Thank you, Madam Chair. So if there is an individual -- because I do hear this often that someone would like to just -- you know, they've got their own equipment, things like that, and they do want to organize something but perhaps they just don't have that formalized partnership with a band, is there a pot of funding anywhere here where they could apply, or is it all going to be structured in partnership with Indigenous governments? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Yes, thank you. If there was that kind of a person, I would suggest they apply to the United Way to obtain funding to deliver their service. I'll just say again that this is prioritized to Indigenous governments and Indigenous governments in partnership with community organizations. So they have a lot of leeway in deciding who they hire, what kind of services they want to offer with the pot of money, where they're going to offer them and so on. So it may be that if there's a person who's interested in working with an Indigenous government, they could find a way in that way. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just looking as well at the family violence prevention fund which has had a small increase of about just under $10,000. I do note that we have seen a lot of -- an increase since 2021-2022 but I have to wonder if that has to do with the COVID -- or the lingering pandemic effects.

Can the Minister or the department speak to whether that fund is being completely subscribed and whether or not we feel that we need to be offering more money here. Is this a way that we could get monies into the shelters or communities to do shelter work? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this money -- the $211,000 was for the last fiscal year that ended a year ago. This year there was -- the fiscal year that's going to end in a few weeks, $395,000 allocated. Some of it went to FOXY and SMASH; some went to the Status of Women who usually have a Family Violence Awareness Month event. The Hay River Health and Social Services Authority and the YWCA in Yellowknife both offer programs to children who witness violence. And we also fund "What Will It Take?" too. This is a series of artistic posters/videos that speak to family violence. So the unallocated portion of that budget at this point is $88,000. So just to say this doesn't fund shelters, this funds NGOs to provide programming that supports the prevention of family violence.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The reason I ask that is in the note it does say "and shelter families affected by violence."

My last question I guess, or that I would like to ask about is around men and men's supports. I note that we don't have the men's healing fund here, and I'm just curious to know if there is any of these funds that are directly targeted towards men and men's mental health and wellness given that it is known and shown that men do not access services the same way that others will. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Yes, thank you. The point of this page is for Indigenous governments and their partners to come up with programming for their communities. So if a community wanted to offer programming that was specifically targeted to men and their mental health needs, then that's something that they could apply for. There's no reason not to. These programs are not gender-based. They are community-based. And so it's up to the community to decide what its priorities are. Thank you.

Thank you. Member?

Thank you for that, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, when I look at the mental wellness and addictions recovery peer support and then just the recovery fund itself, those are both line items that are around a hundred thousand and then $180,000. Those are very low given the -- sorry, the issues around this problem in our territory.

Can the Minister speak to why we are not seeing any increased money here and why we actually seen a drop? I'm guessing some of that has been COVID money that was just available at that time, the 251 down to $100,000. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Yes, thank you. I think that some of this is communities not seeing how this fits into the programming that they want to offer, and that's one of the reasons that the Indigenous governments asked for block funding so that they could have more money to devote to their priorities and that would include money from the mental wellness and addictions recovery program. Most of these programs end up with residual money. So the point of the block funding is to make sure that all the money goes out the door. If all of that money disappears very quickly, then we would be in a position to justify expanding these funds. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just looking at the grants and contributions to -- on page 199, health and social services authorities funding. So the mains for this year is $278,647. So how many authorities does that -- the funding allocated to, how many authorities? Does that include the Yellowknife authorities?

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The breakdown is NT -- there is no Yellowknife health authority. Yellowknife is part of the NWT Health and Social Services Authority. The total amount to NTHSSA is $236,100,000. Hay River Health and Social Services Authority $25,282,000. TCSA, $14,574,000. Physician maternity/paternity leave $250,000. Collective kitchens $188,000. Mental health association bilateral allocation for training and counselling $139,000. Referred laboratory allocation $872,000. Incremental recruitment bonus $204,000. Mental health first aid and assist training $100,000. CHIRPP coordinator funding $138,000. Indigenous patient advocates $550,000. Healthy family program $250,000.

So there is no line item in there that relates to a specific region, such as Yellowknife or the Sahtu. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Thebacha.

So maybe I should go to page 198 then regarding, Madam Chair, community clinics and health centres. The locations -- like, I'd like to know how much is allocated to the Fort Smith Health Centre? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Yes, thank you. This budget is the budget for the Department of Health and Social Services. It's not the budget for NTHSSA. They develop their own budget and report it in their annual report. So we don't have line items in here that are specific to a region such as Fort Smith. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Thebacha.