Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the motion before us is very sensitive to the people in the communities. It's very sensitive, emotional, close to home for some of them and some of them may be saying it's about time that, again, we, as Members, push forward a motion like this to give some direction to the Department of Health and Social Services and the government. I did have some feedback from the last motion that we supported on this side and people said yes, it's about time and we got some positive feedback and comments to our last motion, and they were hoping that they would see some shift in the direction of how we take care of our people who are suffering from cocaine, heroin or alcohol or any type of forms of addictions that they may have and that there may be some real results coming out from that motion. However, that still needs to be seen. So this second motion, it looks at the issue of some legal issues in terms of individual rights versus the community rights and the certain laws that now children tell us, well, you can't tell us what to do and some people in the communities say, well, you can't tell us what to do, and it gets into some sticky issues in terms of the legalities of the abuse of alcohol or any other forms of addiction.
Mr. Speaker, it also gets into the issue of the economics. My understanding that the territorial government is going to pull in millions of dollars on revenue on the sales of spirits, liquor and other alcohol. So we talk about the economics of how do we fund a treatment centre or existing building or program. So we're getting to that type of an issue of the economics and per cost per client in the centre. So all these type of issues that we get into the economics and do we look at it from a business point of view. Mr. Speaker, the political will is on this side to look at treatment centres or a new shift in the direction of staying the course by Dr. Chalmers in terms of her recommendations and her findings in the Northwest Territories and how do we deal with the addiction issue and other issues that tag along with it. So there is some political shift on this direction to move into new directions and I'm not too sure how this motion will be taken by the ministry and the department and the government.
Mr. Speaker, we talked about the social impacts and again it's something that's close, sometimes its painful, sometimes it's frustrating. We know the costs as we're going through our budget process; we know the costs of not taking care of issues such as the addiction to crack, alcohol, gambling or any other kind of addiction that we have in our communities. We know the social costs and we keep bringing it up and it's no wonder on this government, under the Social Programs committee, has the highest percentage of the whole territorial budget. It's just phenomenal now the amount of money we put to social issues. I mean, for 42,000 people we have a budget of $1 billion. Surely we could do some good with this, but it seems like we're just putting on solutions that don't seem to be getting us anywhere. So I really want to remind the Minister that we need to make some changes and I look forward to any type of suggestions.
Mr. Speaker, the 2002 alcohol and drug survey reported that 78 percent of people 15 years and older in the Northwest Territories have experimented with alcohol. That's 2002. I'd really like to see the survey report on 2006 in terms of what age limit, what's the percentage of young people who are experimenting with alcohol. If you talk to any person who worked in the addiction field of the addiction use of alcohol or crack cocaine, they will tell you how easy it is for the young person who is not fully developed as a mature person, how easy they can get hooked on the types of drugs that are flowing now into our communities and how easy it's accessible to those young people. They're very innovative in terms of getting alcohol or drugs. That's the society and culture we're going to be faced with in the next couple years.
So I wanted to say that it said in the 2002 survey that Yellowknife has a greater density of alcohol use in the communities, our large centre here. So this is why I support that we continue to work on such programs in large centres as Yellowknife, opening up the existing facility that's sitting out here at Detah, at the facility here, open up some facilities in Yellowknife, but also looking at that Inuvik one as a good possibility of opening up there for people in the Delta. You know, it's people first, Mr. Speaker, and also in Nats'ejee K'eh in Hay River, continue supporting those. We need to make those centres valuable and worthwhile and change some of the programming that hasn't been working. Maybe change some of the ways that we do programming. It's astonishing that in 2002 there's a survey report that 56.5 percent of people responded that in the small communities that they drink more than five drinks when they sit down. They go on binges, they go crazy. Then we get into other issues of children and family.
So, Mr. Speaker, these studies, these reports have really shown that we do need these programs in these larger centres. We need some home-based programs in these smaller communities. Even in the report of Mrs. Chalmers, she reported on page 14 of the small communities that more importantly the aboriginal input, it says here, Mr. Speaker, areas for developing and strengthening, aboriginal input, monitoring and involving in every step. Approximately one-half of the Northwest Territories residents are of aboriginal ancestry. Many of the most challenging problems are related to providing service in aboriginal communities, collaborate and get involvement of the aboriginal communities in designing the building and monitoring ongoing program development is of critical importance to this motion here.
So, Mr. Speaker, in closing, I want to say that I hope that this motion creates some innovation solutions at the department level, at the Minister's level, in terms of looking at ways that we could promote and have a legacy in the Northwest Territories of having healthy people in our communities. Create that legacy because we sure aren't doing it right now.
Mr. Speaker, I saw on one TV program in the United States where high school students where they had high school programming curriculum that was involving alcohol and drug issues. Actually that program that was shown a couple years ago where this school was doing a sobriety high. The only way they got into or stayed in that program was that they maintained their sobriety. Students were graduating from Grade 12 were in sobriety. They used it and they went to their classes. If they were having a hard time, they would go into a special program where they would have their 12-step meetings. Families would be involved in creating their life in a healthy manner. Why can't we do that in the Northwest Territories? We leave a lot of issues to the teachers and sometimes these young teachers they're not quick to handle some of these issues. We'll leave it to social services; we'll leave it to the mental health; we'll leave it to the RCMP; we'll leave it to the nursing station, or we'll leave it to the parents. You know, we cut up the issue so much that students say sit down, now get away, after the third one I'll get away because these workers are so overworked. They're dedicated, I know they work hard, I know there are good people working in communities, but it doesn't seem that we're working together. Let's create a department-wide initiative. Why don't you do a pilot project called sobriety high? These kids are 15 now. I understand there's some of them 12 and 13 years old drinking in our communities. Families, it's part of their culture.
So, Mr. Speaker, I want to look at that in saying that families are the key to helping with this issue right across the board. We should have something within government that supports families, employment and families who are going out. If there is an issue of alcohol, cocaine, drugs or whatever, that they have some priority in terms of helping them. Put it under one roof, a one-stop shop.
So, Mr. Speaker, in closing, I will support this motion. Thank you very much.
---Applause