Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Madam Speaker. That would be best deferred to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes. The lead department that will be looking into the Mackenzie Place high-rise -- I want to make sure I get the name right. I'm just used to calling it the high-rise; sorry, Mr. Speaker. The lead department will be Municipal and Community Affairs, and then there are key departments that are working on it, of course: Municipal and Community Affairs; Health and Social Services is working on it; Infrastructure has a piece in it; the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation; and then also the WSCC, Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister of Health and Social Services would like to take this answer. I would like to defer it to her.

What the COVID secretariat is hoping to accomplish, I stated before, is better coordination, more transparency, better communication to the communities, and the opportunity to be able to look at efficiencies and effectiveness within our services. I'll give an example, Mr. Speaker. I've been asked about the border patrols down by Providence-Hay River. It's a great question. The reality, and the reason that we're looking at different things and didn't go out through normal processes is we didn't have time.

Mr. Speaker, the secretariat was only formed, I think, three weeks to a month ago, and...

I would love to be able to say that we will stay status quo and we will use the current workforce. That is what we were doing at the beginning of the pandemic. I would have fought back and said that was the right way to do it, except I spoke to the employees who told me they were burning out. They were working way too much overtime. They were working seven days a week. It was not sustainable. It came from their mouths, saying that the current structure, the old structure, was not sustainable.

We do not want to spend a whole bunch of money, so we are looking at -- I can't remember the number. At...

I'd like to defer that question to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Since that is a direct question for the Department of Health and Social Services, I would like to defer it to the appropriate Minister.

The Member is right. Mental health and addictions are not just one department's responsibility. It goes across all departments. In fact, it's a community issue. The stories I heard from women, when they were children, what happened to them did not happen because of our government. It happened because of people, so it does take a community to deal with the mental health and addictions that we are facing. Mr. Speaker, what I can commit to is that we will bring this issue to the committee of Cabinet or social committee, and we will look at a wholesome, all-of-government approach to dealing with...

Absolutely, Mr. Speaker. I stand by the Grand Chief's message: how much money is one life worth? We could use that in many instances. The Grand Chief used it with the secretariat and our measures in there, so I don't want to twist his words, but it can be used with many things.

Addictions and mental health has been something that all societies have been struggling with for many, many, many decades. It's not as simple, in my opinion, as just putting a treatment centre in Yellowknife. Treatment centres work for some; they don't work for all. AA works for some, but it doesn't work for all. On-the...

Absolutely, we're looking at cost-saving ways. That's why the secretariat was formed, to get better coordination, to be able to see what we're doing, to look at ways that we can actually be more efficient, more effective in our service delivery. I would like to say, Mr. Speaker, that, of the $31 million I believe it is, around what we're looking for in this supplemental that's coming forward, I believe it's around $23 million that is already funded from the federal government. The federal government in their Speech from the Throne identified the maintaining of COVID-19 supports as a huge...