A part of that money that is being spent by the health and social services authorities is for addictions. That is for treatment. It is for detox. Yes, during the upcoming business plan we would be willing to talk to the MLAs and discuss the possibility of moving more money into detox. Thank you.

Detox is a program, not a building. What we are saying is that the health and social services authority is spending about $6 million across the board on mental health and addictions. Detox is a part of that and can be in any location. It is a program. It is available right across the North and certainly available in Yellowknife if needed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have the details of the Fort Smith program. I wasn’t aware that there was a program in Fort Smith. I heard about it for the first time today.

As I indicated earlier, we are looking at on-the-land treatment programs. We have recently reviewed Nats’ejee K’eh. I have recently been in contact with the chairman of the board, and in fact, he has written me a letter inviting me to a meeting to meet with the Nats’ejee K’eh board, and they have various items that they wish to talk about pertaining directly to treatment in that facility. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member’s comments. I will talk to the deputy minister and we will do a call for boards before the end of the session. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is aware, we have a public administrator in place for the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority. That’s not our desire. We would prefer to have a board; however, in consultation with the community, it was recommended that we fill the CEO position. At this time we have gone out for advertising to try to fill the CEO position. We want to fill the CEO position and then develop, again, and reappoint a board after we have a CEO position. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I must advise the Member that in the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority there is no regular CEO at this time. We have an acting CEO from Hay River, followed by another acting CEO out of Yellowknife. This was done by review. Unfortunately, we were hoping that the position would have been extended until the review was complete, but as the term of this particular position expired before the review was completed, the individual position was cut prior to review. A review is being done of all the positions in the Beaufort-Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Those decisions for lab work are requested by a doctor. As we indicated here earlier today, most of the doctors are located here in Yellowknife. I mean, I’m sure that we can use a system where the lab in Hay River can be used if a doctor goes down there to take a look at the results of lab work, but at this time it’s a clinical decision and made by physicians. Thank you.

Thank you. I agree. The department has spent a lot of money on locums and at this point that has been the solution, that the locums are coming from the South to address the doctor needs, the physician needs in the Beaufort-Delta. As the Member indicated, only one doctor that works about six and a half hours a day is employed and lives in Inuvik and our attempt is to bring doctors to Inuvik. It’s very difficult to bring one or two doctors into a community. It is a lot easier to bring a fifth, sixth and seventh doctor. So we’re trying to develop a strategy that will bring many doctors in that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since our Beaufort-Delta meeting I’ve had many meetings, many strategic meetings with the Department of Health and Social Services. I also met with the Joint Leadership Council, which are the public administrators and the chairpersons of each of the health and social services authorities, and we’ve particularly talked about this issue several times and also several times at that meeting. Thank you.