Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What I am going to say is related to the issue that is before us in regard to the community that is strictly dry. As I mentioned, I travelled, before coming to this session, to Gjoa Haven which is a dry community and I come from a dry community as well and that is the Hamlet of Pelly Bay, where the use of alcoholic beverage is strictly prohibited.
Mr. Chairman, people of Pelly Bay and Gjoa Haven are saying it is so easy to bring liquor to a dry community. People are chronically, if you will, frustrated about having to deal with this in their community and where everybody is related to everybody, and nobody seems to want to report the incident to the R.C.M.P. within their community, within their area.
I have worked with the Hamlet of Pelly Bay for a good 17 years dealing with the problem where there were no R.C.M.P. and people were reluctant to report to the nearest R.C.M.P. station which was Spence Bay. Now the people of Pelly Bay and Gjoa Haven that I have met with, mainly the hamlet councils and the public, are saying, can this government, through the justice system, do something about dry communities where very few people are not complying with the restriction? People are frustrated and people who do use liquor in the community and bring the liquor to the community are like individuals who are living in paradise without having to worry about the crimes they are committing in the community.
A number of times, I had the opportunity of travelling with the Hamlet of Pelly Bay Mayor when I was a C.O. A number of times we talked to the justice people, to lawyers and a number of times the response we got from the system was always the same. It is, unless we have reasonable grounds, unless the R.C.M.P. has reasonable grounds to believe that a person was bringing liquor to a dry community, there is not much we can do about it. We were also told by the people that we met with here in Yellowknife, about two years ago, is that one alternative that we can look into is talking to the airline and that has never really materialized.
About three weeks ago, I had the opportunity of meeting with the people of Gjoa Haven, the hamlet council, what the Hamlet Council of Gjoa Haven is saying is that, when the Commissioner stamped the paper which directs the community to be dry, after the plebiscite where the public has a vote and 60 per cent of the community wanted to go dry, subsequently the Commissioner will stamp the paper which, in turn, becomes the law. Now it is against the law to drink in your community and, what the people of Gjoa Haven are saying is that nobody abides by this restriction. What can you do as an M.L.A.? What can the government of the N.W.T. do about it? What can the Justice Minister and his department do about it. People are really frustrated. Mr. Chairman, I wish this government, together with the Members of the Assembly would find a solution to deal with the problem once and for all where a dry community can legally be called a dry community, not technically a dry community. That is just a point I wanted to raise.