Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise, also, to join my colleagues in talking about an issue that’s been on my agenda for the last nine years of being an MLA and even before that. We have all the resources in our communities to help somebody who wants to help themselves. It takes a lot of commitment from the person to say enough is enough. Mrs. Groenewegen hit it right on the head. She said, this is not normal.
Growing up we didn’t know about alcohol in our communities. We saw it, we felt it, but we didn’t know about what was happening in our communities when there were parties going on. People were fighting. Kids were running around. We didn’t know the power of alcohol. Now, we said, well, because of the person’s characteristics, the defects, but we didn’t know about the spirit of alcohol and how powerful it is. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from, once it gets you, it’s very, very tough to leave. Growing up, one of our saving graces was to go out in the bush, on the land. We were happy because it got us out of the community and to the bush and to live like a family. Over the years, as we remained in the community, the alcohol took us over.
A lot of good people in this room here have the answers. We can sit down and listen to each other. We know the tragic effects to people in our communities who are drinking at 11 and 12 years old. We need to create a place for them to say it’s okay to get help. We need to put our policies in place to say it’s okay to have this issue with alcohol and to get help. We need to create that. We need to think beyond what our policy is saying. I hope this goes out to the people of the Northwest Territories. We are trying as MLAs to help the ones who need the help.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
