Thank you, Madam Chair. I will start off by saying I agree with a lot of what my colleague, Mr. Braden, had to say on this department and where we are in terms of delivering this important and vital function in our society. I know the Minister has his hands full with this department in trying to accomplish a lot of things with a minimal amount of resources. I think a lot of times folks take for granted the health care system that we have in place here. It is, in my opinion, one of the best in the country if I can say so. I have been in southern Canada, my parents are now living in New Brunswick and I know they can't even get a doctor in New Brunswick and it is very difficult. Some relatives of mine are faced with the same realities in southern Canada, and I think a lot of times we don't realize just how lucky we are to have the system in place that we do.
One thing that I think doesn't get enough attention--I know Mr. Braden alluded to it a little bit--is the fact that alcohol and drug addiction is something that I don't know how exactly we get a handle on it. I know in the Minister's opening comments there wasn't a lot of mention of it. Just at the end he says in addition our budget reflects investment into mental health and addiction services, but drugs are not mentioned and alcohol is not mentioned. Those are two key problems that face the Northwest Territories. The problem with elicit drugs in the communities is at an incredible rate. You can go to any small community in the Northwest Territories today and find cocaine, crack cocaine, marijuana, acid, anything you
want you can basically find on the streets of any of our communities, and our people are suffering as a result of this dependency now on drugs. Alcohol is a big enough problem in and of itself, but this drug culture that prevails now in the Northwest Territories is something I think we have to take very seriously as a government and try to find solutions to tackle it. We are going to lose a whole generation here if we are not careful, that are going to fall into this type of lifestyle with drug addiction and leading their lives in not worthwhile, healthy pursuits. I don't know how we tackle it, I will be careful with what I say here, but there are operations in a lot of communities where they are growing marijuana. I don't know what the RCMP are doing about it, but we have to crack down on what is happening in the small communities. You can walk from house to house in a lot of communities and the smell of marijuana permeates the air. It is quite alarming and it is something I think we don't pay enough attention to.
I will ask the Minister a question here, that investment into mental health and addiction services that the Minister speaks of in his opening comments; I guess the question I would have to him would be where would I find that in the budget? I am not a member of the Social Programs committee, I am a GED Member so I didn't have a chance through committee to ask that question, so I will ask it now, Madam Chair. Thank you.