Glen Abernethy

I appreciate the Members during Committee of the Whole are very passionate about increasing our allotment to the Anti-poverty Fund, and obviously if money were available this is certainly an area that we would like to invest, and it is part of our mandate. So hopefully in the future we will be making some additional investments, but in this particular budget we did invest money in helping seniors who are living in poverty do some renovations to their homes. We have made some other changes that are clearly beneficial to residents who are struggling with poverty to the Northwest Territories, and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has made a commitment in its mandate to focus on mental health and addictions, to ensure access to culturallyappropriate programs and services, address gaps in services, and enhance treatment options.

We have made progress. Last November, we tabled the strategic framework, Mind and Spirit: Promoting Mental Health and Addictions Recovery. This framework sets the foundation for improvements to mental health and addictions programs and services.

Three separate action plans will be put in place to support that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Health and Social Services Professions Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I want to be clear that I am not saying "no," but it is going to sound an awful lot like "no." The survey was done in 2007. There is a lot of information coming from a lot of different stakeholders about the problems of domestic violence and violence against women. We are in a fiscal environment where we have got to make sure that we are getting as much maximum benefit for every dollar we spend. I guess my question to the Member and the Members opposite is: would I be better positioned to spend money on a survey, or would I be better positioned to spend money on the family violence shelters...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have had some discussions between myself and the deputy about The Globe and Mail article and the very disturbing findings in there. I was really happy to hear the work that Justice is doing with the RCMP to attempt to change some of those results for the better.

In the Department of Health and Social Services, we are focusing on a couple of different areas. One of them is prevention. We are utilizing programs like what will it take to get out there and work with residents across the territories to change the perspective, change the attitudes around...

There are five pillars that were utilized to help us address poverty in the Northwest Territories, and this is being used by our stakeholders as well, and that's the Children and Family Support, Healthy Living and Reaching our Potential, Safe Affordable Housing, Sustainable Communities and Integrated Continuum of Services. In this budget that is before us today, we are investing $750,000, new dollars, to provide services for homeless people in Yellowknife. There has been a commitment to fully fund junior kindergarten. There's $3 million to enhance small community employment support, which is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has made a commitment in its mandate to work collaboratively to reduce poverty in the Northwest Territories by working with our partners to advance the Territorial Anti-Poverty Action Plan, funding community-based partners, supporting community priorities for wellness, and developing additional options for action.

Poverty is a complex issue and there is no single solution. The lack of a commonly accepted, shared definition on poverty makes it difficult to have a focused discussion among stakeholders. Because...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Essentially, yes. I don't think that is the exact terminology that we are using, but we are looking at a holistic approach, recognizing the impacts and the reasons an individual might be struggling with addictions or mental health issues and building upon those. So, essentially yes, but we have been using different terminology.

It's a good question and the answer is yes, yes, no, yes, no. Bottom line is there's a multiple range of programs that are out there, on-the-land programming being one. We don't currently have an evaluation mechanism to let us know or help us understand how effective these on-the-land programs are, but we're currently working with a stakeholder group who is helping us design an evaluation program for on the land. So yes, we're going to get there.

When it comes to treatment programs, what I can tell you, facility-based treatment programs, is traditionally our number in the Northwest Territories...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we're committed to doing these reviews every five years. The last review was done in 2013, so we anticipate the next one will be 2018. Thank you, Mr. Chair.