Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today about youth at risk, I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services does this government have any way of determining what the magnitude of this problem may be in the Northwest Territories. Is there any data on that that would help us develop solutions and response to this issue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our best information, of course, is for those that are children in care that come under the Child and Family Services Act. The gap between, and I think the Member for Kam Lake acknowledged that and mentioned that gap for those teenagers. Our information is relatively weak. Thank you.
Thank you. When the Minister spoke the other day, I believe in Committee of the Whole, saying that this government cannot possibly have enough money to address all of the social concerns once they have advanced to the point that trying to achieve and address these solutions is so costly that this government doesn’t have enough money for that, and he stressed the importance of working on the front end on preventative measures. Mr. Speaker, I see a lot of opportunity where we as a government could bring programs, services to bear early on when these young people first begin to encounter some of the problems that we see playing themselves out before us today. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what kind of programs right now currently exist to support parents and youth that are going through these difficult times where the attraction of drugs and alcohol and other things are setting some of our young people on a course of destruction. Thank you.
Thank you. This is a community issue of which there are many roles for people to play, and governments. The role that we play, we have resources on the ground with social workers, with child protection people. We have probation officers, we have teachers, we have nurses, there’s some youth centres, there’s recreation centres that we have. We work with communities to build their community recreation complexes. For those that need specific counselling, we have access to some psychological, and more difficult, but we have also access to some psychiatric services, though the psychiatric services out of Yellowknife.
So we do have some services across the North in just about every community in one form or to one degree or another. Thank you.
Thank you. I’d like to ask the Minister if he feels that the seriousness and magnitude of this problem perhaps would be worthy of a specific dialogue with these organizations and communities that he’s referring to. I’m very concerned about this particular age group where it seems like we lose some of our young people where all these things that he’s referring to, somehow children, which is what they are, young people, are still falling between the cracks. Does the Minister think that in an attempt to come up with more specific solutions and specific programs that the situation would merit a dialogue on this very particular issue? Thank you.
The Member raises a good suggestion and there is and has been over the years and in some communities there is an ongoing interagency type of arrangement where the involved departments and agencies get together to discuss some of the issues where the elected leaders in the community get together as well as part of the process to deal with issues. Usually, unfortunately, sometimes spurred on by a crisis or some tragic event that has happened in the community.
But I agree with the Member that there is a tremendous amount of community resources. It takes something to bring them together to do that type of planning. There’s a significant amount of resources, both human and fiscal at the community level, and there’s also, with our type of government, an enormous amount of capacity for communities and the regions to be able to design programs that meet their needs with the funds that they have down there. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would very much like to see the safety net around this particular age group strengthened through cooperation between teachers, educators, social workers, families, communities, churches. I would very much like to see this safety net for this age group strengthened, and I would ask the Minister if he would consider a specific dialogue and discussion with people who are in this field going forward and perhaps include it in a transition plan for the 17th Assembly. Thank you.
Thank you. The Member for Hay River South and I have a history going back on this issue, a shared history to a certain extent, going back probably over 20 years on dealing with children in care, teenagers. I would be more than happy to sit down as a good starting point with the chair of the Social Programs and the Social Programs committee. I agree that this could be one issue that’s identified in the transition plan that’s going to need attention, given the events that are happening around us. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
