Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on July 20th in 1900, the Treaty 8 was signed. And one of the things they mentioned in there was the spirit of intent to the treaty: As long as the sun shines, river flows, and grass grows. Treaty 8 talks about the medicine chest. It's also recognized in section 35 of the Canadian Constitution.
Mr. Speaker, the Dene Nation is calling for the health care task force that could be established to review the current health care administration system and Denedeh and develop strategies to ensure that there's more responses with the Dene people and their needs.
My question to the Minister of health is will the Minister agree to striking a task force comprised of leading health care practitioners and community members and elders, and can they be accomplished within the next year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have an amazing team called the cultural safety and antiracism unit. That unit is staffed with all Indigenous highly, highly intelligent group of individuals that are all Indigenous from the Northwest Territories, and they are guided by the Indigenous advisory body that are appointed to that by the Indigenous governments from the Northwest Territories, and they are the ones that, you know, tackle a lot of the work in our health care system on making sure that all of our policies, our programs. They do the anti -- cultural safety and antiracism training with all health care practitioners. So, you know, I would hate to take away any of that work, but I would look to work with the Member to see what this department is not, you know, doing maybe. Maybe they can do a presentation to the Dene Nation on all of the work that they're doing and hear from them themselves to see if there's anything that they may add to the work that they're doing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Minister. That was -- I really appreciate that. And it would be great if the health -- you, as a Minister, could work with the -- this work, working group, and also with the Dene Nation so that we all come on side and -- because it's an issue that was been brought up, and I've been hearing about it, so I just want to see if there's a way we could work together on this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, you know, I -- as the Minister, you know, I have met with the unit. I have -- we have actually done a presentation to standing committee. You know, if the Member wants me to meet with him and if he wants to invite me to meet with him and the Dene Nation together to hear from them on what their thoughts are, you know I would be more than glad to. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Minister. Also you had mentioned earlier cultural base workshops and training for staff. Is it possible that we could also use local members from our communities that know best about their culture and their environment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, when this team does training, they do use the Indigenous people from wherever they are doing the training. The MLAs were able to take this training and the senior management took this training within the government. And so they do -- as the MLAs may be -- like, remember at the beginning after our first Assembly that there are Indigenous -- it is led by Northerners, that training, Indigenous Northerners, and they do have people coming in and doing presentations, adding to the work that they do. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister for Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Minister. One thing I keep thinking about is our young people in our communities that we have drugs and alcohol that is hitting home to our young people but there's limited in terms of addiction services they could go to other than going south. Is there a program or is there part of your plan going forward to look at how we're going to address this issue for our young people here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with the Community Wellness and Addiction Recovery Fund, there is still funds available in there for communities to apply on. So I would say to have your -- like, to reach back out to the communities that you represent to see if they've applied on this fund. I can send you the information. Those -- they could create an on the land or a community program for the youth or any community member in their community. For youth addiction programs, we currently piloted a couple of programs. I can get more details to that to the Member for youth treatment, on the land treatment within the territory. For adults, we still continue to be able to send those who need facility-based treatment out. So those options are still available. But I can provide him a list of all of the different options to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Deh Cho.
