Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, as well, would like to thank Mr. Dolynny and Mr. Yakeleya for bringing this motion to the floor. I think we’ve had an excellent expression of varying views on bullying today. I think it’s created a very good awareness both in the House and outside of the House. I think the event of having the students here and our statements will be very educational to many people. I think we’ve also created maybe one or two budding radio and TV stars with the media activity that was happening upstairs before the House.

Society as a whole is impacted by bullying, even bullies themselves. Through their own actions and the inaction of others, people learn that antisocial behaviour and exerting control over others – whether it be verbal, physical, social, e-mail or so on – is acceptable and that it works. We all, everybody has a role to play in making that kind of behaviour unacceptable and that, in turn, will create safer communities.

Our schools are, as usual, ahead of the government. There are many programs happening in the various schools across the territory and in the education authorities. My own experience has been with Yellowknife Education District No. 1. That board has had a Safe Schools Policy since the early 1990s. I was a part of helping to develop that particular policy that is now pervasive through all of YK1 schools. Other boards, as well, I know are doing activities on bullying, but they are doing it in isolation. It’s not a concerted and coordinated effort across the territory. That’s what we need and that’s what this motion asks for. Our schools recognize

the issue and the problem. I reiterate that we, as a government, have to do the same.

The negative effects of bullying are well known. They’re listed in the whereases of the motion. It has a huge impact on any individual who is bullied and it’s something that we have to take action to try and stop. A territory-wide campaign which is called for in the motion, to my mind, is a way to do that and to start to defeat the negative aspects of bullying.

I also agree very strongly that legislation is needed. In Alberta – I mentioned Alberta in my statement – we’re not Alberta but we are somewhat like Alberta. We are similar. In Alberta, 80 to 90 percent of their residents felt that family violence and bullying should be a priority or both of those should be priorities for their government. I suspect if we did a survey of NWT residents, we would come up with a very similar figure.

Alberta has started action and I feel very strongly that it is time for us to start action. This motion calls for a coordinated campaign of educational awareness. It also calls for legislation. I fully support both of those actions. I encourage all Members to support this particular motion, even those on the other side of the House.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First off I’d like to thank Mr. Dolynny for bringing this motion forward. I appreciate the initiative and certainly the enthusiasm from our new Member for Range Lake. He’s already starting to have a defining impact on the 17th Assembly. This is a clear example of his

efforts. At the same time I’d like to recognize Mr. Yakeleya for supporting this, because it takes grassroots territorial support to bring an initiative like this forward.

Undoubtedly, anti-bullying, or I should say bullying efforts and countering them go from one tip of the territory to the next. It’s not just a large community issue; it’s also a small community issue. It’s a community issue. It’s everyone.

The statement made here by many of the Members in their Members’ statements should have brought forward the passion and concern that many of our constituents suffer from. It’s hard to deny that when somebody’s being bullied about, you cannot see or in many cases you probably can’t erase the irreparable impact that’s had on their lives and how it’s changed them.

The fact is that in my Member’s statement I tried to highlight Mildred Hall, which is a school in the downtown. I consider what an amazing little school it is. It’s certainly the little school that could and it’s certainly the little school that can. It’s a school that uses a lot of their efforts to focus in on what’s the best they can do for their children. Those students

there every day preach responsibility, respect and a safe environment. I think that’s something that’s very impressive. The students, you can feel it resonate how they respect each other, they respect authority, they respect their friends, they respect who they are themselves. Out of that builds self-esteem, as I talked about earlier today.

Just on the self-esteem note, as I said in my Member’s statement and even in my dialogue with some folks in Mildred Hall, they talked about identifying that sometimes it’s a self-esteem issue with the bully, that they actually have to narrow it down to say how do we stop this particular problem. They say, well, wait a minute, the bully not only is the problem per se, but the bully has a problem themselves. When they drill down, sometimes they find that that’s the person that needs the support and that’s how they’re reacting. If they want to help break the cycle, they’re spending that type of time and effort to make sure they get to know these folks and understand the problem from the full gamut, not just what brought us to the last part, but all the way back and say how can we make a difference. I want to applaud Mildred Hall. I want to applaud YK1. I want to applaud YK1’s partners with YCS and the RCMP, who send their community liaison officer over there to work with them.

Sometimes they’re not as simple as just talking to a student. Sometimes they’re not as simple as talking to a parent. These are troubling problems. I’d be surprised if one of us here has not been touched in the sense of a tragedy that’s happened out of a bullying effort. I’m not talking about someone who’s been ashamed by the colour of their clothes or the colour of their skin or even the language they speak.

