Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I agree with the Premier's statement that we must reduce alcohol and drug consumption in order to reduce violence, family abuse, and the effects of public health through smoking and the consumption of alcohol. I agree that the cost to this government for reducing tobacco consumption will reduce the stress on the health care system. This government spends some $31 million on the health care system. There are areas where we can reduce it.

We can force people through legislation to live healthy lives. However, I feel that this government can give the communities and organizations, band councils, the community justice committees, the legal authority through legislation to make sure the laws we develop are not just on the books for being on the books, but are there to enforce the legislation

One of the biggest concerns we see through plebiscites where we have communities that become dry communities, and then find out even the RCMP are not enforcing the restrictions because they are so vague. No one wants to spend the time and effort to enforce that legislation.

So this government does have a role to play to ensure the communities have the legislative means to enforce legislation in the communities.

The other area I have many concerns with is one I have raised time and time again; the issue of the Tl'oondih Healing Society. That organization was established through the Gwich'in land claim process. One of the priorities of that organization was to find a mechanism in which to deal with the problems the Premier mentioned. They wanted to find a mechanism to have healthy people. So when their land claim agreement was implemented, they had people who were healthy and were not stuck in the social envelope. People who were not dependent on government, but were independent people who have a positive input into that organization.

I have stood time and time again on this issue in this House. At the end of the day, it seemed like it fell on deaf ears. One thing I would like to state that we do not really realize or look at is who is the agency organization that delivers the alcohol to the people in the communities?

The Government of the Northwest Territories is probably one of the biggest bootleggers in the Northwest Territories. The Northwest Territories Liquor Commission owns our liquor outlets, and they are the organization responsible for delivering alcohol to the communities. That commission alone in 1988-1989 returned $16 million in revenues back into this government's coffers. Yet, the amount of money we spend ensuring that money went into treatment facilities, to make sure people had access to deal with the problems of alcohol abuse was cut down next to nil.

We should practice what we preach. If we are going to tell people to quit drinking, to quit smoking and quit this and that, then maybe, the government should seriously consider getting out of the business of providing alcohol to the people in the communities.

The other area that we have to seriously look at when talking of providing for healthy people is the taxes from tobacco. This government receives some $10 million a year from selling cigarettes through tobacco taxes. We benefit from the sale of tobacco through taxes. Yet very little money is spent in putting it back to the area of tobacco abuse prevention, trying to get people to quit smoking and making them aware of health concerns that are associated with smoking, such as lung cancer.

I think there are some major steps this government can take in showing the people that it is not only a people problem, but this government will seriously get out of the business of supplying alcohol to our communities.

At the present time, there is a subsidy for hauling alcohol to locations such as Inuvik or Yellowknife. I think we should do is do away with these subsidies and put the money into health care and making sure that we put it into treatment programs.

I think it would be more beneficial to start subsidizing food products such as eggs, milk and other healthy foods, to ensure people in the communities have access to these healthy foods, instead of having the government subsidize freight for liquor.

I think there are things we can do as a government. We have to accomplish them by working along with the people in our communities. I for one have been working with the community of Fort McPherson to find a way to deal with the alcohol consumption in that community. One of our biggest problems in the small communities is alcohol abuse. Yet the people in communities that try to find mechanisms for dealing with this problem are always stuck in the red tape of laws and regulations that we put in place.

Fort McPherson has gone forth with a plebiscite three times. They have failed three times, because of the principle the percentage needed for the plebiscite to pass is 60 percent. Yet most people are elected in our municipalities with less then 20 percent turn out.

I think these are the type of tools people want to ensure they have a mechanism to pass plebiscites, to give them the tools to find a method where people can find control mechanisms to control the flow of alcohol. If we can do that, we can deal with a major problem in our communities.

But we need the legislation and we need the enforcement mechanisms to ensure that, through laws and the RCMP, we are able to enforce whatever is passed in plebiscites.

In the other area of finding ways to promote healthy people and healthy communities, I mentioned the Tl'oondih Healing Society. One thing we have to realize is because of the number of cuts this government has made, there is a lack of treatment programs for alcohol and drug abuse.

Right now we are scraping away at one organization to deliver treatment programs. We are sending people to southern Canada. At one time, we used to have some kind of drug treatment program in every region. We use to have Delta House in Inuvik. We had the Hay River program. We had the Tl'oondih program. We have programs here in Yellowknife.

On one hand, we can dictate to people quit this bad habit and everything will be okay. But you are dealing with problems that have existed long before this government was even in place. Many of the problems you have with suicide, alcohol abuse, physical abuse, mental abuse has been passed on from generation to generation. People in Fort McPherson blame the alcohol problems on the gold rush in Dawson City. Because at that time that was the first real contact they had with alcohol, in regards to that time period in the 1800's.

So I think for us to do justice to what we say, we should always back it up with dollars and resources to make sure that we have the institutions but that we also have the ability to be what we are elected for.

We have the ability to put forth programs and services on behalf of the residents. I do not think we should be in the business of trying to do business where we are not needed. We should get out of the supplying of alcohol to outlets in the Northwest Territories. We should privatize that. It has been done it in other jurisdictions in southern Canada, Alberta and other places such as that. And also I think we should seriously look at giving the communities the abilities to take care of its problems, but also, to have the resources to do it.

Like the Tl'oondih program, that is a $2.5 million investment that could keep the Gwich'in Tribal Council has made to ensure that they can carry that out. That is an investment that they wanted to work with this government to carry out, but because of the reluctance on the part of this government, it has not gone anywhere. Thank you.