Debates of December 14, 2011 (day 8)

Date
December
14
2011
Session
17th Assembly, 1st Session
Day
8
Speaker
Members Present
Hon. Glen Abernethy, Hon. Tom Beaulieu, Ms. Bisaro, Mr. Blake, Mr. Bouchard, Mr. Bromley, Mr. Dolynny, Mrs. Groenewegen, Mr. Hawkins, Hon. Jackie Jacobson, Hon. Jackson Lafferty, Hon. Bob McLeod, Hon. Robert McLeod, Hon. Michael Miltenberger, Mr. Moses, Mr. Nadli, Hon. David Ramsay, Mr. Yakeleya
Topics
Statements

MEMBER’S STATEMENT ON EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES TO BE STRONG AND HEALTHY

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement today reflects on something that results in poverty. It results from the drug dealers and the bootleggers that continue to keep our people hostage in the community and don’t give them a chance to succeed or strive to live a healthy, normal life like most of us do.

The drug dealers and bootleggers in our communities don’t have any morals. They don’t have any compassion for the people. All they care about is the dollar that goes in their pocket, feeding off people’s weaknesses and their addictions. What the government needs to do is develop more funding and more programs that will help people become empowered in the community so that they can speak up and take action against the drug dealers and get them out of the communities, and the bootleggers out of the communities, and allow them to live healthier lifestyles. Everyone has brothers, sisters, family members that are going through addictions, going through problems based on somebody else’s monetary gains. That needs to stop.

In terms of poverty, when somebody does get addicted and they are battling addictions, they do lead to having less money to make the daily services that they need to survive and have a healthy lifestyle.

Today I wanted to empower the people of the Northwest Territories and the people in the communities to stand up against these drug dealers, talk to your politicians, talk to your community members, talk to the RCMP officers. Use the Crime Stoppers website to get these guys out of your communities, and start living a healthy lifestyle and getting out of these poverty situations that we are talking about here today.

It is a different approach to poverty, and it is a healthy approach and it is a strong approach that can empower our people to be stronger as one and have a stronger territory in the end. GNWT can look at also helping out by giving services; for instance, having more road checks on the highways that access into the Northwest Territories, as well as doing more checks within the cargo services provided at the airports as well as doing more bag checks at the airports as well. We need to take this stand and get the drug dealers out of our communities so that our people can live a healthy and normal lifestyle. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.