Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. It is in regard to a motion that I passed in this House asking for support for the Tl'oondih Healing Society and also I had a commitment from the previous Premier to work along with myself and the people of the Tl'oondih Healing Society and the Minister of Health and Social Services. Yet, Mr. Speaker, one of the mandates of this society was to work along with people, especially families, to assist them in healing and dealing with the
day-to-day problems in our communities, especially alcoholism, drug abuse, violence, suicides. Yet, Mr. Speaker, it is not clear to me exactly what direction this government is going when it comes to assisting people who are in need of help, who are trying to quit drinking, or trying to find a way to deal with the violence in the family. Also the problem that we find our youth and the children in, in a lot of our communities.
One of the commitments made in the Budget Address is to help aboriginal organizations meet their political aspirations and support other parties to recognize. This society was established through the Gwich'in land claim agreement, it was established as an organization within the Gwich'in Tribal Council. I would like to know from the Minister exactly what is his department doing to ensure that we have some organization or some system in place to assist the regions dealing with the alcohol and drug problems, and also what assistance is this government giving to make sure we have some involvement in what happens in that area in the regions?