Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today is World No Tobacco Day. I would like to make use of this opportunity to recognize the work that is being done to create a smoke-free society in the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, there are numerous examples of people and communities working to a common goal of a smoke-free society:

A new campaign targeting school children is using a character named Butthead to encourage kids to commit to be smoke-free. This campaign has only been running for a few weeks and already about 1,340 kids have made the commitment;

New health units have been developed that discuss the effects of smoking. They will be in schools in September;

Almost all workplaces are now smoke-free through the action of the Workers’ Compensation Board of the NWT and Nunavut;

This winter, students across the North took part in an initiative called Smoke Screening. They watched some of the best anti-smoking ads from around the world and voted on their favourite. We will announce the winner later today, and put it on northern TV;

The 2nd annual Quit and Win Contest, sponsored by the NWT/Nunavut branch of the Canadian Public Health Association, has encouraged hundreds of people to try quitting. This year’s winner was Kenneth Hoddinott. I would also like to congratulate his buddy and wife, Cheryl Fountain, who also succeeded in quitting during the contest.

But even with all of this good work, it is clear that we will still have a long way to go. The average age when NWT children start to smoke is 12 or 13.

Mr. Speaker we need to reach those children before they become smokers. We will be taking that message to youth events around the territory this summer, and continuing into next year. We have a new anti-smoking video that will be used in schools, and kids from across the NWT are wearing “Don’t be a Butthead” T-shirts that they received when they committed to be smoke-free. This is a light-hearted theme that has a very serious message. Cigarettes are killing us. It’s estimated that second-hand smoke kills 3,600 Canadians every year. It’s time to change that. Mr. Speaker, the department is proposing tobacco legislation that will back up community, regional and territorial efforts to create a smoke-free society. It will complement the new Workers’ Compensation Board’s regulations on environmental tobacco smoke in the workplace.

I look forward to working with the communities and the Members of this House to make these projects successful. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.