Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was able to spend some time with the mover of the motion with respect to the concerns I had with regard to the motion in totality. I have indicated that I basically support the concept and the intent of the motion, but as I have stated to the mover, I have problems with his discussion on the motion once it was moved and ready for debate. I want to indicate to this House the types of concerns I have with respect to this motion.
A special committee on health and social services can no doubt be used to assist Members to determine how we can be able to approach the concerns that relate to social services and health in the Territories. I have always said two things that are major stumbling blocks in being able to address social issues accordingly.
First of all, the main concern I want to bring forth to Members' attention is with respect to the social fabric that we have in our societies. We have to ask ourselves what is acceptable in society. What does society allow to be acceptable that we feel may cause social problems? I know that there are many communities in the North that do not look at incest, for example, being a major problem. It has not been until the past four or five years that this government really looked at the problem of child sexual abuse and decided to deal with it. The same with family violence. Ten years ago, people could not even speak of spouses being beaten up. That was something you simply did not talk about because it was not acceptable to society to beat up your wife, but society did not really openly object to it either. As a result, you had these types of social problems hidden away for years. It has not been until the past 10 years that our government has decided to deal with these social issues.
I know that four or five years ago, the Department of Social Services did not even have funding to deal with suicide because of the fact that they knew it was a problem, but they did not realize how bad it was until it started coming to the forefront of this Assembly.
This is where I have stated in caucus that until we can determine what is acceptable to society and what society will accept, that will allow them to determine what type of social problems there are. It is difficult for us as a Legislature to be able to say family violence is a social problem, child abuse is a social problem, child sexual abuse is a social problem and incest is a social problem. It is difficult for us to be able to determine what society wants to be their social problems.
The other fundamental problem is which society is willing to deal with these problems because there are many societies in the North that just do not want to deal with them, period. Even as a Legislative Assembly it was not until last week that we said we will not allow any more liquor to be given at government functions. It was an acceptable thing to us. That is a social problem. Alcohol is one of the major social problems in our society today. You may feel alcohol is a social problem; let me tell you particularly to Members of the Eastern Arctic, that I am horrified to think of how solvent abuse is going to be a social problem to many of your youth in the years to come. Substance abuse of all forms is going to be a social problem to all youth across the Territories. How are we going to want to deal with this?
The point I want to make is that we can set up a special committee to deal with social problems, but at the same time we have to stress that communities are going to have to want to take hold of these problems and deal with them with the assistance of the government. That they, too, are going to say they do not want incest in their communities any more; they do not want family violence in our communities any more; they do not want child sexual abuse in our communities any more. This type of thing is not allowed in our communities. They are going to have to show leadership and want to deal with it. We can set up any type of committee to want to deal with this, but if society does not want to deal with it, there is no point in even trying to address it.
Legislation Inadequate For The North
The other issue that I also wanted to bring up, Mr. Chairman, is our legislation -- particularly with the Department of Social Services because I am more knowledgeable in that area, and I do not know about the legislation with respect to health -- and probably most government legislation this government has accepted, has been legislation that is probably duplicated from the South. Of course it does not meet our needs in the North. That has caused many problems in the North. When you look at the Child Welfare Act, it is so archaic and is causing many of the problems with respect to child welfare. Until we can get the act updated to meet the needs of the North, we are still going to continue to have the problems with respect to children being sent south to homes and their families may not even know where they will be later on. This type of baby shopping from some parts of the Territories is sort of an acceptable thing. I have always said that legislation with respect to our acts to deal with some of our problems has to be looked at.
I know this motion identifies that. For that reason, I certainly support the concept of a committee, but I do not support the concept and the formulation of a committee to go out and see what social problems there are. Twenty-four of us can sit around this room and list all the social problems, and I bet we will come up with the same problems that we have right across the Territories. I do not agree, Mr. Chairman, with the concept of a committee going all over the Territories from community to community like the standing committee on the northern economy or the special committee on education. Our education system is worse now than it used to be. I am almost sure of it. I do not agree with the housing committee that went all over the North.
I think what has to be done is part of the reasons why these are problems and how to address them in being to do program delivery has to be looked at by this committee. I certainly want to make it perfectly clear that there is no doubt that I support the concept of this committee to be developed and formulated and to address these issues, but at the same time I do not appreciate any more funding dollars to be travelling all over the North to find out what the problems are.
The other concern I have, Mr. Chairman, is the fact that when the mover spoke on the motion -- and I had indicated to the mover that I did not appreciate the perception of social services being totally dumped on -- because that was my perception and understanding when he spoke on the motion. I took exception to that. At the same time when we spoke he basically indicated that he would clarify it.
I am concerned with respect to the health transfer, and this is why this committee is to also look at issues of health. I am concerned at the fact that the federal government is trying to shy away from their responsibilities and offload the cost to this government for Inuit and Treaty people, saying that we should absorb the cost of health, and I believe that is probably one of the reasons that we are in a deficit today, because we are basically told that we have to pay for expenses that were given as a right -- and I am going to state that, it was a right, not as a privilege.