Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just going to follow up to my Member’s statement that I made earlier today in terms of treatment centres. I had mentioned all the infrastructure and services that are in the capital of Yellowknife here, and all of those groups do a lot of really good work for the Northwest Territories and people that do come into Yellowknife. My question for the Minister is for the Minister of Health today.
Can the Minister provide me with a list of any infrastructure, if any at all, in the 32 other communities outside of Yellowknife that do provide treatment for addictions? Can he provide me with that infrastructure? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I would be able to provide that information for the Member. Thank you.
Yes, specifically, can the Minister let this government know of any other programs, specific programs outside of Yellowknife that are being offered in any of the other communities, the regional centres and the small communities, specific programs that he can let us know today in the House that are going on in the 32 communities outside of Yellowknife that deal with addictions and treatment? Thank you.
We have a treatment facility on the Hay River Reserve, Nats’ejee K’eh. The department spends about $2 million annually on that facility to run it. Including Yellowknife, there is a counselling program, a community counselling program where we have $6 million. Then we have the on-the-land programs, which their allocation is approximately $25,000 per community. So off the top of my head, those are the programs that are available today. There is no other infrastructure outside of Nats’ejee K’eh that’s available for residential treatment. Thank you.
Under our priorities for the 17th Legislative Assembly, one of our priorities is to enhance addiction treatment programs using existing infrastructure. Can the Minister inform us if his department has gone out throughout the Northwest Territories and identified any existing infrastructure that can be used for treatment programs throughout the Northwest Territories outside of Nats’ejee K’eh and any new infrastructure that he’s recognized.
The department has not identified specific infrastructure that could be used for residential treatment; however, it is one of the mandates of the Minister’s Forum on Addictions to look at as they travel from community to community having meetings with the communities. One of their other mandates is to determine what type of treatment would be required in which location, and once they’ve made that recommendation to the department, the department will look at trying to match the infrastructure that exists in those locations.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I heard is there is this group that’s going throughout the Northwest Territories and their mandate is to identify infrastructures. So if they’ve already travelled to some of the communities, I don’t see why we wouldn’t have some infrastructure on the list already.
In terms of the priorities that we do have, enhancing addictions treatment programs using existing infrastructure, when can we start to see this taking place, as we’ve already completed one full year of this Assembly? When can we start to see this taking place and a timeline in getting this addressed, as it is a big priority in the Northwest Territories and our big cost-driver in Health and Social Services?
As the Member is aware, we essentially started the new budget three months into this fiscal year. Within that budget is where we are funding this forum. The forum has not travelled yet. Their first function will be to come together in one central location. From then on they will travel to two or possibly as many as four communities in each region, the four different forums, and they will come back together with their recommendations. Once they come with their recommendations, we will be matching what is needed. In addition to that, we are reviewing the one residential treatment centre that we do have for its effectiveness and how well it fits into what is needed as far as residential treatment goes.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
