Robert Hawkins

The citizens of Yellowknife feel very strongly about this, and I’m not trying to raise the ire of the Members here or certainly the public, but quite often you hear, when we call for a treatment centre here in Yellowknife, they say, well geez, the Legislative Assembly has an anti-Yellowknife attitude. Well, some days it really feels like that, but when they closed the Nats’ejee K’eh Centre, you think that they have an anti-treatment attitude. They’ve hurt Northerners. They spent a quarter of a million as a retainer for these treatment services down south.

What is the Minister willing to invest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to this opportunity to ask questions to the Health Minister regarding crack and prescription drug use and what we are doing about it.

I was talking to my eight-year-old son yesterday, and this is no word of a lie and I dare anyone to counter that. He told me he heard about crack, and I’m telling you that was a shock to my wife and I to hear about it. We asked him what this is and he says, the kids talk about it at school. It’s not about one school, it’s the fact it upsets me and actually really ticks me off that my eight-year-old son is starting to...

This government, this very government had spent upwards of $10 million in fire suppression in the Northwest Territories this year and successive years and years before that. We spend a measly $2 million or $2.2 million on addictions.

Can the Minister of Health and Social Services explain to me how we’re meeting the needs when we spend five times the amount on fires than we do putting out the fires of the cancer of addictions and prescription drugs when it’s hurting real people? Thank you.

Thank you. Personal responsibility and sending people out for treatment, let’s follow that thread to see where we go.

We send people out and we have contracts down south and I’m aware that they’re coming up in the new year. Let’s start with finding out first what the success rate is of the people we send out of the Northwest Territories on these treatment programs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think everyone knows how I feel about this particular issue but, just in case someone hasn’t heard, I’m certainly willing to share it, once again, in this Assembly.

How far have we carried this message of addictions and the need for action? Study after study keeps telling us the same things our Minister’s Forum on Addictions keeps telling us. What have we learned? We’ve learned the same things over and over again, yet we’ve realized nothing.

What we have realized is we’ve seen the closure of the Nats’ejee K’eh. That was a bombshell. That was a shocker to every single...

Thank you, Madam Chair. October 17th, the Economic Development and Infrastructure committee read a lengthy report, quite detailed, on some of the issues we’d seen and come across. We don’t go through that report again today, but I’ll use the occasion, as Minister Miltenberger has, to acknowledge that a lot of work and collaboration has gone into the Wildlife Act and the work provided in a small part, in a small way, by the Economic Development and Infrastructure committee was a challenge we were certainly up to.

Although, the Minister has pointed out it’s been almost 20 years to bring this to...

I can’t be the only one noticing the Minister continues to not answer the question, which is: What immediate response can the Minister, through the department, through that government, do to help the immediate need that everyday Northerners need, which is relief on their power bills? This government wanted to help the cost of living for Northerners and this is something we can do. I will continue to launch question after question on this issue until he does something. What can he do? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement both yesterday and certainly today, I talked about why Yellowknife is number one and certainly the Northwest Territories is number one when it comes to power rates. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corp what relief he can provide Northerners for power bills. It is well beyond the reach of the normal working family who struggles through this.

What immediate relief can he start doing, especially in the Yellowknife region where power bills are costing people everything? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the job that the House Leader has to do and I say that with great respect. He’s doing his job. As far as his challenge under 23(k) and (l), I think he’s in error and I’ll say why.

In the House yesterday, I will quote from unedited Hansard, “That was my intent when I said I apologize to this House sincerely and fully, and with that, I withdraw my remarks. My apologies for missing that last piece.” Of course, it also goes on, “It was not intended in any other manner.”

Yesterday I pointed out to the public who’s following this particular issue, yes, I did post...