Thank you, Ginette.
Very quickly, in 2018 we know that Canada and Manitoba announced a new health transfer agreement. Within the agreement, there was an allocation to the province of approximately $181 million over 10 years for improving mental health and addictions services. At this time, AFM and our RHAs have been directed to reduce annual budgets by 1% to 4%. This raises the question of where the federal money in the new agreement is being directed.
The City of Winnipeg—so our mayor and council—in September of this year unanimously passed a motion calling for an intergovernmental task force on methamphetamine use, with a mandate to identify treatment and prevention strategies. Council pledged to create its own task force if the province or Ottawa did not step up by November 19, 2018, which has already passed. At this point in time, we're not sure where all of that is, but we remain hopeful that something will be done. The recent throne speech in Manitoba did not make any commitment to a task force, but it did say that there would be some future announcements relative to that.
Just to close, I wear another hat in Winnipeg. I'm president of the Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg. In that role, I'm very aware of the impact of these powerful drugs on members of our community and other vulnerable communities, such as the homeless population and people in poverty. They are the least equipped to meet these challenges—and they're very real. In my job, my role, I interact with families in our community in many different ways. I've had direct experience with some of the nasty outcomes, effects, directly on families, particularly on mothers and children. It's a serious issue. We have a collective table of leaders in Winnipeg, and we will be advocating strongly for more attention to this situation.
Thank you.