Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in early May of this year, we had in this Chamber the NWT Youth Parliament. I think this is a great program. I congratulate the Legislative Assembly staff for the work they do in putting this on. During the NWT Youth Parliament, the constituency of Frame Lake was represented by a young gentleman from St. Pat's by the name of Matthew Harvey, who is today in the audience. He made a statement on teenage homelessness. Mr. Speaker, I think this statement is extremely appropriate and I would like to read his statement into the record.

Mr. Speaker, incidents of teenage homelessness in Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories are becoming more and more frequent. Many teenagers are forced to leave home for various reasons, two examples being violent and abusive parents or parents who are alcoholics or drug addicts.

These teenagers are having to live out of backpacks either on the street or moving from house to house, trying to find friends willing to give them a safe place to sleep. If no such place is available, then the teens have no alternative other than to sleep on the streets. As a result of existing in this way, numerous teens drop out of school to work so they can afford food, clothing and housing. This is a less than satisfactory outcome as we are losing valuable human resources for the Northwest Territories' future. However, Mr. Speaker, those who drop out to seek jobs can be seen as success stories, as the other side of the coin is that many of the others resort to less favourable choices of income such as prostitution, theft and drug dealing.

Mr. Speaker, many of us have heard the term "throw-away generation," and maybe thought it referred to materialism and possessions, but it also aptly describes how Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories actually view and treat abandoned teenagers. Mr. Speaker, these "throw-away" teens are between the ages of 16 and 18 years. The reason for this is that once a young person turns 16, child protection services no longer classifies them as a child. They are classified as an adult and are, therefore, too old to fall under the Child Protection Act. The catch-22 comes in when the young person who has now been labelled an adult attempts to find shelter in an adult homeless shelter. The shelter has no option but to turn them away. Why? Because under the act that the adult shelters fall under, persons under the age of 18 are classified as children and children may not be housed with adults who are not relatives. Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to continue my statement.