Merci, Monsieur le President. In dealing with the huge legislative landslide at the end of the 18^th Assembly, one of the most contentious issues was consultation with regard to regulations, especially regulations required to implement post-devolution legislation. There do not appear to be any standards or process for developing regulations that might include public consultation or even co-drafting with Indigenous governments.

Virtually all of the Indigenous governments involved in the co-drafting of the post-devolution resource management legislation requested in writing that they be involved in the development of regulations. This was largely based on the manner in which those bills had been drafted, where very significant matters, such as resource royalties, requirements for benefit agreements, and more, had been left to the sole discretion of Ministers or Cabinet. There are no provisions and no requirements for public engagement or co-drafting with Indigenous governments for any of these regulations to implement these new laws.

Regular MLAs worked very hard. We proposed a number of possible solutions to the reasonable requests of Indigenous governments, NGOs, business, and the general public for involvement in the development of these regulations. Public notice with an opportunity for comment, opportunities for Ministers to enter into agreements on co-drafting, a legislative requirement for consultation, and other options were all attempted, but failed to get any support from the previous Cabinet.

I will have questions later today for the Minister of Justice on how our government is going to put into practice its open government policy and reconciliation with Indigenous governments in regulation-making going forward. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Members' statements. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Gary Vaillancourt came north from Sudbury, Ontario, in 1977 to fly helicopters, but where he hailed from, I think he would deem irrelevant, as the North was his home and captivated him for over 40 years. Gary was a hardworking, enigmatic individual, one of the first houseboaters on the Yellowknife Bay. It is with a heavy heart, and as a member of his community, that I mourn his passing.

I think Gary would scoff at the idea of me giving him an address in the Legislative Assembly. Unfortunately, our last interaction was him yelling at me about where to park my canoe, but Gary deserves this address. Without him, we may not have the colourful bay life that charms visitors and characterizes the Yellowknife landscape.

Gary was a baron of the bay, housing many and helping more. He was a community-minded innovator, who worked tirelessly and dreamed big. In the early '80s, Gary and friends, such as John Alexander, Chris Holloway, and Scott Mitchell, built the first permanent houseboats. The barges were built out of 50-foot trees, telephone poles, and discarded aviation barrels. This was not the last houseboat that he would build, but rather the start of a floating empire.

Gary was fiercely independent. It drove him to learn many trades, and he was always willing to share his immense knowledge. Gary was a pilot, musician, builder, philosopher, and embodied the creative spirit of the North. The extent of his contribution to the culture and vibrancy of this city really cannot be measured.

Gary is survived by his daughter, Molly, who is with us today in the gallery, a large community of friends, and many ambitious floating homes. Thank you, Gary. You won't be forgotten.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Today, I am going to talk about medical travel in the NWT. I feel like a broken record, but I feel like I need to drive this point home.

Since taking office, I have already dealt with several medical travel-related issues with constituents, and with each passing case, I am seeing the same issue come up again and again. I am seeing cases where people are dealing with some fairly serious medical issues and are in need of further assistance, so they are sent to Yellowknife or Edmonton for treatment. Doctors will recommend a medical escort; however, our medical travel personnel are denying medical escorts in the vast majority of cases I have seen so far.

In most of these cases, it is elderly people who require medical travel services, and of the cases I have seen, English is almost always the patient's second language. Right there, we have two strong reasons for why patients in these cases should be approved for medical escorts. We also have to consider the state of mind and body that some of these patients may be in when being sent for medical travel purposes. It can be a daunting and stressful experience when being sent alone to a strange place while undergoing serious medical issues. As well, I am hearing first-hand accounts of people being denied a medical escort, even when a doctor recommends that an escort be provided for the patient.

Mr. Speaker, I understand that our government is trying to cut costs where they can, and I believe they are doing it to the detriment of the needs of our constituents when it comes to medical travel and medical escorts. I hope to see more compassion on this policy front over the course of this Assembly. This area is in need of review, and I know that this issue affects all regions of the NWT, not only mine.

In closing, patients in care deserve the best care possible and patients need to be informed of what's going on with their bodies, and these policy gaps put lives at risk. There are language barriers there that need to be addressed immediately, and I am hoping that the Minister of Health and Social Services can speak to that a bit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services shortly. Marci cho.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. It's my pleasure to introduce my neighbour and constituent, Paul Falvo, who is joining us here today, and his daughter Juniper, who is one of three Pages from Yellowknife Centre in the Assembly this time. I would also like to thank the other two Pages for their work with us this week. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take this moment to recognize three visitors in the gallery. We have Baldeep Bajwa, who is the branch manager for the Yellowknife branch of the Scotiabank. We also have Lucie Guertin, who is a coach with Scotiabank; and the vice president of northern Alberta and NWT region, Tanja Perry, who are all here for, I'm not going to say this right, Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada. Thank you for coming.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Honourable Premier.

Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize one of our Pages here today, a constituent of Range Lake riding, Ms. Brenna Willis. I think this is a couple of times she has been here, now. Welcome to the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Honourable Premier. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to welcome one of my constituents here today. Her name is Belinda Formaniuk. She is a grade nine student at Sir John, and she likes dogs, music, and reading, but I think she likes us more because this is her second time Paging for us. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Molly MacKinnon and her mother. Thank you for visiting us here today.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to recognize a couple of Pages, Monika Kunderlik and Riley Hans. They have Paged with us before, and I know they are very attentive to all of their duties, and I want to thank them for all of their help in the House this past week. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. If we have missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the Chamber, and I hope you are enjoying our proceeding. It's always nice to have an audience with us in the House. Mahsi. Item 6, acknowledgements. Colleagues, today is the birthday of one of our Members. Please join me in wishing Minister Paulie Chinna a happy birthday. Also, I was told she was wishing for all the questions today. Just kidding.

---Laughter

Item 7, oral questions. Member for Monfwi.

Masi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] When I talked earlier, I mentioned about alcohol and addiction, how to do treatment for people. [Translation ends] The first question I have is: what programs are currently in place here in the Northwest Territories to provide addiction treatment and addiction recovery care? How many programs are there in total? Masi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I would like to talk about the Mental Wellness and Addictions Recovery Action Plan that supports the priorities of this 19^th Assembly by increasing the number and variety of culturally respectful, community-based mental health and addictions programs, including after-care. I would also like to address the Member's question on what are the types of programming that we have for mental health and addictions.

We have a number of programs, Mr. Speaker, including the Community Counselling Program. We also have the Northwest Territories helpline. We have facility-based addictions treatments. We have the On-the-Land Healing Fund. We also have a program for family violence shelters. We have a "What Will It Take?" family violence campaign. We also deliver prevention-promotion workshops, including mental health, first aid, and applied suicide intervention skills training; also, "Talking About Mental Illness."

I was strictly referring to addiction treatment and addiction recovery care. However, I will move on to the second question, on-the-land treatment programs. How many on-the-land treatment programs do we currently have in the Northwest Territories and where are they located?