Debates of May 31, 2005 (day 5)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Finance and FMBS, the Honourable Floyd Roland. Madam Speaker, I understand from newspaper reports that liquor revenue that came out of the Northwest Territories last year was $36 million and I wanted to ask the Minister if there was any plans within the government to see how this money could be put back into the regions that desperately need programs such as the TTC and alcohol and drug programs. Could some of this money from the liquor revenue fund go back into the regions that need the help? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister responsible for the NWT Liquor Commission, Mr. Roland.

Return To Question 67-15(4): Using Liquor Revenues For Regional Drug And Alcohol Programs

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the Liquor Commission has the revolving fund. That fund is paid back into the GNWT general revenue and used for programming throughout the Northwest Territories. So in a sense, it already comes back to the government and is used for programs. It is not specifically targeted, but it comes back to the government and we use that money to help run programs and services. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 67-15(4): Using Liquor Revenues For Regional Drug And Alcohol Programs

Madam Speaker, I guess the perception out there is that the money that is used in terms of causing a lot of heartaches and headaches down the Mackenzie Valley in terms of liquor is why don’t you put some money back. There is a huge chunk of money in the revolving fund. Put it back into the alcohol and drug programs so we contribute to these heartaches and headaches down the Mackenzie Valley. Certainly I think the government could do some shifting in their priorities, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Roland.

Further Return To Question 67-15(4): Using Liquor Revenues For Regional Drug And Alcohol Programs

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, as a government we can tally up all the areas that we fund to deal with the impacts of drug and alcohol. It is, as the Member puts it, a crying shame that we have to spend as much money as we do to deal with the impacts of something like drugs and alcohol. It is a problem in the Northwest Territories. We do spend a lot of money. Just look at the fact that if we have to deal with just one child that has FASD, it’s a cost to the government throughout the life of that child that’s 100 percent preventable. We do, as I was stating earlier, take the money we have and put it into programs and services. As a government, we have to look at how we deal with the prevention side of alcohol abuse and how we do that. That’s something we are going to have to cope with overall as a government. The money we do have, in the area of $36 million, comes back into the general revenues and we use that to offset the programs and services we already deliver. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 67-15(4): Using Liquor Revenues For Regional Drug And Alcohol Programs

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, not understanding the process fully, Madam Speaker, the people in my region I represent say the money we had made from liquor stores, off-sales and the bars is a huge amount of money. Yet when we go into the communities and ask for treatment programs or programs that would help people such as for FAS or behavioural issues we were just talking about, why is it that we cannot put more money into programs because of damages that the alcohol is doing to our communities and our regions? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Roland.

Further Return To Question 67-15(4): Using Liquor Revenues For Regional Drug And Alcohol Programs

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, there is one way of looking at this. If we say we are going to take a percentage of this or take all the revenue that would come back to general revenues, which is used for programs and services delivered by Health and Social Services and the sales decline and the money starts to drop, what do we do then? The way we do it now is the Department of Health and Social services would come forward with a request for funding and ask for increases if they have new programs and services they want to deliver or enhance existing ones. With that, we would review that and look at every department to see what money we have available and however we came up with the right balance. So again, Health and Social Services, a large part of their budget goes to drug and alcohol-related problems we have in the Territories, and Justice as well as Education as part of their funding purposes. If we tallied all the money we spent in the drug and alcohol-related expenditure side, we would quite easily go over the amount we bring in from the Liquor Commission. Do we need to put more into the prevention side? That’s something we need to get direction on. If this House says that is a higher priority than other areas, then as we go forward with our business plans we can start to incorporate that into the business plans.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 67-15(4): Using Liquor Revenues For Regional Drug And Alcohol Programs

Thank you, Madam Speaker. We require further discussions in other forums of this Assembly in terms of the question I want to follow up with the Minister on. The way that the trend is now, I don’t think we are going to lose any money. The revenues are increasing every year. The Minister has indicated that programs and services are being delivered out of the general revenue fund. Going back into the revenue, we subsidize a lot of the booze in the Northwest Territories. Is that something that the Minister would look at? Milk is quite expensive in our small communities. Oranges and apples are quite expensive. Sometimes booze is cheaper in our region. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Roland.

Further Return To Question 67-15(4): Using Liquor Revenues For Regional Drug And Alcohol Programs

Thank you, Madam Speaker. First and foremost, let me be very clear. We do not subsidize alcohol in the Northwest Territories. In fact, we have some of the highest mark-ups of alcohol compared to other jurisdictions and that’s where we get a lot of the profits from. So we don’t subsidize. We don’t subsidize the transportation. We don’t subsidize the sales. It’s all profit and we have some of the highest mark-ups on alcohol products compared to other jurisdictions. I know it’s a difficult comparison when you look at some of the costs of essentials in a community like milk and fresh produce compared to places like Yellowknife or places that have easy access to get the goods in the communities. So it is difficult to compare that but, to be clear, we don’t have a subsidy program for alcohol products. Thank you.