Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Northstar is a local organization that, as of recently, used to offer assistance to our employees through the Employee Family Assistance Program. They lost the contract and, Mr. Speaker, sometimes it's a reality that comes to the competitive bid process. However, they lost it to a southern firm, a national firm that, in my opinion, misrepresented themselves with key information that I believe underpins their bid. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Human Resources who is truly aware of this issue and the circumstances under what's going on. Mr. Speaker, is it a practice of this government to honour contracts with organizations that underpin their information to win a bid with false information? Is it a practice that we honour that contract? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not certain that this could be characterized as a situation where information was false. There was an issue with one of the subcontractors being included in the initial response to the RFP who should not have been included. That was an issue, but it was explained as an inadvertent mistake and the company has apologized for that inclusion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. I'll caution Members to not be bringing up outfits or individuals that aren't here to defend themselves. I'll allow the supplementary question, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate that. Mr. Speaker, I'm sure the firm that's offering this program offers competent programs but, Mr. Speaker, the fact is that they misrepresented themselves and the Minister doesn't seem to characterize false information or misrepresentation as a no-no. Mr. Speaker, what investigation has the Minister done to ensure that this was either the only issue or what other issues may have arisen? Because if you're putting in a proposal that is not full and true, this government should not be honouring it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've had the process reviewed by the BIP office at ITI. I've had the process reviewed by the Department of Justice and by Public Works. The advice that we have received is that we should continue with awarding the contract, or the contract should stand as awarded. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, Mr. Speaker, I'm sure the Minister is quite accurate on all that information, but I'll tell you, the public opinion of what seems to be right and wrong sometimes dances a different line and to a different tune than maybe what legally may be correct. I'll tell you, people out there would think that folks providing false information on a competitive tender is wrong. I do. So, Mr. Speaker, what is the Minister doing to address this ethical question that seems to be overlooked? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I've said, the process was reviewed by three agencies of government and we have been advised that we really have no other recourse than to ensure that, while the contract is being delivered, we are vigilant in ensuring that the terms offered by the current contractor are lived up to. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, Mr. Speaker, let's be honest; we're not talking about a typo here; we're talking about a company that misrepresents themselves with false information by saying we will offer a service by bringing forward this professional who's competent. Mr. Speaker, I think we're really down to an ethical question that the Minister should be asking himself. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister go back and review this and do the right decision by pulling back this contract and reissuing a fair tender; therefore, we have all the facts on the table and the most honest and fair process? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue has been reviewed quite thoroughly. As I've said, we've had it looked at by the Department of Justice, by the Department of Public Works and by the BIP monitoring office at ITI and we are following their advice, which is to ensure that we monitor very closely the performance of the current contractor to ensure that they are living up to the terms of the contract. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll make it short. We've been talking about the theme of denormalizing the use of alcohol and in the past there are so many different aspects to this issue, but I'd like to ask the Minister of Health whether or not the government will undertake a concerted effort to come up with a campaign to denormalize abuse of alcohol in a way that the successful Don't Be a Butthead campaign has been able to do? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for that question and would say, yes, we would put an effort into coming up with a campaign that would draw attention to what the impacts of drug and alcohol abuse is in the Northwest Territories. As well, Mr. Speaker, if I can, earlier I talked about a discussion paper, the NWT Alcohol and Drug Program's Balancing Community and Residential Services. Just for the record, that was initiated back a couple of years ago and that discussion paper was shared with the Health and Social Services Authority in 2006 and was used for them in looking at how we delivered the programs in communities. The feedback we had with authorities, we shared with Members. As well, there are quite a number of areas that we're involved with in the drug and alcohol area, and one of them is developing an awareness campaign that we're continuing to work on with our partners. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think the key to this is that it has to be focussed, easy to understand, concerted, and it has to be well-resourced; there has to be big money behind that. It has to be

community-based; it has to be undertaken by people in communities and every community has to be able to make their own choice about how to deal with it and get totally involved. We also, I think, I believe in communities where there are no RCMP, I think having an alcohol and drug control officer who could enforce the laws that are already in the books about prohibition and control of alcohol and drug substances will go a long way. Could I ask the Minister to put some oomph behind this and then how he's going to work on a slogan? I mean, like we...

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we'll definitely try to put some oomph behind our...

---Laughter

...our message. I heard a number of things raised in this House that seem like the beginning of good slogans that we talked about, Don't be a Boozehound, Don't be Stuck in the Bottleneck, or something of that nature. But seriously there are quite a number of factors and one of the big areas that I touched was a territorial advisory group that met in March, and we'll look and we'll follow up with consultation with our authorities as well as NGOs, aboriginal groups and stakeholders. I spoke earlier about the Community Counselling Program, tied to that is our partnership with Keyano College on the community wellness worker training. One big piece, Mr. Speaker, and we talked about youth and children, is building resiliency in children and youth. That's Friends for Life resiliency training that's targeted at children and youth, as well as the Youth Net Program, and that's a by-youth, for-youth mental health promotion area; as well as a number of areas and again developing an awareness campaign around addictions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.