Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. We’ll go to Mr. Miltenberger first.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ve spent a good deal of my public working life, as Minister, as MLA on social programs, working for the Department of Health and Social Services and as mayor, dealing with this issue. I consider, still, alcohol and the abuse of alcohol to be probably the single biggest social problem in the Northwest Territories. There has been extensive work done, plans laid out, significant investments made in trying to support the communities' ability to deal with the issue of alcohol and drugs. Now this Legislature has a chance, as we look at the vision and strategic direction over the next four years, to look at the work that was done by the 15th Assembly and if

there are adjustments that the Assembly wants to make, then the job of the government will be to adjust to those changes within the resources, as has been pointed out a number of times, that we have available and that we can possibly get from the federal government. Keeping in mind, as well, one issue that has not come up in the House yet, but is there hanging over our heads like the sword of Damocles, is we have a significant number of sunsetted health programs like the Territorial Health Access Fund that brings millions and millions of dollars into our territory that are set to lapse unless we can negotiate an agreement with the federal government to have those built into our base; something that has yet to be done. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Roland.

Thank you. That definitely is a challenge for us as Members of the 16th Legislative Assembly and how we

will deal with that. Every government has been tasked with that. We’ve heard many comments about where it’s gone, what’s not working and what needs to be done to make it work better. One is the recognition that one size doesn’t fit all. The idea of trying to keep people who are going through rehabilitation and who want rehabilitation, that a service is available to them. That’s one thing we have to first meet the need. That’s talking about the tools of giving our people here, is give them the tools when they’re ready to go for help, we’re there to help them. Is a building in a community and a sign out there as solid as actually meeting with people face to face? I think it’s the people side we have to focus on. I can speak from personal history. There are a lot of times we, as government, put programs in place and all we are doing is enabling people not to make a decision to make the right decisions in life, to strengthen where they are and be who they need to be for their family members. Sometimes we need to practice some tough love. That’s very difficult from a government perspective and I think, first and foremost, we need to set the example here and we need to send the message out to say how disruptive, destructive these things are going. For example, I’ll follow on the heels of the new Liquor Act that will come into effect soon, we’ll make it tougher for those who feed on those who are weak in our society and we need to take that approach more often and stronger. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The Chair will recognize the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have two questions to the Premier candidates. First question: What role do the Premier candidates see for the GNWT in exploration, non- renewable resource development, the environment, and land resource and self-government negotiations of aboriginal governments?

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Roland first.

Yes. There are a lot of issues there to look at. But I think again we have to build on the foundation that is before us. We have some areas with settled claims, we have acts that have been put in place to help with how aboriginal organizations and governments play and role in exploration in the Northwest Territories, and even development, and we have a role as the GNWT. Part of what we need to do is bring all of it together into the Northwest Territories. That's the difficulty we face right now, whether it's an aboriginal business, a non- aboriginal business, a small company or a large company. Coming into the Northwest Territories to do business can be fairly difficult, because they have to go to the door of the GNWT, to the door of the federal government and to the organizations that are responsible in their area. For the Inuvialuit, they have their land processes available. The Gwich'in have a structure set up through their process, renewable resource council. We have the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. So all those pieces are being put in place and we need to build on them to make sure there's a clear understanding of what's expected by those coming into the North who want to do work in the North and the fact that nowadays, as I stated earlier, the peoples of the North are no longer just the labourers, they're the businesspeople and they have some interest in how this North develops. But as well, because we have a special interest in the Northwest Territories, we're going to watch how that development happens to ensure that our children have a place they still can call home, they can still go out and practice their traditional activities on the land. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on the fairly extensive areas touched on by the Member for Tu Nedhe, I would just say this: we have, in all those areas, moral and political authority to be involved. In some areas we have legal authority and ability to be involved and we should exercise that to the fullest. But in all those areas, we cannot wait or count on the federal government to protect our interests. We have to take charge, along with the aboriginal governments, on issues of the environment and resource development, all those very fundamental questions. We have to work together and exercise that political and moral authority to drive the process. If we do not, the federal government will do as it has done for the last number of decades. They'll give the resources away, they'll pretty well abrogate their responsibility in the area of water and all those other critical areas, and this is part of our devolution discussions. That is an authority that we have to get in the North and that is the one reason aboriginal governments will come to make a deal with the territorial government, is to have those authorities here in the Northwest Territories where they so rightly belong. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The health and well- being of our youth in our communities is very important. What role do the Premier candidates see in the imbalance in programs and services and infrastructure for the youth between large communities and the small communities?

