Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will not take up too much time. I just want to deal with one particular matter that deals with the policy initiative. I probably could raise it under the alcohol and drug area, but I would rather raise it here, as a matter of policy.
I know that Members in this Assembly have not, I might say, debated the matter of the Sobriety Clause and contribution agreements, and it is a matter that is going to arise, probably during the next session. I do want to raise a concern about where that particular requirement is being made. It has always been my view that the communities have an employee/employer requirement, and what concerns me is this notion that you are tying public dollars and, in fact, in some cases, dollars that were originally identified to deal with aboriginal people, and requiring them to abide by a policy initiative on the part of this government, that they themselves cannot apply to their own staff.
In other words, you are telling the communities that they must apply to their employees, but you cannot do it here as a matter of policy on alcohol and drug workers in the public service. Now, I think that is wrong. The fact is, the former Minister made it quite clear that there were some legal impediments, and negotiated agreements that would not allow them to do it. Now, it would have been a lot easier had I seen the communities being able to apply that policy. I think it is a policy that probably should be supported generally, but it concerns me that we are requiring it as part of our financial agreements, or contribution agreements, with the community.
Now, I hope that the Minister will review this particular matter. I do not expect him to say "yes" or "no" I will support it today, or he probably does, but I would ask him to review it, and look into whether or not there are potential legal situations that could arise if someone, in fact, challenged and really refused to sign an agreement with the community boards. My view is that you are really putting their programs in jeopardy. We are not putting our programs in jeopardy in terms of our employee arrangements, but we are putting the programs in jeopardy. I would ask that you review that situation, so that we do not create a situation where programs in the communities suffer because of what we consider a policy initiative on our part.
So, I just wanted to raise that, have the Minister review that with his colleagues, and with his legal advisors, as to how we might be able to best deal with that situation.