Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too support this motion, but reluctantly. I know the motion may sound good but at the end of the day, what is it really going to do? I for one feel that we have to make amendments to this motion to include commitments by this government financially and also achieving goals. When we talk about zero tolerance, how many people are we talking about taking off that list of people being violated with regard to violence and also in regard to effects on our communities?
Mr. Speaker, I for one feel that we have to do more than just make statements. We have to be able to have the resources and have the people in place to assist in the communities, but also give the communities and the people in our communities the tools to do the job and deal with the issues themselves. We have a just system that has to be reviewed. We have legislation in place that could be improved, especially when it comes to enforcement of different court order and what not that may be in place, especially when there are women to ensure they are protected and that they do have some space to deal with their problems.
I also feel it is important as a Legislature, we have the ability to improve our laws and improve the legislation that we have in place to avoid the biggest impact we have when it comes to violence, which is the effects of alcohol abuse in many of our communities. Right now, we have legislation in place that requires 60 percent approval of passing plebiscites in our communities so that the communities can deal with alcohol effects on our communities. So we can find some control mechanisms to restrict the flow of alcohol in our communities where a large portion of these wild crimes against families and women take place because they are alcohol related.
Yet as a government, we have those abilities to do that and we can do that today or tomorrow. Yet in order to make these statements and carry them through, we as a government also have to be able to have the foresight to make some changes to the way we do things. We cannot continue to establish mechanisms, cut programs and services in the areas that we know will impact communities and bring down the levels of support we have in our communities. We used to have four alcohol and drug centres in the Northwest Territories. We are down to one. I think that as a government, we have to do more to deal with this issue in the context of a family.
Violence has been around for a long, long time. I think people have to realize that it is not going to be resolved overnight but I think people have to be educated that it is not called for and there is no need to have violence in our communities, in the work place, or on our streets. We see it every day. Yet, Mr. Speaker, we continue to walk by, close a blind eye when we see violence being created on our streets or see people violated where we see someone walking down the street with black eyes, with bruises, knowing that they were violated yet nothing is being done.
So I would like to close, Mr. Speaker, by stating that I for one feel we have to do more in regard to this motion by stipulating some strong conditions and establish some goals that we as a government want to achieve. We did that with the Education Act in regard to FAS in our schools. I think we can do that with this motion on a similar basis. Thank you.
-- Applause