Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask a couple of questions of the Minister of Health and Social Services and it relates to the, as I said in my statement, the crushing burden of alcohol abuse in our society. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister just what emphasis does our current Addictions Strategy place on awareness and avoidance of alcohol abuse?

But I hope that perhaps the point has been made here, that just going out and continuing to buy and spend taxpayers' money on stuff that wears out and breaks down and doesn't get used potentially as much as it could have, there are options, as I asked about, with leasing, with getting the private sector to supply the service as and when needed, rather than investing taxpayers' money in this kind of capital expense. That's all, Mr. Chairman.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We are a society of binge drinkers, young drinkers and violent drinkers. The statistics in all these areas in the NWT are at or near the top of the charts of Canadian booze abusers. Our challenge, Mr. Speaker, it has been said many times and it has to be said over and over again, is to refuse to accept this type of behaviour any longer.

Mr. Speaker, there is a relatively new art or science in the way broad-based behaviours like this can be changed. It is called social marketing. It is something we have adopted in other areas. My colleagues have spoken in praise of the...

Thank you. I certainly appreciate the need for them. If there's a way of augmenting the equipment down there and getting the bridge open sooner and making it safe, that's great. But let's perhaps look at the bright side of things, Mr. Chairman. In two or three or maybe four years we're going to have a bridge. We're not going to need lite track vehicles or ice spray pumps. Instead of spending $625,000 for what would then be obsolete or unneeded equipment, would the department look at renting or leasing or getting the private sector to supply these services? Why do we have to invest this...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to know exactly what are we assisting or who are we assisting, what is this money actually performing or producing? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, the context of this is this is an absolutely essential initiative. In fact, we had a motion just yesterday that discussed items very much related to this. So here we are, it’s reflected to at least some degree, if not a very large degree, in this supp. There is $150,000 earmarked for a review of electricity regulation rates and subsidy programs. Madam Chair, by and large, our assessment in committee is this is an initiative that deals with very high level policy, very likely legislation and some fairly significant financial commitments over time. We felt that it would be far more...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The total bill for this will be under the first of a three-year program, so the total cost for this work on these two tank farms is $1.3 million over three years for decommissioning and environmental remediation. Could the Minister give us a bit of an idea how much to actually do the tear down and then how much for remediation out of that $1.3 million allocation, Mr. Chair?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. We understand from some of the background research that committee has done into this, that the location of these two positions has yet to be determined. So we don’t know which regions or which communities they are going to go to. In fact, similar positions that have been recruited for in the past have been extremely difficult to recruit to. On this one, I am with Mr. McLeod. I looking at the amount of resources, both PY and financial, and it should be noted here that this is $291,000 for two positions. I am assuming that includes travel and related expense to this job...

Where in the North Slave region is this going, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, stand in support of the motion. I’m pleased to see it here. In the almost eight years now that I’ve served in this Assembly, looking back I’ve tried to take a bit of an inventory of just what have we done, or at least what have I done and helped do in the last two terms here that might have contributed something to our government’s role in reducing alcohol abuse. Not a lot of things come to mind, Mr. Speaker. Perhaps I should go through some of the acts in the legislation, but I do recall I think the Motor Vehicles Act in was it the previous Assembly, in...