Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Transportation.

How many loads have been trucked up the Mackenzie River winter roads to date this winter season and what is expected to be the total number of loads for the 2013 winter road season?

How many loads are projected to travel on the Mackenzie Valley winter roads in 2013-2014?

How many vehicle accidents have occurred on the Mackenzie Valley winter roads to date this winter road season?

How many maintenance cycles are within each contractor’s section on the Mackenzie Valley winter roads?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Finance, in light of the amount of work that we have to do regarding alcohol abuse in the Northwest Territories and the revenue that he receives on the sale of liquor in the Northwest Territories, is the Minister looking at increasing that percentage to promote some strong, heartfelt campaigns to look at alcohol from a different perspective in people’s lives?

The Northwest Territories Liquor Commission sales in the Sahtu, in Norman Wells was about $2.3 million, up from last year about $220,000 from the previous year, about 10.5 percent. With this campaign program, when you are asking people to have a healthy and responsible attitude towards alcohol, it just flies right over their head.

How is the Minister measuring the effectiveness of this program? How is he getting people to have a healthy and responsible attitude towards the consumption of alcohol? When you look at the alcohol-related crime stats, it certainly doesn’t indicate the effectiveness...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Sahtu we have a high population of youth, I think about 79 percent, that are 15 years and over. Can the Minister tell me where the youth go for drug and alcohol treatment programs in the Northwest Territories?

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories, through the Liquor Commission, made about $46 million last year, 2011-12. That’s the money they made. They contribute about 3 percent of that to promotion of healthy style living and responsible drinking. Nats’ejee K’eh runs on a $2 million budget. The capacity rate is about 45 percent. That runs roughly about $14,800 per client to take a 28-day treatment program.

Has the Minister given some stern direction to the Department of Health and Social Services, saying that Nats’ejee K’eh needs to change its program so that people in my region...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Far too many people are hurt or killed every year in accidents related to alcohol abuse. About half of the drinkers in the Northwest Territories drink heavily, at least once a month. Heavy drinking often leads to dangerous behaviour. More than half the NWT population experiences harm from someone else’s drinking. In 2009 about one in four of those accidents were assaults. This is going on every year. Thousands of people are harmed due to somebody else’s drinking, even if they don’t drink themselves. Of course, many drinkers are harmed too.

Alcohol was a factor in 22...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This budget, when you gotta go, you gotta go.

---Laughter

It is the learning process of doing this budget here over the last nine years. The Minister has been quite steady and has been quite consistent with the message from government. I do want to, on a serious note, offer my condolences to him and his family. That is part of business in the government and continuing on doing what we have to do.

The process that we have entered into is doing our committee work, doing our consultation with the Minister, but the Minister also… I want to hear more about the Minister’s public...

Some time ago the community of Deline asked for this bottled water concept and they were told to come up with $200,000 or $300,000. Small communities like that just don’t have that kind of extra change in their pockets. I’m hoping the Minister would again look at that and see if that’s a possibility.

Another thing I want to ask the Minister, in terms of the potato spud captain of Norman Wells, how he’s helping small entrepreneurial people look at commercial ventures such as having some of those potatoes in some of our communities. I’m looking for the Minister to come forward to our committees...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke about the issues that are important to the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister of ITI regarding the bottled water issue we have in our communities.

We have bottled water that is flown from outside of Canada and within Canada. We have some wonderful, great lakes here, some big lakes here. Has the Minister, through his tenure as Minister of ITI, looked at how the Northwest Territories could capture this market to have bottled water in the Northwest Territories to sell in each community and each store in the North?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Also part of the planning is the safety of the roads. I want to ask the Minister if he would seriously consider looking at some routes in the Sahtu where there would only be a one lane section, because these roads are really, some of the areas are real goat trails and we need to really put some strong safety issues into those areas. I ask the Minister if he would consider looking at the route also for safety measures.