Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last week I met with the RCMP to discuss concerns that my constituents have been raising with me. There is a fear to walk downtown or on the Frame Lake Trail in the evenings with residents reporting an escalation in property crime radiating out from the downtown core throughout the city.
I belong to two neighbourhood groups from my riding on social media and in both, I see an increasing number of posts and comments regarding people casing out their neighbourhoods, rifling through vehicles for loose change, or brazenly stealing from their yards in the middle of the day. The RCMP told me that in one month, they average about 1300 calls in Yellowknife; of those, 500 are in the immediate downtown core.
While this may seem like the others are not a result of the growing social issues in the downtown, this is not the case. Often these are reports of groups of thieves that are targeting specific neighbourhoods in order to find enough easy cash, or items to sell, to feed their addictions, whether that be alcohol or crack.
Mr. Speaker, crack is an epidemic in our territory but you rarely hear the Minister, or the government, speak of it. They will talk about drugs tainted with lethal opioids and issue emergency warnings for that; however, where is the acknowledgement of the crack crisis we are facing? Where is the action plan to deal with the crack that is ravaging communities?
A friend recently pointed out that for the first time ever during the spring community cleanup, they found numerous broken crack pipes around the downtown and in the forested areas around it. Crack and alcohol addictions are destroying our communities. Mr. Speaker, not just in Yellowknife.
On Friday night, I witnessed an extremely disturbing situation involving a young child, barely a toddler, on the streets at midnight and in the company of some people very obviously in the throes of addiction. It broke my heart and I have to question what is going on in this territory?
Mr. Speaker, this should not be happening, not in Canada and not in the 21st century. When is this government going to stand up and start taking treatment seriously and stop making decisions based on money? One only has to look at the loss of the Poundmaker's contract to know where their priorities lie. Saving money and asserting control, Mr. Speaker; that is the priority of this government. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Members' statements. Member for Thebacha.
