As you know, every family deals with this issue. No matter what colour, age, gender, whatever, everybody has a problem within the family. There are no boundaries for addiction issues. What I did in my community was, we did on-the-land and had Poundmaker's come in and do the program for six weeks. We did that three times, plus we also brought them in for aftercare.

I firmly believe that a full-service addictions centre is required for the Northwest Territories. What I mean by "full-service" is that you have the proper staff, staff who are trained to deal with all of the different traumas that happen within families and within people's lives that have made this happen to our people.

We can still do the on-the-land programs within the communities, but there are some cases that are past that sometimes and have mental issues. There are mental issues involved, and I think that we need a territorial addictions centre in the Northwest Territories also.

It was a very successful program, the Fort Smith on-the-land program. We had the whole team, including a psychologist, a psychiatrist, and a full team from Poundmaker's that came to Fort Smith and did the six-week program. Everybody was entitled to that in the Northwest Territories with the way that the funds were done from the Department of Health and Social Services here. Not everybody took advantage of it. I don't know how people felt about it, but I know that the programs that we did with Salt River were open to all of the community. We did not say it was only for Salt River; we had members from all of the communities who came to the on-the-the land program.

I know that we need an addictions centre in the Northwest Territories, and I mean a full-service one, where testing is involved, because not all addictions centres have that. I know that aftercare is extremely important. I know that we have many problems with this in all of the communities. I know that there is a problem here in Yellowknife. You walk down the main street, and there are problems.

It is a big issue, and it has to be looked at by everyone around this table to correct the situation, to try and deal with the issue, to feel for the people who are suffering from addiction and from mental health issues. Thank you.