Tom Beaulieu

The department is spending $20.168 million on social service delivery, which includes social workers, mental health and addiction workers, mental health and addiction program funding. We have $2.931 million with non-government organizations for residential care for alcohol and drug programs related to addictions, mental health, disabilities and chronic illnesses. We have $2.7 million family violence funding, which includes emergency shelters and counselling services; $1.8 million for community wellness programs including the Bailey House in Yellowknife. Specific to more of the mental health...

Thank you. I’ll have the assistant deputy minister respond to that detail item.

Our intention is to go to the community, working with the authorities to go to the communities where the need is greatest, where there are most kids in care. Also, in as far as Detah goes, we have a meeting set up for fall. In fact, I’m personally going to be meeting in Detah with the CEO from the health and social services authority from YK for this specific item. I will just have the deputy minister respond on the work that we’re hoping to do in the revision to the Child and Family Services Act.

Madam Chair, the department agrees that we will work with the Standing Committee on Social Programs to make those improvements.

The department is prepared to go to the authorities. The community health programs in this area of residential care of elderly persons with disabilities is something that’s driven through the authorities and working with the non-government organizations. We can go to the authorities and indicate to them or ask them if they do see forced growth in this area and ask them to come forward with forced-growth submissions to address the issue that the Member speaks of.

Thank you. We do come back for those costs with a supplementary appropriation every year, depending on the need.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We know the number, of course, but we don’t have that info with us.

In general, the governance, if we move to all regional advisory boards, there will be a greater focus on the involvement of communities, and that is the intention on the Beaufort-Delta board at this time. For the Stanton, what we would like to do – and it’s something that we’re going to take back to Standing Committee on Social Programs – is to have the seven regional chairs or public administrators, in other words the Joint Leadership Council, oversee the operations at Stanton, in effect having a territorial type of board that would be responsible for the Stanton Territorial Hospital.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This year, in this budget, our plan is to spend $4 million to complete the remaining schematic planning and the initial occupational planning. We can’t go beyond that. We have to have approval of this House to go beyond that. We’re moving forward in this area and this is part of the process, but I can’t anticipate what there’s going to be in the capital plan in future years.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We can provide that information.