Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was going to say I don’t know if I can support this motion because it just makes too much sense. This wouldn’t be our way of doing things. But, you know, Ms. Bisaro just made a comment to me. I mean, even if we went out and borrowed the money to do this, it would make sense.

When we were in committee one day, Mr. Yakeleya drew me a picture. I said, draw me a picture, and he drew a picture of all of our resources here in the Northwest Territories which get piped to a refinery in southern Canada, then get brought back, then get put into a big holding tank and then...

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Does committee agree?

I think there are stories to be told. As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, I think that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission went a long ways towards the healing that comes from people being able to talk about their issues. So while I applaud the Minister for forming this group and sending them out, I think we need to talk to the people who can share the most with us, and I think that is the people affected every day by the addictions in the Northwest Territories.

When does the Minister expect to have results from the work of this commission? Is there still time to integrate this kind of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today, I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Some days I talk about what the Northwest Territories would look like without drugs and alcohol. That’s an exercise that I’d like to use as a bit of a visioning exercise.

We have many, many healthy people in the Northwest Territories and that’s something to celebrate and something I’m very happy about. But you know that political statement that’s always said no one left behind? There’s a lot of people who are living in bondage today to drugs and alcohol, who...

Thank you, committee. We will move on to page 3-17, Human Resources, activity summary, Human Resource Strategy and Policy, operations expenditure summary, $6.774 million. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. We are on page 3-13, Human Resources, activity summary, directorate, operations expenditure summary, $625,000.

I am just wondering, Mr. Dolynny, if that wouldn’t be under management and recruitment services. I’ll allow the Minister to respond if he wishes.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Does committee agree?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We heard our colleague today talk about training so that young Northerners can take advantage of economic growth, all kinds of things.

Will the Minister confirm that when we talk about the amount of money that we spend on social issues as the Government of the Northwest Territories, that addictions should be one of the highest priorities of this government? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in a committee meeting when we were receiving a briefing from ECE the other day, and I’m not going to give away anything super confidential here, but we were talking to children about their education, and there was hardly any of them that did not talk about their ability to get an education in the absence of talking about the addiction to alcohol in their family, in their parents or in their community of one of those things. These were kids that we are talking about education, and they were talking about how many people in the community were drinking. That is an interesting...