Bill Braden

Well, we have been put on notice again to the Chalmers report. Mr. Speaker, our Mental Health Act is, I discussed in my Member’s statement, a piece of legislation that is badly out of date in accordance with professional, legal and administrative standards. An impression that I have been given is if we can modernize this, we are not only going to be able to give people better care and do it quicker, we are also going to be saving a lot of human resources and money. Would the Minister advise that we will see the modernization and updating of our mental health legislation during the life of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this morning will be for Mr. Miltenberger as the Minister of Health and Social Services. They relate to the field of mental health services and legislation in the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, the Social Programs committee, in its report to the Assembly, referred to the pre-budget consultations that were held last fall in a number of communities. I will paraphrase, Mr. Speaker. The report told us that there is not a lot of buy-in at the local level for the Mental Health and Addictions Strategy. Anecdotally, Members were told there is a real disconnect between...

Yes, Mr. Chairman. I'm very familiar with the Minister's confidence, and I share with him the confidence of a large majority of the people who are needed, and trained and committed to the care of children. But the exception, as the Minister pointed out, is amongst the more sophisticated, if you will, psychological and medical and clinical services. Yes, the Minister is quite right; it is potentially only a half-hour plane ride from Yellowknife, but there's a lot more involved than sort of transporting people back and forth on airplanes.

So let's park that one there. We're hoping and I'm...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the most difficult times that I have experienced in this Legislature occurred in the matter under this department and this Minister’s jurisdiction, and that was the surprise decision to move the Territorial Treatment Centre from Yellowknife to another community. Mr. Chair, this one hurt because it was something of great significance in my riding and to this city. It was an action that the government, after considerable review and investigation, went ahead with, by its own admission, for political purposes, against the clinical program, psychological and...

Thank you. I’m pleased to see that commitment is there and on track. In tandem with this, Madam Chair, is the additional obligation, commitment, that is required for the O and M of this facility. I’m wondering if the Minister has any sense, at this time, of what that commitment may be, and can we expect to see that incorporated into the base for the department in future years? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Does the Premier then concur with the information that the Minister has provided, that we should be anticipating something by this spring?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We were exchanging some views about the mandate of the Housing Corporation in my last turn, and there was a discussion about some of the commitments and the paperwork that’s on record regarding the evolution of this project. Mr. Chairman, I pointed out at least one of several documents dating back to April of 2004, which outlined the work plan for doing this. If I recall the Minister’s words, he said it was something I pulled out of my hat. It is not something I pulled out of my hat, Madam Chair. It is a document that the corporation circulated for committee to help...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is getting somewhere for me now. I guess I can say I’m not concerned right now with whether or not the federal government does approve this money. Of course, I’m very, very hopeful of that, but the business before us is how much money we approve and for what. Now there’s new information I think that has come across, is that the Minister is saying we can’t afford to build 118 houses with the allocation already requested here. So if I vote for this, what I’m voting for is 118 units, not 185. I’m voting to see 118 units built for $33 million and if the feds...

Okay. So then I want to go back to the opening statement then, Madam Chair, where the Minister said this ambitious plan is subject to continued support from the federal government. Then this plan is not subject. From what I've just heard, whether or not the federal government comes through with the bucks doesn't matter. This is the target that we're going to be proceeding with and that you're asking us to vote on. It is not subject to the federal government. Is that the way we should be looking at this now, Madam Chair? Thank you.

Madam Chair, so sort of best efforts on everybody's part, including the federal government, the previous government. We still have something in abeyance; it's not for sure. So I guess my own dilemma continues here, Madam Chair. The spending allocation by Treasury Board it's at the top of the pile. What are the chances that it's going to see approval before the end of our budget session, Madam Chair? Maybe we'll go at that. Let's take that angle. You know, if we, for instance, left the Housing Corporation's budget until the latest possible time, might we see approval of this federal...