Tom Beaulieu

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Justice on my Member's statement on family violence. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister a question on the 2007 needs survey which was conducted by the GNWT and the Coalition Against Family Violence, entitled "NWT Family Violence Attitudinal Survey." I'm wondering if the Department of Justice, in conjunction with other departments, is planning to conduct another family violence survey like the one that was done in 2007? Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that the chair rise and report progress. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Justice has some role in the agreement between the RCMP and the Department of Justice. I would like to ask the Minister if that department, or him specifically, meets regularly with RCMP to talk about ways to address the combatting of family violence?

Mr. Speaker, did the results of the 2007 family-violence survey have an impact on policies of the Department of Justice? If so, what specific measures or policies to date are a direct result of this survey?

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in the House we are bringing attention to the issue of family violence. First off, I would like to begin by reading the definition of "family violence" as per Canada's Department of Justice website. It reads that "family violence is when someone uses abusive behaviour to control or harm a member of their family or someone with whom they have an intimate relationship [...] It may include a single act of violence or a number of acts that form a pattern of abuse [...] There are many forms of violence, which include physical, emotional, financial, sexual...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It might be cheaper than flying fuel in, though.

Mr. Chairman, it is very difficult to sit here without any information at all. We don't have any information. I am asking the Minister if they have looked at something. He says they don't have to look at it. He is talking about wear and tear on the road. I think that, if you drive stuff in the winter over the highway, a gravel road driven in the wintertime can handle a lot more when the road is frozen than, obviously, the Minister realizes.

What I am saying is we should look at other possibilities, because unless the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'm not really sure where to start with this. I haven't been obviously impacted in the people that I represent, but I see that other people around the territory have been impacted by, I guess, we don't want to use the word "mistakes," but maybe a bit of a miscalculation on the part of the people doing this.

For the most part, the weather, the ice, and all that is pretty well consistent from year to year. I mean, I'm not saying it's the same every year. I mean the one thing that's predictable is that the weather is not predictable. That's what I'm saying...

I'd like to ask the Minister, just along the same lines, a little bit of difference: is there a possibility that, without any prohibition or anything, that the government or the liquor stores themselves can set a restriction on the amount of alcohol an individual can purchase in one day?

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. On my Member's statement, I talked about the impacts of alcohol in the small communities, or I guess impacts of alcohol in all our communities. You probably know the answer to this, but I'm going to ask the Minister of Finance if he could look at the possibility of reinvesting some profits directly into the issues of the impacts of alcohol in the communities. Thank you.

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today, I wish to speak about alcohol and the effects on the NWT, especially on the Indigenous population. Alcoholism, however, is a disease that affects all people who have alcoholics in their families or social circles, whether it's a co-worker, friend, or somebody else in the community.

Mr. Speaker, let's begin with some facts. According to a recent study of the Canadian Institute for Health Information, in 2016, there were a total of 77,000 hospitalizations entirely due to alcohol, which is more than the number of hospitalizations due to heart attacks for...