Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Interjection

Mr. Speaker, that is very good to hear. That is a very good answer. In terms of the southern treatment residential placements that the Minister has referred to, maybe he could elaborate a little bit for us on the diversity of the location and the type of specialization that these facilities could offer clients. How accessible are these going to be? What kind of waiting times, or are these going to be readily accessible for our northern residents? Thank you.

The cultural and traditional diversity of many of our regions in the territory also came into play, because you can’t just take one set of cultural practices and traditions and apply it to everybody who is supposed to come to a territorial facility on the Hay River Reserve, so that caused some issues as well.

The facility is closed. The contract has ended. For the record, I did not appreciate not knowing about it, because there were many people who are from Hay River who worked there. I didn’t appreciate that.

However, it is now a new day. It is time to move on. It is time to work with the...

That’s fine. There are only two women; it’s hard to keep us straight.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, thank you to the Minister for that response. I had mentioned in my Member’s statement that we were disappointed that the sort of affected… This is a territorial facility. I understood that probably if it was ever re-profiled, it would continue to be a territorial piece of infrastructure. We were disappointed when the MLAs for Hay River and the MLA for Deh Cho weren’t really part of that.

As these discussions proceed, and certainly with all due respect to the K’atlodeeche First Nation because it is on...

Thanks again to the Minister on that elaboration of what the other options are for residential treatment.

With the re-profiling of these monies that have gone traditionally into the treatment of addictions, what would be the process or the dialogue that would take place with respect to the actual facility of what was in Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre? Is there a possibility still that that infrastructure can be utilized in, perhaps, specialized treatment, if not residential, some kind of a facility? What’s the process? Who’s going to be involved in that dialogue and is there a possibility that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today about the Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre in Hay River on the K’atlodeeche First Nation, I have some follow-up questions for Minister Beaulieu.

Treatment of addictions is a hugely important issue in our territory. We need to use our resources in the most effective way possible. With the closure of the Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre, which I believe cost around $2.2 million to operate, the majority of that money was spent on goods and services and the employment of Northerners. If we are forfeiting that, I would like to have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to talk today about the Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Centre, which used to operate on the K’atlodeeche First Nation just across the river from Hay River.

Some of my colleagues have referred to this in the House already, and this weekend I had an opportunity to read a post on Facebook, which said, “Where are the Hay River MLAs? Why aren’t they saying something about it?” So this is my chance today to say something about it.

I thought I had already said some things about it. I have already met with the deputy minister and Mr. Andrew Langford, who came down to Hay...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know if I can change Ministers mid-questions here. I guess not. Okay. Well then, I will just have to suffice it to say thank you for the update, Mr. Beaulieu.

I am not one who likes to see brick and mortar, institutions, buildings that have some functional use torn down, so I will be continuing to pursue this. If there is any reasonable life left in the existing hospital, I will be pursuing a further set of questions with the Minister of Public Works and Services on that at some point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Of course, we know that the new hospital won’t be commissioned for a little while yet, so we do have some lead time, but I would like to ask the Minister when he contemplates we might have a more clear plan with respect to the replacement of those beds as a result of these discussions amongst the deputy ministers, some kind of a timeline we can share with our constituents. Thank you.

In offering thanks, I cannot fail to mention Kim Rapati, Mayor Andrew Cassidy, and also, if any of you met her, the most enthusiastic person for northern agriculture that you could ever come across. If you don’t believe in northern agriculture, when you meet Jackie Milne you would be a believer by the time you finished the conversation. She’s a wonderful, wonderful boost to this program.

I applaud the Northern Farm Training Institute, which has lots of exciting ideas to expand in the future as it continues to grow and support the development of sustainable food systems across the Northwest...