Thank you, Mr. Chair. This particular subject or issue of concern is -- has a great deal to do with myself and the Northwest Territories as a whole. I've seen, witnessed, a lot of clients going out to the southern regions to get treatment, and I applaud them, and I encourage them. Just yesterday coming back from the Mackenzie Delta, I saw one of my constituents on his way to Toronto and I wished him well, and I hope that, you know, he gets the counselling that he wants and deserves. But coming back from a southern institution and coming back into the community where you see all your friends and your families who are still practicing or using alcohol and/or drugs and you have to go back and interact with your families and friends because it's -- you need the support, and that support may not be there. So aftercare is very important in success of these clients because at the moment now, you see them, they don't have nowhere to go within the communities and the regions. They don't know where to go. They don't know who to talk to. I mean, just integrating back, right back into the community is a struggle. They don't have any friendship centres within the communities. They don't have any place where they can drop in to see, you know, like, I'm still trying get that message to somebody that -- in the community that cares. Tell them that, you know, I'm still trying but I also require assistance in aftercare.

So what I would like to know is, you know, is there some kind of program or some kind of funding available where communities who would like to see nothing better than the health of their residents be able to access funding where they can start up a program, not just when a client comes back but ongoing programs where past clients have went south for treatment and have fallen off but they want to get back into the program and try again. Because I always say never quit trying to quit. And I always tell people that, you know, it's -- no matter if you tried 20 times, just keep trying. And I've often encouraged people that. I use that as my own model too. I struggled. I still struggle. And myself, I'm fortunate that I have family that were very supportive, are very supportive. I have friends. And I get involved with the community, but some of these people are not very good at approaching people for help. So it'll be good if the department can have funds available for communities where they can have an ongoing aftercare program. It doesn't have to be an expensive program. It just has to be something there that a community member can initiate saying that, you know, that you just came back from treatment, if you need help give me a call. There's no services like that within my community. So it'll be good if the department can have funding available for someone, even if it's just an individual, you know, go play a baseball game, go play some cards during the night when times are getting tough, you know, provide some meals. Some of these people don't have homes.

So my question is there somewhere in here that communities can start community-based programs for specifically aftercare? Because we have clients that are going, taking the initiative to go down south, but coming back to nothing. So that's my question to the Minister. Thank you, Mr. Chair.