Tom Beaulieu

We are going to be able to have that discussion with the senior management at the department. We’re also dealing with the local authority, and between ourselves and the authority, we recognize that we do fund each of these non-government organizations and this particular organization does receive some funding from the department, but the majority of their funding does come from outside of the government. So I will make sure that the department understands that these guys could use some support when they’re leveraging this kind of funding in the community.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A lot of the work that that particular NGO does now, I think, was done because there was a lack of services in that area in Hay River, so it would be difficult to say how they would be able to obtain those types of services if it wasn’t for that particular NGO group.

Certainly, we fund the NWT Foster Parents Coalition. We fund the various foster parents coalitions across the territory, as one example.

Yes, I think that application-based may be a good method of flowing money out and creating small contribution agreements within organizations. I think within the frameworks that we have and within the organizations that we already deal with, the majority of this money can flow, including to some of our own organizations like Healthy Families. Thank you.

The Department of Health and Social Services and the health and social service authorities jointly fund about 50 NGOs to the tune of about $14 million. In that, about 30 to 35 of those could be working in the healing and prevention field, like, where it funds some youth organizations, some healing organizations and community governments. So within that we are capable of moving some of this prevention money directly into those organizations, whether they be NGOs that specifically do healing, or youth, or community governments that could do that as part of their functions. Thank you.

The government is moving more and more into multi-year funding with the organization. We continuously have discussions with these organizations, trying to develop some wage parity with these organizations. So the government is recognizing that these organizations are valuable and we’re trying to step up to the plate. Thank you.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet with this group and I do agree that the work they do is very valuable. I had an opportunity to speak to the people that were in the office at the time taking a course. I personally knew all of them in there and spoke with them, and they were very pleased to be given an opportunity to learn what they were learning there in working with this particular society. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The decision on medical travel is a clinical decision, so it would be a physician. It could be a doctor; it could be a nurse practitioner or possibly even a registered nurse, when the person is in recovery and going back home. Thank you.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I am no expert in this area, but I notice that over the last couple of years a lot of the days that are dedicated to things such as this were started off by interest groups. So my first recommendation would be that if there’s an interest group that wants to discuss this with our department, that would be a good place to start.

Mr. Speaker, we all know the terrible toll that addictions take on our people and our communities. Widespread addictions are one of the biggest barriers to achieving the vision and priorities of this Assembly. It is a driving force behind family breakdown, incarceration, homelessness, and developmental delays in children.

As a government, we have invested millions of dollars into tackling this issue and commissioned numerous reports, but we haven’t seen much improvement.

This is why I convened the Minister’s Forum on Addictions and Community Wellness. I believe that our communities and our...

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Minister’s Forum on Addiction sand Community Wellness: Healing Voices – April 30, 2013.”