Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today about a particular problem still occurring in a lot of our small communities. It is the right for communities to deliver programs and services on behalf of the residents they serve. Mr. Speaker, I am talking, in particular, about alcohol and drug programs and who has the right to refer clients to an alcohol and drug facility in Yellowknife or Hay River.

Mr. Speaker, the Tl'oondih Healing Society have been serving the people of Fort McPherson, the Mackenzie Delta and the Northwest Territories, for over six years. Just recently, they were told by an alcohol drug program specialist in Inuvik that they were not going to be allowed to do it any more. Mr. Speaker, in consultation with the Inuvik Health Board, they are unaware of such a decision.

We talk about community empowerment, healthy communities and healthy people, but this is one initiative that I feel is critical in our communities, especially the smaller communities, where we have a high alcohol and drug problem, problems in regard to violence, and also problems ensuring we have healthy people to take on the initiatives of empowering our communities. We have to ensure that we have healthy students and healthy children to attend our schools and universities.

Mr. Speaker, I stand here today, saying there has to be a better effort made by this government to ensure that the communities' needs are met and that the communities do take on the initiative to take on programs and services, have the resources, and the ability to do it without being restricted by bureaucrats, either at the regional level or here, at headquarters in Yellowknife. I think it is essential, Mr. Speaker, that this be allowed to happen without the restriction of individuals or senior people in government telling the communities or agents who deliver these programs and services, what they can, and cannot, do. If it works, work with it. If it is broken, fix it. Mr. Speaker, please allow our communities to control programs and services in our communities. Thank you.

--Applause