Okay, thank you. Minister Green, I would like to invite you to the Tlicho region to visit the communities and see firsthand what services and programs are available. Would the Minister commit to doing that? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have spoken previously to the Member and assured her I would be delighted. Thank you.
Thank you. More funding is needed to provide communityled and ontheland addiction recovery program. Can the Minister commit to increasing the amount of funding available through the ontheland healing fund. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we we raised the value of the ontheland healing program in the fiscal year before this one. It's now worth $1.825 million. And so I feel that the money is adequate.
I note, and I have done this before, that the Tlicho are not taking advantage of all the different funds that are available to them for communitybased mental health and addictions support. So we've talked about the northern Indigenous wellness counsellors, who are here today. There was an open call to Indigenous governments to use our money, a milliondollar pot, to hire these counsellors. We do not have any proposals from the Tlicho region that are funded at this point. So there is money. There is a disconnect somewhere here, which I hope the Member will be able to sort out. Thank you.
Thank you. That is a subject for another matter so I will be speaking on that as well.
But can the Minister commit to allocating additional staff hours. This is reference to what she just said. Hours for proposal writing aimed at securing additional departmental funding for community led and ontheland addiction recovery programs? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do not write proposals for Indigenous organizations. However, we are willing to work with them on proposals to ensure that the finishing the application and getting it in is not a barrier to accessing the money. So we're here to help, but the initiative needs to come from the Indigenous government organization. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. How does the Department of Health and Social Services currently support people once they have completed an addictions recovery program? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when a resident of the Northwest Territories, who has been to a southernbased addiction treatment centre is ready to be discharged, the centre creates a discharge plan which puts the resident in touch with local resources such as the community counselling program. That would be the primary method.
The resident would then go on to attend counselling appointments; AA, if it's available in the community where the person is. We have a peer support fund which would enable people to create groups like AA in their communities if they thought that would be useful. We have the online app called Wagon, which was developed by the Edgewood facility, which you and I visited in 2017, which is programmatic with study groups and group therapy and individual therapy available. We also have the addictions aftercare program, which I have just referenced, which employs the people who have just finished their training at Rhodes College. So they are to be communitybased resources who will help people who are in addictions and recovery aftercare. The ontheland healing program can be used for addictions aftercare if that's the choice of the Indigenous government.
So I feel that we offer a full range of services to people who are finished their addictions treatment. Could we do more? We could. We could absolutely do more. If you give me another $500 million, I will make sure that there is a treatment centre in every region fully staffed and ready to take everyone who wants to have healing and recovery. Failing that, I encourage them to use the resources that are available now. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
