Thank you, Madam Chair. Reflecting on Ms. Lee's notes and remarks from committee, which I'm proud to be a member of the Standing Committee on Social Programs, perhaps reflecting the same thing, Madam Chair. When the Minister and his officials were before us we had a pretty comprehensive briefing on a number of the major indicators, measuring sticks in our health care system. It is a daunting and a disappointing kind of report card. Some of the highlights that come off this are that 20 percent of all deaths in the NWT are alcohol related. Forty percent of all accidents involve alcohol. Suicide is bigger by a wider margin than any other cause of death by injury. Diabetes, which was once a low-incidence disease in the NWT, is now gaining and now in the age bracket 40 to 64 years, the NWT is ahead of Canada. Our tuberculosis rate is seven times that of Canada, and it seems the spread of STDs is as much as eight times the rest of Canada. This is a particularly disturbing one because it is a major signal of the
incidence of HIV infection that is likely to follow. Half of the young men in the NWT are binge drinkers, as defined by people who take five or more drinks at a time 12 times a year.
The common thread through this is that just about all of these are preventable or avoidable situations, Madam Chair. It comes back to what the Minister has been saying to what we're hearing experts and other politicians have said in this House for some time now, that helping people understand the consequences of their choices and their lifestyles, the things we do or how we live, are really a major impact here.
We have a number of cost drivers in our system that we can't do very much about, Madam Chair. We have an aging population. Public expectations of what our institutions can do or should do are getting higher. There's an emphasis in our technological age that things can be fixed quicker, but this means that, of course, we have newer and more expensive technologies and the people, the skills that are required to run this are getting much more sophisticated. So salaries and getting access to these people is getting much more difficult and, of course, expensive. We have probably just a much greater awareness and readiness to try to do something about mental health issues, Madam Chair, than we have had. These are some of the things that are out of our control and are forcing the growth, compared to the kinds of things that we could be avoiding.
It's not something that government can or should take overall responsibility for, Madam Chair. I'm learning that, and it's a message that I guess I'm trying to communicate more and more to constituents and audiences that talk about this. So then we're in an age where government tries to make everybody happy all the time. We're just not able to on this one. The decisions and the choices that individuals take and then the environment that's created in healthy families and schools and communities is so much more the direction we have to go. It underlines what we have I think underlined in our report. What we'll be doing in motions throughout the rest of his day and this evening is urging much, much more emphasis on promotion and awareness and prevention measures as really probably our most effective tool to turn the tide on some of these really devastating situations.
This is going to take a long time and there is no magic way of doing it. We just can't sit down and write another program that is going to get people to buy into this. So I hope that in our work and for the people that are perhaps listening this afternoon, or maybe reading an account of this, that if our leaders in our communities can think about their role, leaders at the aboriginal First Nation level, Madam Chair, people who are active in our schools, in our health communities, our volunteer communities, who can take some of this message to heart and see what kind of a difference they can make at their own level.
Finally, Madam Chair, I was listening to the federal Finance Minister, Ralph Goodale, for a few minutes delivering the federal budget this afternoon. In the area of health care he said sustainability is really the overall question that federal, provincial and territorial leaders have to look at. How can we sustain the burgeoning and sophistication of the system? Here is where if there was an avenue that I would offer, it is try to get everybody to appreciate that they too have a role in this. They just can't show up at an emergency ward or at a clinic and expect that some magical band aid can be applied every time something goes wrong. There is, as the Minister has said, a great degree of responsibility that we should all be taking.
There is one thing that I would like the Minister to consider. I know he is already doing it but I would like to reinforce it. That is that at the federal level that we fight at least for recognition and adoption of the unfairness of the per capita funding formulas that always seem to be our lot. It seems to be our fate when it comes to funding programs, not only in health but in a number of other areas, and we won't get anywhere, we will lose ground if we are unable to win the battle for recognition that we are compelled up here to do things differently than the rest of Canada. Along with that comes differences in cost. So that is one area that I would like to leave with the Minister in his representation of us at the federal, provincial and territorial level. Thank you, Madam Chair.