Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Madam Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services put together the Child and Youth Care Counsellor Program, and this is a program that came out of actually talking to youth and finding out what they wanted and really having that conversation about mental health and how to fill that need. Given where this program is at now, I'm wondering what kind of work Health and Social Services is doing to evaluate this program? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Madam Speaker, I'd like to redirect that to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you.
Minister of ECE.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. So I've had a number of conversations with the Minister of health about this program. Our officials have been meeting with each other, and we both have met with the education bodies. And what the result of all of those meetings are is a review. We've expedited a review of the program. We are looking at making some changes this year to address some of the issues that have been identified and coming up with a new model, hope to be implemented in the upcoming school year. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Speaker, and I appreciate the Member's response. How will youth be involved in this conversation and this review that's taking place? We heard that there's been conversations with the school bodies themselves, but these don't often include youth representatives and include youth voices. So how are youth going to be empowered to partake in this conversation? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. So earlier we talked about the Ministers youth advisory committee that we are putting together, and that's going to be the perfect avenue to have these discussions. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the reason I started this conversation by asking to speak to the Minister of Health and Social Services was because I wanted to find out if there was an avenue for funding for what youth are looking for in their communities potentially through there. So the department of health has their suicide prevention fund, and currently to access that fund, you have to be with an NGO, you have to be with an Indigenous government. There's a list of about four or five places or people, rather, that can access that. But youth specifically, as individuals, are not part of that. And what I'm looking for is a way that youth can access funding in order to realize what they would like in their communities. And so I'm wondering if there's no funding available through the youth advisory council, how the department then sees it possible for youth to access funding to do what they want to do in their communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. And as part of the review, there will be discussions with youth. And as I said, we are looking at how we can amend this model going forward. And if there are, you know, recommendations that we do some of the things that the Member is talking about, then we can definitely explore that. However, I don't want to just say youth will have money to pursue different programs because they're students; they don't necessarily have the time; they don't necessarily have the expertise, the connections to, you know, develop and roll out programs. So to just give students money without any sort of a structure might not be the best approach. It's actually our job as government. We are supposed to come up with those solutions to support the youth. We don't want to tell them what to do, we want to work with them to figure out what they need to do or what they need, and then we are the ones who develop and implement those programs. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I guess I kind of respectfully disagree because if that was the case then we wouldn't have funds like the Suicide Prevention Fund who ask communities to decide what they want to do, and we do pass over the money. Youth in the territory really or around the world is considered 29 and under. And there's some pretty inspiring and empowered people under the age of 29. And I had the opportunity to sit and listen to quite a few of them who have a lot of ideas of how to help one another and how to provide that peer support. So as part of this conversation, will the Minister be speaking with the youth advisory committee about what they need to provide that peer support in a healthy way since really they're already doing it. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think that's a great suggestion, and I'm happy to have that conversation with the youth advisory committee. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
