Tom Beaulieu

We will provide youth in care outside the NWT and youth in care within the NWT to Standing Committee on Social Programs.

The child and family services committees across the territory, the main thing we are doing different is we’ve hired a coordinator, who starts this month, who will be going to the communities. We’ve had our staff going into the communities and right now we’re trying to get the one committee that was working during our review of this child and family services committee in Fort McPherson. We feel that is going to start up again. We are fairly enthusiastic about the results when...

Madam Chair, we have made no improvements to that system so far, but we do have it in our work plan for this fiscal year.

We do not have a plan to expand that budget item beyond what is there. In fact, it’s slightly lower this year than last year.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That is the supplementary appropriation that comes to the Assembly from the department every year and would be the Canadian Blood Services and people that go for southern treatment. Adults and children that are in southern treatment are three of, I think, the largest costs from that supplementary appropriation.

Youth are counselled also with community counselling programs. We have about $6 million in the Community Counselling Program across the territory, and they counsel adults and youth alike.

As far as actual youth facility infrastructure or building for youth treatment facilities, the department hasn’t looked at that closely. We do know that the treatment of youth in a facility environment or in a treatment centre, the numbers for the territory are very low. I think we’ve treated 12 youth in three fiscal years, the past three fiscal years, because the majority of situations with youth are that...

Madam Chair, the contract is achieved through competitive tender. We don’t have the term of the contract with us here today.

Our Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan talks about filling the gaps, and those are some of the gaps that we are hoping to fill. We recognize that we do not have a good treatment facility within the Territories on hard drugs. That we might be able to provide treatment for alcohol at Nats’ejee K’eh, but I think the hard drugs is certainly a gap that we need to fill, and the Member is correct that the issue is starting to spread into the smaller communities as well. We’re going to be using the community counselling as much as possible. We need to get stats, if need be, and then to work with...

Yes, I do, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe that aside from the capped contribution from the Government of the Northwest Territories there are no plans at this time to have any O and M spending on Betty House.

Mr. Chair, we have agreed and we have agreement from all of the authorities that we will make deficit adjustments and that we will… The term alludes me right now but we will be taking money from authorities that have surpluses, and with the amount of money that each of the authorities that have surpluses are allowed to keep and then we will have the rest of the money moved around to put money where the deficits are greatest, make those adjustments. The plan at this time, if there continues to be deficits in Inuvik and Stanton, or in Beaufort-Delta, pardon me, and Stanton, we would continue to...