Lesa Semmler

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to remind Members of the funding made available by the Department of Health and Social Services supporting the delivery of communitybased programs focused on mental wellness and addiction recovery. These funds were created in response to engagement with Indigenous governments in which they asked the GNWT to provide more flexible funding that could be used to run programs in their own communities and regions that would be responsive to the needs of Indigenous people.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud of the Department of Health and Social Services in our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know when we hear inefficiency, you know, in our public service staff, especially in Health and Social Services, are run off, you know, their feet, then we say there's inefficiencies is -- you know, they're doing multiple jobs and they're providing frontline service. And I hear the Member, and I understand where he's coming from. That is why the Minister of health and I have had active conversations on where we are financially and, again, where those core programs are, where those noncore funded that we are funding from within that we're providing to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within the department, we have the ADM of finance, policy and planning. Within NTHSSA, they have their own finance. And within the NTHSSA, there's also a sustainability unit that has been working through the NTHSSA reviewing all of the programs under the government renewal. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our old foster care system, you know, there wasn't -- from all of the information that I've been provided and the work that's been done within child and family services is to work with the family to find now somebody who is either within the family, next of kin, a close relative, another Indigenous person. But those families also have to, you know, go through the foster family. We have not a lot of Indigenous foster families, and the more Indigenous foster families and the more family members, when they know that there's children that are possibly, you know...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, and that was where this health sustainability unit came into play, and that was the expectation of that, and now that they've completed one part of it, that is the discussion that I'm having with the Minister of Finance, not the Minister of health, and does that department need to -- you know, is it continuing the way it's going to continue or does it need to do something else now. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe in the department of health as well and all of the associations. And I know that, you know, given the Member, you know, highlighting the amount that it costs to run health and social services in all 33 communities, it is a high cost. The Member also stated that there are a lot of unfunded positions. A lot of those unfunded positions are third party funded positions which we get a lot of federal money for. Those positions -- and then there's -- because we have such a high number of workforce within, we have one-third of the employees as well. We do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department continues to follow up with families, you know, to try to meet them where they're at and to see what steps need to be put in place in order to have the children reunited into the home. And if there's specific instances where the Member, you know, has families that are feeling that this is not being done, I would encourage those families, you know, to reach out to my office. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have the level of detail that the Member is asking. But what I would like to provide the Member is that knowing that we have a large number of children in care and, you know, and we did a lot of work on child and family services in the last government, and as I was part of that work as Regular Members, one of the things that I don't think a lot of us from that time walked away from was knowing where the children were. So I can provide some of the information that the Member is asking, but I also want to share that a large portion of the children...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was already consultation done within Yellowknife. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are many shelters that are in Yellowknife and have been for many years. You know, there are many of our Northwest Territories residents, a large population of Indigenous people that struggle from historic traumas, and they are not a road. And so what we are doing here in Yellowknife is -- you know, the federal government gave a large sum of money to the Northwest Territories to specifically, in Yellowknife, to build, to replace, to provide a space that -- you know, that was worked with the Indigenous advisory board. There was consultation as what it...