Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. Mental health and addictions is huge across the Northwest Territories, and I think we have to start within Cabinet. Last Assembly, and I'm thinking it was a good idea and we need to move forward with it, is we had what was called a social issues committee. Part of the members was justice, health, housing. I would like to see human resources as part of that, as well.
We need to sit down as Members because we always talked about programs, so we talked about, debated about, programs, but we never started with developing a philosophy of care. I think that's what we need to do first as Ministers. We need to develop within the social programs: What is our philosophy around caring for people? That's the start. Then, I think we need to move. I'd like to be able to promise treatment centres in every community. That's not going to happen. We don't have the resources. We're all aware of that. Even if we had the resources, it would take many years.
Way back in the day when I was in university, there was a community called Delcauli Lake, and it was a dry community, and so I have to say that was some of it, but the chief and the community put their resources into their people, so, when people went out for treatment, they worked with the whole family, and they developed it with the family. They went in, and they painted their houses. They took care of them, so, when the people came back from the addictions, they had a new life. It wasn't the same environment that they had gone from. It was bright and fresh, and they had worked with their family. I followed it for years, and, sadly, the community had a change in leadership, and they opened up the community. It was no longer dry. The chief didn't believe in the philosophy. The supports weren't there.
What I'm saying, Mr. Speaker-elect, is we can't do this alone. We need the communities to help us with this, and we need everyone. It does take a community to raise a child. It takes a community to have a healthy community. We need to work together in addressing this after-care. The supports when they come home are critical, and, if we can't get a community there, then the least we can do, the very least, is to at least make sure they have a home when they come back. It's not okay. If we send them out and we haven't changed things when they come back, we're setting them up to fail, and that is not the answer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect.