Good afternoon, colleagues. Welcome back to the House. Orders of the day. Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in 2001, on the instruction of Cabinet, the Department of Health and Social Services contracted Chalmers and Associates Consulting Ltd. to conduct an evaluation of community-based addictions and mobile treatment programs. The 2002 report titled "State of Emergency - A Report on the Delivery of Addictions Services in the NWT" provided 48 recommendations and it was determined that mental health and addictions services should be built from the community level up.

Since that time, we have implemented many changes and made significant investments in our services. Given our undertakings after the first report, it was determined that an interim review of the progress was necessary, to ensure that we were still on the right path.

Mr. Speaker, this follow-up report titled "Stay the Course - and Together We Can Secure the Foundation that Has Been Built" was recently completed and is available on the Health and Social Services web site, along with a summary report and supplemental reports. "Stay the Course" includes 37 recommendations to further support and build on steps taken in response to the original report.

Some of the steps taken since the 2002 report "State of Emergency" include the creation of 77 new positions at the community and regional levels, comprised of three categories: clinical supervisors, mental health and addictions counsellors and community wellness workers.

We also initiated a Community Wellness Worker Training Program with Keyano College. There have been 20 graduates from this program to date. Investments like these are key to building a strong and effective system of community-based addiction services. By investing in education and training, we are working towards building a qualified northern workforce.

Overall, the interim report card was a good one. It highlights that we are developing effective programs and strategies aimed at the prevention and reduction of addictions and the promotion of healthy living and healthy choices for residents of the NWT. By working with the

primary community care teams, we are empowering individuals, families and communities to address mental health and addiction issues. It also identifies areas for further development including the need to improve communication with all stakeholders, and to continue to build on strengths already in place at the community level, and to be flexible in transition planning.

The department is currently reviewing all 37 of the recommendations and will be preparing a response to the report, with an action plan, by the end of this fiscal year. We are committed to working with communities, NGOs and health care providers to improve our mental health and addiction services for all of our residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to report on the important progress the Department of Transportation has made in improving the Sahtu winter road system. In preparing for the possible construction of a Mackenzie Valley pipeline...

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...in no other part of the Northwest Territories does the Department of Transportation face a greater challenge to accommodating the safe interaction of individual/personal traffic and commercial/industrial truck traffic. Last season, the Sahtu communities expressed their concerns about the increase in industrial traffic on the winter road system and the impact it could have on the traveling safety of the general public. The Department of Transportation took steps to address them.

First of all, the department acknowledged that the road was not well signed to advise drivers of adverse conditions and difficult sections of road. A three-year program is now underway, which started last year, to install adequate traffic signage along the road. The department has also reduced the speed limit along this route to 50 km per hour.

At many critical sites, the department has worked with its contractors to improve the road's physical grade and alignment. The department will continue, year by year, to bring the right-of-way up to a better traveling standard and continue installing permanent bridges over stream crossings.

With the close involvement and cooperation of the municipality of Norman Wells, the department built a bypass around the community to move heavy truck traffic away from local streets. A similar bypass is proposed in Tulita.

The department also worked closely with industry to limit the impact of industry traffic on the general public. During the height of the last season, the department conducted highway patrols to ensure industry's compliance with trucking regulations generally and particularly in regard to the movement of oversized loads.

The department has also made improvement to the winter road from a management perspective. The Department of Transportation is using partnership opportunities with industry to more efficiently and effectively operate the winter road.

The Department of Transportation spends approximately $1.1 million each year on the annual construction and maintenance of the Mackenzie Valley winter road. Industry has reported they have spent up to $5 million each season to improve sections of the roadway to the point where they can safely and effectively move their rigs to support their exploration activities.

The Department of Industry, with Husky Energy acting as the industry "lead," explored numerous partnership opportunities and road management models that could be applied to improve planning and promote operational efficiencies of the annual Mackenzie Valley winter road operation.

Through this cooperative approach, the department developed a financial agreement that would provide a mechanism for industry to pay for the additional costs of providing an enhanced construction and maintenance program to better meet industry's special needs. Through this partnership arrangement, the department can maintain management control over the operation of the winter road system and delivery on industry's needs utilizing winter road contractors at no additional cost to the GNWT.

The Department of Transportation has made significant improvements to the winter road system and tried to remedy the traffic safety concerns that the Sahtu communities had raised. Over the next several years, the department will continue to work on improving the Sahtu winter roads. These improvements will meet the demands of greater traffic and the public's expectations that they can travel the road more safety. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister responsible for Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise the House that the Honourable Joe Handley will be absent from the House today and tomorrow to meet with Prime Minister Harper and attend the Post-Secondary Education and Skills Summit in Ottawa. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Ministers' statements. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today, Mr. Speaker, my colleagues and I will be speaking to the theme of services to the communities in the area of social programs, Mr. Speaker.

A little over a week ago, I raised the plight, Mr. Speaker, of non-government organizations with regard to difficulties they are having in staffing, wage disparities and the need for multi-year sustainable and predictable agreements with our government. I tabled some correspondence from the president of the YWCA, Mr. Speaker, which detailed a pending staffing crisis that this very necessary organization faces. The majority of non-government organizations are in the social program areas. Examples are the Y, Mr. Speaker, the Literacy Council, the NWT Association of Persons with Disabilities, the Centre for Northern Families, to name a few. They are all delivering essential and much needed programs, many of them on behalf of this government. I believe, Mr. Speaker, we get exceptional value and great quality from these organizations, many of them, all of them, really governed by volunteer boards who work because they believe in this and for the benefit of the communities. They also raise a lot of funding on their own.

Mr. Speaker, the survey at the YWCA showed that, against the market value of other work done in 2004, their frontline workers are at least $10,000 a year, or about $5 an hour, behind market value.

Mr. Speaker, we need to look at how we treat our NGOs in relation to what we do, in fact, in our own government. We have just completed a very successful collective bargaining agreement with our own staff. We continue to allow these increments. We are going to be passing some major increments for our own staff, but, Mr. Speaker, where is our consideration of the non-government organizations and the very valuable service that they and their staff put into our communities? Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Braden. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to speak today about addiction and how I believe that the Government of the Northwest Territories is not making the best use of resources, both financially and with its physical infrastructure, to address the ever-increasing demands our residents are facing when it comes to addiction.

I will start with facility utilization. For example, Arctic Tern Female Young Offender unit in Inuvik. In the past two years, it has had anywhere from one to six young

offenders. It has 22 staff, Mr. Speaker, and costs this government $2.1 million to operate on an annual basis. Is this the best use of our resources when Inuvik is in desperate need of a treatment centre?

Of course, there is the infamous Sombe Ke Healing Centre on the Detah road. I have questioned the Minister numerous times in this House and here we are today, two years later, Mr. Speaker. Nothing has changed. The building still sits empty. The Housing Corporation continues to pay the mortgage. Someone is paying the utilities and the cost of a caretaker, but still, Mr. Speaker, no action being taken on what this building could and should be used for.

Having a facility like Sombe Ke at your disposal and not using it while the public is demanding treatment centres should be a cause of great embarrassment for this government. However, they just keep paying the bills, paying only lip service to those demanding action. The government does not even listen, Mr. Speaker, to Regular Members of this House when it comes to treatment centres. We passed a motion in October of 2004 in this House calling on government for action. We wasted our breath and the motion fell on deaf ears, Mr. Speaker.

Here we are again today demanding action from this government. Underutilized hospitals in Fort Smith and Hay River are being renovated over the next four to five years at a cost of roughly $27 million. Is there anybody questioning whether or not we can incorporate space for addictions treatment in these renovations?

Last year, I tabled a petition signed by 98 inmates from North Slave Correctional Centre calling on the government to reopen treatment centres. Often a common denominator to crime is drug and alcohol addiction. We have to be proactive, Mr. Speaker, and try to give people every available resource to fight the demons of addiction.

Mr. Speaker, my feeling is we are failing our people and we cannot allow this to continue to happen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk today in relation to the theme day that we are having on addictions. The thing I would like to talk about is the repatriation of youth requiring residential addictions treatment in the South.

Mr. Speaker, the latest information we have is that the Department of Health and Social Services children's services division is spending roughly $4 million a year on southern placements. Many of these children are sent south for addictions treatment in concurrence with other specialized mental health treatment. The reason they are sent south, Mr. Speaker, is that the capacity to offer residential treatment programs does not exist in the Northwest Territories at this time. We are spending $4 million of our government's money in the South. No northern businesses benefit other than the airlines who fly our kids back and forth. There are many forfeited benefits when we send our youth south. Besides the obvious economic benefits of spending program money in the North, we are missing out on an opportunity to expand our professional community. The more professional services we can offer in the NWT, the more likely it is that families will stay here.

Mr. Speaker, when we send our young people south for treatment, we are sending them away from their families and support network. A lot of these families will not be able to visit their loved ones in these southern provincial facilities. A youth addictions treatment facility in the North would at least allow for more involvement by the family in the treatment protocol through either direct involvement or through our telehealth facilities.

So we are at a crossroads, Mr. Speaker. Do we continue to send our young people south for addictions treatment, or do we take bold steps to develop specialized residential addictions and mental health treatment programs here in the North? I believe that wherever a relatively strong case can be made for delivering a service in the NWT at roughly the same cost as sending patients south, we should be doing everything in our power to hire the necessary mental health professionals to develop and run a northern program.

Mr. Speaker, $4 million a year would go a long way toward paying for the necessary capital infrastructure, professional staff, operations and maintenance for such a facility. This is the point where we are in residential youth addictions programs, Mr. Speaker. I strongly encourage the Department of Health and Social Services to quit studying the issue and get on with it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the North, we have had to deal with addictions for many years, from glue sniffing to the crack cocaine epidemic today. Harder drugs, I am told, are starting to find their way into the hands of our residents.

Mr. Speaker, the single biggest problem today, and has been for a long time, is the abuse of alcohol. It bothers me, Mr. Speaker, to see young men that I went to school with, and I played hockey with, asking people for a toonie for a cup of coffee, and we know what they are going to buy. I have known people, Mr. Speaker, from my youth who have overcome their dependence on alcohol, turned their lives around, and today are doing well for themselves. I have the utmost respect and admiration for what they have accomplished with their lives.

When people, Mr. Speaker, make the decision to defeat their demons, we must have the capacity to assist them. I know the last thing the Minister wants to hear is we need more facilities. I agree. We don't need more big, fancy buildings. But what we should provide is a simple, on-the-land camp whose primary goal would be to help those in

need. It will remove them from town and temptations. It can also assist those who want to overcome other addictions.

Mr. Speaker, I truly believe that once we have these people on the land, they will begin to beat their addictions and hopefully get a new start on life. Mr. Speaker, when residents decide they need help and want to overcome their addictions, let's give them that opportunity to heal close to home and not have to send them south. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As my contribution to our theme day on addictions, I would like to talk about the need for treatment centres in Inuvik and Yellowknife. A recently released second Chalmers report is pretty emphatic in stating, and I quote, "It is ill advised to construct or consider a plan for additional treatment centres at this time, given the history of closing three centres in the 1990s, a small population of the NWT and a difficulty in securing clinical and addictions expertise."

The same report, Mr. Speaker, went on to say that because they had only six weeks to consult and write the report, they were unable to evaluate all programs and could not, in some cases, provide definitive recommendations. I urge the Minister to give more merit to the second statement rather than the first and concentrate on what the real issue should be, which is the need to prepare for the social impacts associated with development of the Mackenzie gas project.

Mr. Speaker, during our pre-budget consultations, we heard from NGOs and local residents on the need for regional residential treatment centres. With the potential of the pipeline project beginning construction in 2008-09 and the need for more exploration in the Beaufort-Delta, many communities along the proposed route expect negative social impacts.

No matter what the oil and gas companies do, there will be employees that abuse drugs and alcohol. Just in the last four years, Mr. Speaker, the increased size from the drilling activity in the Beaufort-Delta and the extra employment income in the region has also meant an increase in the abuse of alcohol and drugs. I know this is true because I live there and I see it on a regular basis.

