understanding that has been struck between the department with the boards of education, but ensuring that the schools, you know, the teachers work as a team. To bring in a counsellor, they have to be part of the team. So I just wanted to understand and to ensure that people are communicating at all levels, and that there is a level of coordination. I heard the Minister say that fiscal resources are pretty limited, so if we have an impact, we try to have a maximum impact. I just wanted to be assured that there will be at least an assessment and some analysis done on a go-forward basis, ensuring that everybody is on the same level, including the new positions that are created within the schools. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I really appreciate the Member's comments about the relationship that is necessary between Health and Social Services and the school system. When we entered into this initiative, there was a lot of conversation that, the school boards, some of them actually have some dollars to do something like this, and they haven't always been able to do it, but one of the goods things was those people were employees of the school boards and they were part of the team. We didn't want to lose that team environment. We didn't want to lose that relationship, but we also accepted that it has to move beyond just the school year. That's where the memorandums of understanding really come into place. We're really trying to embed that idea that you are part of the team and you need to be there in the schools, but at the same time we also recognize that some of the children who are struggling the most aren't attending school. They will spend some time out of the school, but during the school year, most of their time will be spent in the schools. We certainly want to make sure that we're not missing those kids who are not attending.

As far as evaluation and monitoring, this is a new approach. This is something we haven't done before, and we're rolling it out over a number of years. We're looking at how it has worked each rollout, hoping and intending to learn from each of those rollouts, and it is something that is certainly going to need to be monitored over time so that we can determine whether or not we're getting the real value for the money that we're spending.

Having said all that, this is what the kids told us they wanted. This is the approach they wanted us to take, and we are optimistic that we will begin to see those results that I think everybody in this Assembly wants to see. Thank you, Mr. Chair.