Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Madam Chair. Some of this, actually, we can obtain from our database; people who we send out for treatment supports, people who we provide drug and alcohol counselling. That will give us a baseline, and then the goal is to actually reduce that as people are sent out and stuff. We can get baselines. Some of the programs developed and hospitalizations for alcohol, we know how many people go to the hospital, so we can. We already have a baseline; we just need to pull those out. Then we can actually measure success by if our rates of hospitalization, our rates of return to treatment...

Thank you, Madam Chair. At this time, it might be a little bit too early to make a commitment on yes or no. However, Lands is also part of the process that will be reviewing all its policies and regulations to identify the barriers that impede local food production, so they are part of the review that is happening. Again, we have to identify the barriers before we can identify what regulations need to be changed, so I can't make a commitment at this time to say yes, that will happen. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Any good survey only has information, identifying information, on what is necessary. If we don't need to know your name, if there is no implementation on how we retain and recruit people, then why would I ask it? If we don't need to know what community, then why would I ask it? However, there are times where you might need to know what community, because the issues might not be the same across the whole of the Northwest Territories. Good surveys are only asking the data that they need. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Mr. Kieron Testart, who is a constituent of Range Lake riding, and was also a one-time MLA in the 18th Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Absolutely. I am glad that the Member recognizes no one model fits all; it is what I have said forever. It is a core to my heart. I believe that we do need community. I have said that. We can't do this alone. We need to be open to working with Indigenous governments; that is why it is in this mandate. What we think in Yellowknife is the answer may not be the answer in Tuktoyaktuk, so we have a responsibility as the GNWT to make sure that we engage with all Indigenous governments so that they define their healing, and then we support them in actualizing the programming...

Thank you, Madam Chair. If I can direct the question to the Minister of Health and Social Services on the current regulations. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Absolutely. This is not about how do you like the new hospital, or how do you like the contractor providing food services. This is about how do we keep you and how do we get new people? If you are doing a good survey, you have both closed questions that are very, this is what I want to know, how much time do you want to work sort of thing, and open questions that say: what are some ideas that you would give me? We have to be open to both. This survey will incorporate both some closed questions and some open questions so that we can get all the feedback as appropriate. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Two things: one, like I said earlier, we can't do this alone, so we are open to partnerships. If something like the Arnica Inn came and they were offering something or an Indigenous government, we would be open to partner with that, so we might do it. The other thing to manage alcohol is kind of on its own. It kind of combines, and yet it is on its own. I am going to try to be politically correct because I respect the people that I spent 20 years working with, is that there are people, Madam Chair, that the level of addiction and the damage that has happened is so...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the comments. The Member is absolutely correct. A lot of the harvesting happens in the smaller communities, fishing, hunting, et cetera, but we also have a market in the regional centres as well, for example, our community gardens. I recognize that it is totally different, so this mandate will go across all regions and all small communities.

We talked about how one of our mandates, as well, is regional decision-making, but it is bigger than that. It is about really looking, when we allocate positions, where they are best situated. Thank you, Madam Chair. We...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Those are ideas that we are searching for, ideas of putting scholarships, so when we do our recruitment plan, those are the kind of things that we are looking for suggestions from. We will be gathering that feedback. Is there a link with the polytech? I would like to say "absolutely" right now. However, we made a commitment with the polytech that we would be going out in the fall to do a survey, find out from people what we should specialize in. In that regard, it would be inappropriate for us to make a commitment until we have done that work. The Minister of Education...