Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take the time to thank the social workers, nurses, teachers, people in the RCMP, and caregivers in our communities who serve the people that we are elected to serve. Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of times that you hear problems regarding education, youth, problems with alcohol and drugs, but we usually inherit that complaint, but are not really at the front line to serve those people we represent. Mr. Speaker, this time I would like to state that the problems in my riding which are dealing with education, the increases in enrolments, the shortages of teachers and also problems we see within the health care system where some of my colleagues have stated the shortage of teachers and nurses in our communities are having an effect on them. Over the years this has always been a problem in smaller communities where a person can go to a bootlegger and get a bottle. However, what we are seeing now are teenagers going into local Yellowknife bars and being served. These students are underage and legally not allowed to enter these premises.
Recently one bar manager in Yellowknife decided to try and keep these young adults out by having their parents give the bars pictures of their youth. The idea of these pictures would help identify youths and the bar could keep them out. This is a good idea and I believe it is working. My home community of Rae-Edzo is experiencing the same problem. However, our teenagers come to Yellowknife to go to the bars. This has the potential of being an even more serious concern because they must travel back to Rae on Highway 3 and everyone knows the condition of the highway. Recently the hamlet council discussed this matter and later today a number of students will be in the gallery to show their support in finding a solution to this problem. I am not sure what the solution is or who do we lay blame on. We have laws that are to be enforced, it is however, obvious that these bars in general across the north are not enforcing. Do we need to raise the legal drinking age or do we need to focus more on enforcement and prevention? I do not know the answers. This is, however, a serious territorial-wide concern and something must be done about it as soon as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
--Applause