Mr. Speaker, while I was at the Sahtu Dene Council annual general meeting, people were asking me. We need to have some solid programs on the land in the Sahtu. Because of the increase of the alcohol in the Sahtu and the lifting of the Norman Wells liquor store to unrestricted sales, I have been personally told that people are buying more than they’re allowed to once they come into our communities.

Because the Nats’ejee K’eh is at a 40 percent occupancy rate, we have some money. Can the Minister look at that budget and say we are going to shift some of that money to help our people elsewhere...

Mr. Chair, I look forward to the information from the Minister. In 2011-12 the Territorial Liquor Commission had sales about $46.3 million. Gross sales increased over the previous year by 1.6 percent. In regard to the Liquor Commission, there are goals and objectives. One of them is to educate people on responsible alcohol use and not abusing it. Can the Minister briefly tell me what type of promotional programs they have out there to support their goals and initiatives under this Liquor Commission?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the research I’ve been given in regard to the alcohol that’s been increasing in the Sahtu, I want to just ask the Minister of Health and Social Services. In Norman Wells, the percentage of alcohol-related calls for service – and this is by the Department of Justice – in 2009 was 23 percent; in 2012 it was 52 percent. In Tulita it was 20 percent in 2009; 2012, it was 47 percent.

You see the increase of alcohol because of a number of factors. I think, myself, we believe that the Norman Wells liquor store has lifted the unrestricted sales of liquor there. I want to ask...

Thank you, Mr. Premier, for clarifying that. I probably got mixed up between some of the issues. I just think that because we’re on the brink of forming a government-to-government relationship that some prudence would be given to some of the self-government organizations and self-governments. Maybe that’s something we have to talk about on a larger scale as to education, health, and having summer students or interns that are finished with degrees and could be of assistance to us as to our community or government. We can carry that on some other time. I just wanted to get a sense of where the...

Has the Minister had some type of an idea as to when we would know for sure that this project is going to begin some actual groundwork in that area?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last weekend I had the opportunity to drive the Mackenzie Valley winter road with Minister Ramsay. Over 700 kilometres through God’s country makes a guy feel a little poetic. I want to share with my colleagues here today some of the things that were going through my mind.

Almost heaven, just past Wrigley, Mackenzie Mountains, Deh Cho Big River. The roads get rough here, rough as any seas. Holes and bumps and ridges, spilling coffee on my knees.

Winter road, get me home to the place I belong. Sahtu country, Great Bear River, get me home, winter road.

All the oil companies...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to say something to the Minister on the community operations. The communities are moving towards being more self-sustainable such as the infrastructure that’s going on in the communities. We want to ensure that this continues on. So I want to let the Minister know that the people in the Sahtu that attended the Good Governance courses appreciated it, and they say that was a real good course. So it’s things like that that help our people. If you bring training programs like that into the Sahtu, they wanted me to say thank you on behalf of the people, the ones I...

Madam Chair, the communities have certainly seen the impacts through our boundaries, the roads and the traffic, certainly in Norman Wells. They are starting to realize that this is not going to slow down; because words of the oil companies is that they have encouraging results. So far they are looking at the sites and they are finding it more encouraging than ever. We have a lot of work amongst ourselves to do in our communities. I am looking forward to MACA’s support for additional staff members and additional support for helping us. That’s what I want to ask the Minister, the type of support...

Madam Chair, there is training going on in Alberta. It’s called First Responders Medical Training. I saw it in one of the newspapers. They have it in Alberta. I guess we need to look and see how we can start identifying people in our region to do first responders medical training. We can work with the federal government on this initiative.

The other one is the community infrastructure. If they want to sign on to this, they are looking at a type of purchasing equipment. I’m not too sure how healthy the infrastructure budget is with the communities. They have roads, dumps, other things to look at...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The issue of public safety was of grave concern for the Minister of Transportation, and I when we drove the winter road last weekend there were some near misses. There are big trucks and the roads are quite narrow, so that’s what the Minister and I talked about.

The issue that I want to talk about is some of these vehicles have been struck. I just came back from the Sahtu and the Sahtu Dene Council annual general meeting, and people have come up and said some of their vehicles were hit and some clear misses. Some of them actually come out of the road. I mean, stop their...