Tom Beaulieu

I understand that in order to continue to use a facility that may have reached the end of its life, we would have to coordinate that with a technical department like Public Works and Services so that if there are upgrades necessary, we need to determine the costs of continuing to use the facility regardless of what it would be used for. We would have to do some sort of technical evaluation to determine whether or not we would be better off just to build something new.

Mr. Chair, no problem. We can do that.

When you replace a facility like a hospital, one of the main reasons for replacing a facility is not for what you see physically, it’s for how the building functions and how the building operates. The guts of the building are what get outdated and have to change. That in the H.H. Williams Hospital has gone beyond its date of good economic use. That is one factor. However, we would be prepared to take a look at using portions of that building if we thought that a treatment facility located in Hay River was the best value for our money.

I don’t have that information with me. I don’t remember if the crisis line is still open or not. I can verify that information for the Member and advise the House whether or not that crisis line is still open.

This week we are running the course again, the Mental Health First Aid course. It’s going to be offered to all the regions, and some of the major communities that I notice on the list – I don’t have the list here with me - but I believe one is Hay River. Somebody from Hay River is here. For sure someone from Smith, Yellowknife, Deh Cho, Sahtu, and the Tlicho communities are here taking that course that they will take back to their regions.

Mr. Speaker, probably more success than failure or we would have probably quit funding it after the three-year pilot. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department will do an evaluation of this fiscal year, but it’s not going to wait until the very end of the fiscal year to do an evaluation. We’ll evaluate as we go along to see if some of those programs, like I had indicated earlier, a navigator service to see if there are individuals in there that can find employment or find education and so on. Once that evaluation is done, we still have time prior to the next budget review of main estimates and the finalization of budgets for the 2013-14 budget year which will happen, I guess, this coming January. That will be...

Mr. Speaker, like I indicated, we will fund it for the rest of this fiscal year. That still gives us an opportunity to evaluate and get some funding into the shelter, if that is the decision we make beyond March 31, 2013.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services, through the YK Health and Social Services Authority, is contributing their $125,000, plus are now contributing the share that used to be contributed in a three-year pilot project by BHP for $50,000, for a total of $175,000. That money will run to the end of the 2012-13 fiscal year, at which point we will re-examine our position. Thank you.

Laid out in the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan was the attempt to try to remove the stigma of mental health so that individuals are able to work freely with people who are afflicted with mental health issues. It’s a very, very difficult area.

As the Member indicated, you can’t just, you know, if somebody gets hurt, a physical injury, people know what to do. There’s a certain process. You get the person into the hospital. Mental health cases are different.

We are trying to train people. We are trying to set up a system where individuals are able to identify mental health. We’re trying...