Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the financial support of the NWT Power Corporation and First Air for their contributions to the RCMP program DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

The Power Corporation provided $20,000 to the RCMP to help them take this program to our schools across the North over the next two years. First Air provides free air travel to the RCMP to offset what would otherwise be a very significant cost to the program.

Mr. Speaker, since the inception of this program in 1997, the RCMP have been to over 20 communities and reached more than 1,500 students. The program is run by the RCMP's drug awareness office and over a 17-week period, youth learn about conflict resolution, anger management, alternatives to substance abuse and violence and how to say no to drugs.

Without the financial support of the NWT Power Corporation and First Air, this program clearly would not be viable. I think it is important for us to recognize this financial support and the dedication and commitment of the RCMP officers involved in delivering this program. I hope my colleagues will join me in thanking these folks for working to improve the lives of our children. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for the Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to address the awareness week, National Addictions Awareness Week. It is often great to say in the NWT that we are leading the way in something or other, Mr. Speaker, but in the area of substance abuse, we are demonstrating a tremendous degree of negative leadership. Some statistics have come to light. For instance, there is particularly trouble among our youth, Mr. Speaker. I talk of people in the 15 to 24 age bracket who, when they sit down to have a few, really do have a few.

A heavy drinker is defined as someone who has more than five at one sitting. Some 43 percent of our youth, Mr. Speaker, are in that category. That is triple the national average. Among hash and marijuana users, we are double the national figure at 15 percent. Among illegal drugs such as speed, LSD, cocaine, our use is again 50 percent higher than the national average, Mr. Speaker. Forty-four out of 100 adults in the NWT are smokers compared to the national average of 27 percent.

A senior RCMP officer recently told a Yellowknife public service group that there is mounting evidence of an organized crime problem in the NWT with distribution of illegal substances from southern centres in to the NWT. Mr. Speaker, we have a substance abuse problem that is not turning the right corner.

It is encouraging and I do applaud the announcement by the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services today of the start of a new campaign for fetal alcohol syndrome awareness. I would like to advocate, Mr. Speaker, that this is the kind of thing that we need to have much more of in the NWT. Public awareness campaigns such as National Addiction Awareness Week tend to become routine. They tend to become kind of ordinary and the more that we can break that cycle of complacency and routine, the more impact we are going to have on our population in dealing with this very, very troublesome topic. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Déclarations de députés. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.