Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank two Pages here from the area of Range Lake. We have Naoka Blondin and MacKinley Moore. Thank you for your assistance, guys.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank Member Menicoche for bringing this motion forward and Mr. Hawkins for seconding it.

I can’t believe that in this day and age we are creating a lot of fear-mongering. Why are we waging a war against our seniors and our elders? It is disheartening. We are not sure where the federal Minister or Finance is going with this, why the perceived crisis. One has to ask: Is there another agenda out there for the public pension system? We don’t know. Again, if you are going to look at savings of any plan, you have to look at the revenue on it. You have to look...

I do appreciate the Minister for his summation again here, but I don’t believe the Minister today is clearly seeing the potential for this exploitation, this manual remittance portion. It’s clear that there is a viable solution out there with a single-source distribution of a wholesaler and it appears that it’s just not in his language. At least it’s not in a language that I think will address the issue. I have highlighted a potential problem in our tax collection process, and in doing so, if the Minister isn’t going down this pathway, what measures will he put forward so that we can put...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today in my Member’s statement I made reference to a potential open door in the tobacco tax collection process. Specifically, the manual self-reporting remains portion of the GNWT tax. As stated, I have highlighted a potential problem which fails to ensure we are indeed getting the maximum tax of what tobacco comes into the NWT for sale. In order to put accountability and public trust into the system as it stands today, would the Minister of Finance consider having a one-source of distribution for all tobacco coming into the Northwest Territories so that we can...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Tobacco is bad, period. We all agree that cigarettes contain known carcinogens that cost our health care systems millions of dollars annually. What kills me even more is that I don’t think we’re collecting all our taxes on this product, because I believe we have an open door in the tobacco tax collection process itself that is half open, and this half-open door could be potentially exploited. I will attempt to walk the Members here today down a very complex path in tobacco tax collection.

To start, there are a myriad of terms thrown in the collection of tax for tobacco...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that, on Monday, February 20, 2012, I will move the following motion: now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that the Legislative Assembly strongly recommends the Government of the Northwest Territories establish a territory-wide campaign to denounce bullying, including cyber-bullying, and provide information and resources for schools, parents, victims and bystanders;

And further, that the government review anti-bullying legislative measures being undertaken in other jurisdictions and bring forward a bill for consideration by...

I thank the Minister for indicating we have a pilot project out there. That leads me to think that with a pilot project, we obviously must be working towards something. I’m hoping that that issue is potentially a Mental Health Strategy. With that question in mind, can the Minister indicate is this the precursor to the Mental Health Strategy that this government has been so desperately looking towards?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked a bit more about the mental strain and struggles that a lot of victims go through with respect to bullying and cyber-bullying. If there was ever an ideology to put forward in terms of the Mental Health Strategy, I think this would be one of the best cases going forward.

My question for the Minister of Health is: Given the fact that, in my Member’s statement today and I am sure the Minister would agree, we’re dealing with a lot of potential depressive illnesses here, prolonged psychological issues with victims of bullying, can the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier this week I had the opportunity to talk about anti-bullying and cyber-bullying and my commending the Quebec government for introducing new measures to counter bullying in schools. Questions earlier this week posed to our own Minister of Education also asked about the Northwest Territories embarking on a journey of creating better sound legislation to combat bullying. We have heard some promise, but we need these measures now.

I can’t tell you the vast number of parents, teachers and students that contacted me since my Member’s statement earlier in the week in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake is exactly right; it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to bring this motion today to the table, it takes a bird scientist.

---Laughter

And I want to make that known.

Addictions are, no less, the breakdown of the moral fabric of our society. I don’t think anyone in this room would contradict that at all. Abuse, whether it’s the addiction to alcohol, drugs, prescribed drugs, these are not going to go any time soon. In fact, our statistics are showing that this is growing at an alarming rate. We need to think outside the box. We’ve got to look...