Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask some questions, as well, of the Minister of Health and Social Services.
I heard the Minister in responding to Mrs. Groenewegen in answer to the question about money, that there needed to be support. I would suggest to the Minister that the support for additional funds in the department to deal with the problem of addictions, particularly alcohol, is already there. You’ve got 11 votes on this side of the House already.
I’d like to ask the Minister, knowing that he’s got support from the majority of the House, and I imagine he’s got support on the other side of the House as well, what is stopping the Minister from putting additional dollars into next year’s budget?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the outset this government had indicated that there were going to be two fiscal years where we’re going to take a look at our fiscal situation and then give us an opportunity to do some planning and where we could do some adjusting in the budget and moving some money around in health. That’s exactly what we’re intending on doing. We are holding the line on the budget without too many increases. We’re going to do some reshuffling and then put money where we think it would have the greatest positive impacts on the budget, and one of them is definitely alcohol addictions.
To the Minister, I accept that we have a fiscal policy that says that we weren’t going to do any new initiatives, but I have to also say to the Minister and to the House that we have put a huge amount of money over and above our steady fiscal policy into other initiatives. I have to say that some of our on-the-road initiatives are pretty heavy in terms of dollars. I think if there was a will, we would find the money to put into alcohol. It would save us money in the long run.
I said in my statement that I think it’s time to stop studying and it’s time to take action. I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not he could see that the $300,000 that’s intended to be spent on the Minister’s forum, whether or not there’s a better use for that right now?
No, I don’t think there is a better use for that right now. I think that this is the best use of the money, the $300,000, and that’s the reason we’re moving forward on it. I think we want to do the right thing in addictions. We don’t want to do the quick thing in addictions.
I have to disagree with the Minister. This would not be a quick fix. We’ve been studying this problem for a very long time, and I think the Minister, were he to look at the asks that the people in the communities have been making over many years, I think he would find that there were things that we could do right now. We need supports in our communities.
I’d like to ask the Minister – he was with me when we did the Child and Family Services Act review – did the Minister hear from the communities what I heard, that they need supports on the ground?
Yes, I heard that, but there’s always something new. When we put the forum together, the forum met last Friday and last Saturday, the addictions forum. It came as a surprise to me in the way they wanted to tackle the issues. There’s always something new and they’re the people on the ground. They basically know exactly what is happening at the community level, so this is why we’re reaching out to them. We think this cost is going to be more than recoverable. We want to do the proper upstream work so that we have positive impacts downstream.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question to the Minister has to do with the only treatment program that we have in the territory, the Nats'ejee K'eh. One of the things that was in the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan was that there was going to be an analysis and a revamping of the programs at Nats’ejee K’eh to increase the percentage of use there. Can I ask the Minister what revamping has been done? What’s the percentage of use of that facility right now?
No revamping yet. The percentage is about 46 percent capacity right now.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