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. I'll go to Mr. Miltenberger first.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is an area that I've touched on while maybe not as directly as I could have in my comments, but as we commit and look at the need for a healthy population, clearly our children are very important and it starts with, as my colleague Mr. Roland indicated, babies being born healthy. But more importantly, we have to make a commitment across the board and a long-term budget commitment or program commitment to continue such things as the Get Active program, the prevention programs that are going to stress the need for healthy lifestyles. A big infrastructure commitment is that every school should have a gymnasium and a phys. ed. program that allows students to get some exercise every day that they're in school, keeping in mind that the investment now will save us at least $7 million downstream as the youth grow up and get older. We know that to be true, because we just have to look at our health costs right now with the issues of obesity and diabetes and the ravages of alcohol and smoking. So that's an investment that we have to make at the front end. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Roland.

Thank you. I think that question goes almost right to the fundamental values we hold and how we develop as families. One thing that I've seen -- I mean I'll go right back to when I was a young boy growing up in Inuvik -- there were no facilities as that community holds today. In fact, when the school shut down -- and this is probably out of sanity reasons in our own home with such a large family -- when the school shut down because of cold weather in the winter, we stayed home and if we got too rambunctious in the house, my mother said go outside and play. So although the school said it's too cold to go to school, our parents knew that you needed to be active, get out. You couldn't live within the four walls of a house. I think that's one of the things we have to do, is get that message back out to our children. I even wrestle with it myself with my own children in this day and age of having everything at your fingertips, talking about Play Station 3 and Xbox LIVE, where everybody thinks that they get their stimulation and their health out of playing a game that they sit on their couch. We need to go back to where we were when we say to our children, you need to go outside and you need to play some road hockey or something. That's where it starts from. But more importantly, as a government program area, one of the things we started doing, for example -- and I'll use some of the work of the smaller communities -- as we establish budgets, we look at those budgets and we recognize the fact that some of the smaller communities have less ability to deal with some of the impacts they have, so we break out a portion of that budget. That gives more per capita to small communities than larger communities, and that's something we need to continue to work with. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The Chair will recognize the honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. To the candidates, first of all, thank you very much for running and

putting your names forward. I'm interested in hearing what programs you will promote that will contribute to the prevention of our social issues. In particular, I'm thinking of poverty, housing, crime, violence, substance abuse; these issues that we've heard so much about. What are the programs that you will be promoting that will really get at preventing those issues? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Chair will recognize Mr. Roland first.

Thank you. I think we need to start first and foremost, as was mentioned earlier, on the side of prevention. We need to get more information out there at an early age, and the families, to show the impacts some decisions are having on lives of individuals and families. I think we also need to recognize the fact that as a government, almost 70 percent of the budget is spent in those areas. I think we need to even go further back to say what was life like back 40 years ago when this government first came north from Ottawa, and what have we done. Can we build on that and strengthen it? But ultimately, I think again it's about the tools, having the tools for individuals to make decisions in their communities. But at the same time, we need to ensure that as they look at these things, that we are sending the message that we need to strengthen our position as a people, and by that we need healthy people. So when they're talking about social programs, housing programs, how our justice facilities are working, when we sit down as 16th Assembly Members and looking at our budgets,

that's when every Member around this table can have their own fingerprint on what programs or priorities as a government. That's where I would say, as Premier, I would work with the Members to see what are the areas we need to put priority on as we review the spending plans of any government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've spent 12 years in this House as a Minister and MLA, so I'd have to say to the Member for Weledeh that what the government is now doing, I've had a hand in pushing them to do, encouraging them to do. When I travelled around the communities, I always reiterated the message of the four points. If you want a healthy life and a good life, then don't smoke, don't drink or abuse drugs, watch your diet and get some exercise. Those are very simple but profound personal choice issues. The issue of the family responsibility is also a critical one that we cannot move away from, and we have to continue to push the value of education. We have to look at education, because studies show very clearly that the better educated people are, the better their choices tend to be, the better their quality of life tends to be. We have to work with the communities and look at that.

Specially, I'd just like to point to an issue that's going to get some discussion in this House over the next number of years. We focussed, as a government, on the volume of graduates by the Department of Education, especially out of the small communities where there is grade extensions. I think the issue and focus now that has come to light very clearly is not only the volume, but are, and how many of, those students coming out of grade extensions in the small communities are actually college and university ready. Do they have the proper programs in the communities? I would think, from what I've been hearing and seeing, that that is an issue where the people will be telling us that it's not working to that extent. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Candidates, on the issue of climate change. Climate change affects every aspect of our lives and it does today and it will even more in the future. We know it's primarily caused by combustion of fossil fuels. These fuels, of course, are big, both for our industry and even in our regular lives at home. I would like to ask you, how will you work to mitigate climate change and help our people adapt to the irreversible changes that are now predicted to occur? Thank you.