Norman Yakeleya

I’m not advocating that we take anything away from our students, but this government has been providing non-Aboriginal students with six years of forgivable loans on the backs of the Aboriginal students.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also wanted to recognize Minister Sandy Lee, and Member and Minister David Krutko. They look so happy sitting together up there.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Thank you, colleagues, for allowing us to have this debate in the House on this motion here. When I was reading the motion and the comments from the other interested groups it was quite an eye opener because of the Bill C-38 having an impact in the Northwest Territories. We in the Northwest Territories are going to be dealing with the impacts. We are right now in a very critical stage with our relationship with the federal government. We have devolution. We have the fibre optic line. We have the P3. We have other relationship building that would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if his department has ever done a cost factor of somebody who has abused alcohol or drugs. What has it cost this government? For example, it costs about $90,000 a year to house somebody in our justice system if that person is in there for an alcohol-related crime. Has the Minister done a comprehensive cost factor in regard to someone using and abusing alcohol in our communities?

Thank you, colleagues. We bring again another motion in regard to this issue. We had two other motions in the 16th. So these motions we bring forward as MLAs because this is a very powerful issue that we’re dealing with.

When we all sat down 13 months ago as MLAs, we talked about our priorities. Our priorities talked about this very issue about having healthy people, independent people and healthy families, and addiction was one of the biggest issues that we talked about. So this motion speaks to our priorities of the 17th Assembly.

This motion talks about recognizing gaps – and the government...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, 28 percent of our general population binge drink. Binge drinking is not normal and it’s not normal for us. Growing up in our communities we have seen that. We thought that was normal. We thought that was okay.

Can the Minister outline any type of plan to work with us to tell the communities and show the communities that binge drinking in our communities in the North is not normal? What kind of campaign does he have in place for us to work with them?

I look forward to the information the Minister is going to send over to the House in regard to the cost factor. It’s about dollars and cents. Again, I go back to the point Mrs. Groenewegen made earlier that it’s not normal in our communities to see people drinking on the roads, fighting, swearing. It’s just not normal.

I want to ask the Minister, there’s an elder in Fort Good Hope that said there’s a miracle standing right before you. He said, I haven’t drank in 10 months. It’s a miracle that I’m not drinking. He said, it’s just common sense to take our people out onto the land.

If it costs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise, also, to join my colleagues in talking about an issue that’s been on my agenda for the last nine years of being an MLA and even before that. We have all the resources in our communities to help somebody who wants to help themselves. It takes a lot of commitment from the person to say enough is enough. Mrs. Groenewegen hit it right on the head. She said, this is not normal.

Growing up we didn’t know about alcohol in our communities. We saw it, we felt it, but we didn’t know about what was happening in our communities when there were parties going on. People were...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank my colleagues for their comments. I know the Cabinet is listening. I know people in our communities are listening, and I want to let my colleagues know that this issue has been a long-standing issue in our small communities, no different than the larger centres. They have the same issues in the regional centres and in the small communities.

I think if each Member stands up who has been affected in one way or another by an alcohol or drug issue, we’d all be standing up. We know family and friends, and this motion talks about believing in people. What do we believe...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. WHEREAS investing in prevention, education and awareness, and enhancing addictions treatment programs are priorities of the 17th Legislative Assembly;

AND WHEREAS the Department of Health and Social Services has recently released its Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan 2012-2015, which identifies service gaps including needs for a medical detoxification program, more on-the-land programs, more community follow-up and aftercare following residential treatment, supported independent living programs for individuals with chronic mental illness, stronger integrated...