Jane Groenewegen

Question is being called.

---Carried

Thank you. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Mr. Bouchard.

Question is being called.

---Carried

Thank you. Mr. Menicoche.

I would like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. The first standing committee report we’re going to deal with is 6-17(3), the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure, their report on the 2012 Hydraulic Fracturing Study Tour: Toward a Policy Framework for Hydraulic Fracturing in the Northwest Territories. Mr. Hawkins.

Agreed. Thank you. Our next committee report is from the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures, Report on the Use of Tablet Computers in Formal Session of the Legislative Assembly. Mr. Bromley. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you. Is committee agreed?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re having a theme day. I would like to have a theme government. I would like the 16th Legislative Assembly to be remembered as the government that actually put their money where their mouth was in terms of addictions, and I would like to make that the theme of this government going forward. Will the Minister of Health and Social Services support that?

Last week I said that the Minister has definitely assembled the A-Team on this Minister’s Forum on Addictions and I applaud him for that. He said that he wants the recommendations back by March 2013. Again, that is good. We are interested in seeing those recommendations, too, but those recommendations without the resources to carry out those recommendations are not worth the paper they are written on. Unfortunately, as the Members have said here today, we have had too many studies, too many frameworks. We have spent millions of dollars on stuff like this. We need to start spending money on the...

I get very passionate about this topic. I apologize.

Why can’t we see it for what it is and what it is doing? If we knew there was a road washed out and people went speeding towards an open pit that would result in injury and death for sure, would we not do everything in our power to warn and prevent them from speeding over the edge? Would we not divert the road, put up barricades, warning signs, physically go out and try to do everything we could to stop them? We wouldn’t stand by and say, well, it’s just their choice to take that road.

We need to create a new norm, and we need to do it with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to try to be concise and measured in my comments here. First of all, let me say that I do support the motion. I think that we as a government do need to do more to address a very prevalent and a very large problem in the Northwest Territories. However, there is no amount of money that this government could acquire or could spend that could address this situation in and of itself.

We have to meet people halfway. I do like the fact that this ministerial forum is going out to talk to people in the communities. We as a government have done a disservice to our...