Many more types of illegal drugs are readily available in the Delta than just four short years ago.

Mr. Speaker, my constituents aren't stupid. They look around and see the problems that their family members, friends and neighbours are having with substance abuse right now and really start to worry. They think about the impacts and conflict of the pipeline. Residents want to have necessary treatments and programs in place before the construction of the pipeline. They want regional treatment centres, Mr. Speaker. I am asking consent to complete my statement. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. They want regional treatment centres. As a government, we probably cannot afford treatment centres in all five regions, but we should at least reopen the ones in Inuvik and Yellowknife.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I wish the government to reopen the residential treatment centre in Inuvik. If they are looking for a place to house such a program, I suggest they consider the Arctic Tern Female Young Offender Facility which is severely underutilized. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on February 14th, my introduction for my Member's statement on crystal meth was "let's get prepared," meaning that this government must look at increasing funding and awareness to shelters and addiction services.

There is something I did not ask the government for then, Mr. Speaker. That is for this government to have a heart. Studies have shown that youth or women who need safe shelters need them during odd hours, oftentimes in the middle of the night when a spouse is physically abusive, and there is a 75 percent chance, as well, that the children are also being abused. Judging from our poor track record, this government has a long way to go.

Women and youth are staying in abusive relationships because there is no housing or critical services available. In other words, they have nowhere else to go. When youth or women have the courage to leave a violent or abusive relationship, they must have a place to go where they can be safe to be provided the necessities such as food, shelter and professional assistance as medical treatment or counselling. Currently, this is not possible in many regions and communities.

My next introduction is, in every community this government cannot continue to approach communities' problems in a centralized way. Accessibility is becoming a luxury with more and more programs. Post-traumatic stress disorder is experienced, as well, Mr. Speaker. This occurs as a result of violence over time. This disorder often leads to substance abuse. As previously expressed, looking at the lack of homeless shelters, safe houses, counsellors, adequate detox facilities, especially in the regions and with the current level of addictions, there is a clear indication much more is needed. Study after study, meeting after meeting have shown that, as our economy gets better, such as the spin-offs from potential pipeline and mining projects, so too will our hard drug addictions.

We are losing our youth and other residents because they don't feel safe in our communities. This growing

centralization trend must be addressed by this government for shelters and adequate addiction services and facilities in every community. Once again, Mr. Speaker, this government must have a heart.

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Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I want to talk again about the Barren-Ground Caribou Management Strategy this government is initiating in the coming months.

The Minister stated yesterday that this government, and I quote, "had a clear plan laid out for the coming months." Well, Mr. Speaker, this plan may be clear to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, but it certainly is very unclear to northerners and to other Members of this House of what this plan will develop into.

I am not sure where this caribou forever strategy came from, but I can tell you where it is going. That is in the opposite direction of what hunters, trappers, harvesters and traditional knowledge tells us.

Mr. Speaker, the Regular Members of this House were not even aware of these interim measures until we read them in the paper just like everyone else. We are not sure where this money to carry out this plan is coming from. I don't see it in the budget. I don't see it in the supplementary appropriation coming before this House. I don't see the federal government, other jurisdictions, management boards pounding at our door to give us money to carry out these initiatives, but we are suddenly surging forward on a five-year $15 million strategy which does not have the consent of Members of this House, outfitters, hunters and trappers, and northerners in general.

So, Mr. Speaker, I want to see the Minister follow his own advice and have his Department of Environment and Natural Resources apply the precautionary principal when there are serious concerns in environment or natural resources and ensure management decisions air on the side of caution, because this sudden move by his department to implement some major changes to wildlife management, without due diligence and proper consultation on all fronts, is an error and to throw caution to the wind could have disastrous results on our wildlife, on northerners and, most importantly, on a way of life.

So, Mr. Speaker, we cannot continue on with a caribou fever mentality. We need to put more thought into this management plan that all northerners will want to work with and wildlife will truly benefit from. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.