Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will support the motion. I think it’s something that would be a good solution to this government in many areas.

I know that in the communities of Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e if you ask the health professionals, local health care nurses what they think are the number one health issues, they say alcoholism. Alcohol is the number one cause of health issues in the small communities, and we know from sitting here and we know from being Northerners that it’s also the number one cause for corrections, justice: alcohol. It’s the number one cost for even youth, people being in the corrections and so on. It’s the number one cost of education. The lack of support that’s provided to the kids that are going to school when you have parents that are using alcohol. It’s the number one cost in child and family services because of foster kids, and that’s what happens if their parents are not able to provide for their own kids, the children that they have themselves, and they go into a system where there’s high costs. The cost of foster care is very high. If there is no alcohol, then the foster care would come way down.

So the way in which we attempt to treat people at this time, there are treatment centres where individuals travel from small communities to a treatment centre. Sometimes it’s accessible, but many times it’s not. So this is a good alternative, the best alternative, because if you go around, I know that all of the ridings, if you go around Yellowknife, if you go around in the Sahtu, around Tu Nedhe, you see how beautiful the land is and the areas where these guys set up these little cultural camps that are designed so that these guys can come from other communities, or from within the community there’s people that are used to working with people that are struggling with alcohol and so on, and then there’s some sort of mobile cultural type healing on the land.

I think this is a very good initiative. I think that this motion obviously will receive support, but I think all of us here as government especially should take a

look at, really, the cost implications of this. If we’re able to heal people from alcoholism, there’s going to be a different perspective in here. I mean, the social costs of this whole government will go down sharply; there’s no question about it. If we look at that and we get serious about it, we put money into this, we will see a big change in the Northwest Territories, a big, big change. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.