Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his Member's statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Mr. Bell, you may conclude your statement.

Sorry, Mr. Speaker, I was hoping I only I needed it from you, but thank you, colleagues. One of the other recommendations is to ensure that the funding allocated to the treatment of mental illnesses and addictions more accurately reflects the prevalence of these illnesses in the patient population. And, Mr. Speaker, they talk of removing funding barriers for patients who require out of province treatment for medical illnesses and addictions. These are not $1,000 an hour or $1,000 a day consultants. They are everyday Northerners making some very common sense recommendations.

Mr. Speaker, we hear from our constituents, all of us do, and they tell us that there is no how-to manual if you are a parent who believes that your child, your 13, 14 or 15-year-old child, has an addictions problem. There is not a pamphlet that says, so you think your child has a problem here is what you do, but there needs to be, Mr. Speaker. This government needs to take this seriously. It is not just about the Department of Health. As a government we need to make this a priority and engage, as I have said, step two doing something about it. Thank you.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it has come to my attention that if someone requires a copy of their marriage certificate they would apply to Vital Statistics and remit a fee of ten dollars, but you may receive your marriage certificate with the incorrect date of birth recorded on it.

In 1970 Vital Statistics acquired a new system which changed the format of marriage certificates. Prior to 1970 all marriage certificates had the age of the person on them. Once converted to the new format, they required a date of birth and the system arbitrarily inserted January 1st of the year that coincided with the age recorded on file. Therefore, a person's date of birth became January 1st of the year of their age. If you would like to have a marriage certificate with the proper information on it, Vital Statistics then requires you to remit twenty dollars, along with an application to make a correction or change to your marriage certificate.

Vital Statistics say that they cannot amend the certificate without an application and a twenty-dollar fee. There would be no amendment to make had they not inserted the incorrect date of birth to begin with. This is a very time consuming process. What should take about a week then is now taking several weeks, as well as costing an additional twenty dollars to the applicant.

Mr. Speaker, we had this situation brought to our attention by a constituent in the process of getting a copy of their marriage certificate. This may sound like a small thing, but these are the little things that really annoy people.

If this was the private sector, Mr. Speaker, we would call this very poor customer service. It is not a very client friendly approach and it is a bureaucratic glitch which I want changed, and later today I will have questions for the Minister responsible for this. Thank you.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Lafferty. Thank you. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to recognize my constituent Allyson Stroeder who is the executive director of the Skills Canada Northwest Territories/Nunavut office and the good work that her office has been doing over the summer months.

Mr. Speaker, between May 30 and June 2, the 20 member Northwest Territories/Nunavut team competed at the National Skills Canada Competition in Vancouver, British Columbia. They had shown tremendous strength for 11 out of 20 participants ranked sixth or higher in their respective categories.

Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, Yellowknife's very own Mara Smith received the gold medal in the category of worksite safety. This is the first time a Northwest Territories competitor had won a gold medal at any event in these competitions and we should be very proud of this achievement.

I might also draw attention to the fact that this is a female competitor and winner. Something the organization has been working very hard to increase, is the female participation in these skills competitions with their conference in February called Power Up for Young Women, Power Up Conference, as well as the go-kart races they have in the summer time.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to acknowledge and congratulate other winners in this race: Adrian Green of Yellowknife in welding; James Cracknell of Yellowknife in web page design who came third; Chris Fournier of Yellowknife in web page design who came third; Dan Milligan of Yellowknife, TV/video production, who came sixth; Dustin Milligan of Yellowknife, TV/video production, ranked sixth; Amanda Lyons of Yellowknife, in prepared speech, ranked fourth; also Tyler McTavish of Yellowknife in plumbing; Margaret Butz of Yellowknife in hairstyling; Nicole Dennis of Yellowknife in hairstyling who came sixth; Richard Walsh of Yellowknife, graphic design; Janine Ruptash-Stauffer of Yellowknife, culinary arts; Tom Torravilk, of Yellowknife, in culinary arts; and Carolyn George of Yellowknife who came fifth in aircraft maintenance.

I will just close by saying it is with her dynamism and energy that this organization is being so successful in their endeavors and I would like to recognize and congratulate them.

-- Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 3, Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

Colleagues, I would like to direct your attention to the presence in the visitor's gallery of Mr. Henry Zoe, a former Member of the Legislative Assembly, I think the 12th and 13th Assemblies, Mr. Zoe.

-- Applause

Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to recognize and I would like the indulgence of the Members to name some of the individuals in our gallery. I would like to recognize the class of Ms. Sarah McGary. She is the teacher of the grade 10 class at St. Pat's High School in Yellowknife here. The students will be in this Legislature, I understand, to hold a Youth Parliament of their own as a class in the next week. I hope Members bear with me, I would like to read off the names of the members, Mr. Speaker.

We have Tanis Baile -- Tanis is my granddaugher; Susan Baines, Talisa Cumming, Dominic Debogorski, Cheryl Fernandez, Jessica Gorin, Corrine Inward-Jones, Brittany Jones, Stephanie Laity, Michelle Latremouille, Mandy Lyons, Lindsay McKay, Gina Michel, Dezerae Pidborochynski, Sara Reid, Katherine Riviere, Melissa Weinkaut, and Megan Russell. Absent today are Carolyn Crouch, Dezerae Pidborochynski may be absent, also absent is Sara Reid and Katherine Riviere.

Please help me welcome the students and the names will be in the Hansard for their information, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

-- Applause

Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. I would like to welcome everyone to the visitor's gallery here and thank you for coming to watch the Members go about your business. Welcome. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services is responsible for vital statistics if I am not mistaken, so my question today is for Mr. Miltenberger.

Is Mr. Miltenberger aware of this unfortunate bureaucratic maze that people have to go through who are looking for copies of marriage certificates with proper information on them? Thank you.

Thank you. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, only in so far as what I have heard the Member say in this House today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my constituency assistant had the opportunity to call vital statistics and confirm whether or not this was in fact the case today and it was confirmed to her that this is the process that people must follow if they want to get a certificate with the proper information. What is the Minister prepared to do about this? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will be confirming the facts as put forward by my colleague. My initial reaction is if in fact it is a government-generated problem then it is our mistake and it is very difficult for myself as an MLA to say that we should be charging people to fix the government's mistake so I will check and I will report back. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would it be reasonable then to inform my constituent who has had this problem that in fact she will not be responsible for the $20 extra that she is being asked to submit with the application to get her marriage certificate corrected? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.