Bill Braden

Madam Chair, I will use up as little air as possible. I move that this committee recommends that the funding for the review of electricity regulation, rates and subsidy programs in the amount of $150,000 under the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, operations expenditures, not previously authorized on page 22, be transferred to the activity Executive offices within the Department of the Executive. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Chair, one of the initiatives outlined here, it is a new initiative. It is to provide funding for decommissioning and environmental remediation of tank farms in Fort McPherson and Wrigley to the tune of $350,000. I wanted to ask, Mr. Chair, are these funds in any way being secured through the eco-Trust funding or any of these kinds of initiatives from Ottawa, or are they being handled in our regular course of business in managing our tank farms, Mr. Chair?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask the Minister if he could provide some detail on these positions. I can’t ask questions on a motion, Mr. Chair? Okay. Well, then we’ll go with …

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Along I guess a similar line here, we're looking at a budget item for a heliport for the North Slave region at $537,000. Are we buying the helicopter too, Mr. Chairman? Perhaps my understanding of what's required for a heliport is a little short sighted on this, but a half a million dollars? From what I understand, a heliport is basically a landing pad. Maybe the Minister could assist me there, too, in the scope of this project.

Mr. Speaker, have we developed, along with these partners or in any context, any kind of targets or objectives that we want to try to achieve over a given period of time that would show that we’re actually getting somewhere, that we’re actually making some results? What are the targets and the objectives, Mr. Speaker?

Oh, I see. Well, there's some wild speculation going on over here, but perhaps the Minister could help out, Mr. Chair.

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, Mr. Speaker. I, too, speak in favour of the motion. It is, indeed, high time that the premise and the thresholds that were established I think about 15 years ago now, in the original policy, that this government chose to do were set and have not been amended since then. As Members have said, yes, the cost of delivering that service across the NWT has escalated considerably, but also, Mr. Speaker, so have the demands of the modern household and the modern business. So while we’re all coping with growing energy bills, we’re also all coping with increased consumption. It is to...