First, budget 2017 provides an additional investment of $45 million, over five years, for this program. Right after the announcement, we engaged with first nations and Inuit partners across the country to determine how this funding would be allocated. This year, for the first time, we have increased the budget of all 237 communities that were receiving the program. We did so because they had been receiving the same amount for a number of years. This budget allowed an increase in the capacity of existing sites. Then we are starting to create new sites in new communities, so at the end of the year there will probably be 140 new locations where this program is available. We did that with the input of our first nations and Inuit partners in each and every region.
In the non-insured health benefits program, which is more a fee-for-service model, we are also paying attention and working with the Assembly of First Nations, for example, to make sure that the providers understand that the client groups are culturally sensitive. Fortunately in both programs we have providers who are indigenous themselves and who understand this, but we have to partner with others to train and provide the information. A lot of the workers that we already have in the department are indigenous. Therefore, there are many fronts by which we will ensure cultural safety around this program.
As I mentioned before in another response, what is really important is also to find a way to have local staff tasked with managing these programs at the local level and to make these work in their context, by creating the trust with the parents and the child that these services will be good for them. I think we would all agree that going to a dentist is not your first choice in the day, so we need local workers to make them feel comfortable that this is good for them, that it's useful, and that it will help over time to prevent problems.
We have to do it in partnership; we cannot do it from outside. This is why these programs have to be grounded in the community. We need to stabilize which provider goes into the community to make sure they develop a relationship and a continuity of services with the family and the child. It's very important.