I can speak and remember growing up in Akaitcho Hall, in particular – and I thank Mrs. Groenewegen, I’ll say, for sharing that personal story – I remember someone who, quite frankly… We would not speak the word “gay” in our time in the ‘80s at Akaitcho. There was a young man there and he was gay. He hid from everyone because they bullied him there. It was horrible. He came from a well-to-do family. The fact is, no one stood up for him, and years back, from this point I should say, as I look back years ago and I think what a shame that no one stood up for him. It’s one of those horrible stories. I wish we could end with it all worked out fine. But he disappeared; he didn’t come back the following year. The next time we heard about him we heard that he threw himself down a garbage disposal in some apartment building unit because he just couldn’t take it anymore. That story just always reminds me about… It bothers me now just talking about it. It always reminds me that the bully isn’t just the person doing the punches and the words. The bully isn’t the person doing all those hateful things. Sometimes the crowd, by doing nothing, becomes part of the problem. I’m sorry I brought

that up, Mr. Speaker. It’s statements like this that we think about it.

This motion today, I often call them creative suggestions, but I certainly hope it resonates with this particular government. As I said earlier, I want to thank Mr. Dolynny for bringing this forward, and I’m convinced that if this government doesn’t act, I suspect that in somewhere between six and 12 months Mr. Dolynny will be working out his own private member’s bill to bring forward this initiative.

This initiative here supports our school systems. Let us not forget that. Right now many of our good school systems do have supporting policies that work very hard to work with the students and parents in the community. I can tell you they need support of good legislation that helps them when they need to do their job. This is more than just a motion today. This is telling our schools, and teachers, and administration in those districts that we care and we support them.

If it isn’t evident by now, I’ll be voting in favour of this particular motion because I feel that it is very important. As a parent, I’ll tell you that nothing is sadder than when your kid comes home and talks about being bullied. I’ll tell you, this motion means a lot to many of us in many different ways and I’ve shared them today.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I can honestly say that I’m very honoured to be standing in this House today, discussing an issue and a matter that’s important to a lot of people in the Northwest Territories; right across Canada, for that matter. This is something that we’re talking about and that legislation is on the floor now. I do hope that we get support from all Members today on something that affects everybody: our friends, our family, our youth, our kids. I feel very strongly about this, that this legislation should be put into place and that we start discouraging the actions of bullies everywhere.

Bullies, as some of the Members have said previous, have issues as well. They have problems that we have to address through this legislation and some of the work that we do. What is the reason? What are the underlying causes that make people bully? Address those issues. It could be home life. It could be community life. We need to help those people out as well. The victim is the victim, but we also have to help some of the people who are put in positions where they are bullies.

It’s kind of unfortunate that we’re bringing the legislation forward now. I feel very sorry for the people that have been hurt because of bullying and because actions from adults and people in society not taking action and standing up for people in our

community. That’s something that we should be doing.

Earlier in my Member’s statement I said we all have a voice. Let’s speak up and talk about this. Let’s make sure things happen so that people in our communities don’t have to hurt anymore.

I’m very honoured to be here today so that we can make this move forward and take action. I hope it doesn’t come down to a private member’s bill, because it shouldn’t. We should take action on this and move on it. I’m very honoured to be standing up in front of the group here and in front of the people of the Northwest Territories in support of this motion.

I’d also like to recognize some of the schools. We had a grade school here today, a class come in and kick-start this off. Because one school did it, hopefully we can start bringing that awareness, that campaign into all schools across the Northwest Territories. It doesn’t have to end at schools. It should go into the workplace. It should go into the work areas and protect the people that work with the bullies in the workplace as well.

I am in support of this motion and I hope that all Members today do support this motion, because like I said, it affects everybody. It affects our families, our youth, our friends, our leaders. Even our leaders. Our leaders get bullied into making decisions when that shouldn’t be the case.

Today when we pass the motion, I hope we do get unanimous consent from everybody.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of the timely action NWT-wide with anti-bullying measures. I want to begin by thanking my colleagues Mr. Dolynny and Mr. Yakeleya for their good work putting an excellent motion together. I’d also like to thank Ms. Bisaro for excellent work in coordinating our work to profile this issue in the House today.

I appreciate all the comments in our Members’ statements and here in support of the motion from my colleagues. I think they were very informed, passionate and often experiential. So people are going right out there. I think this is a straightforward indication that we want to move forward quickly and well on this issue. It’s probably no surprise that I particularly would like to see the territory-wide campaign include a focus on the prevention opportunities we have to avoid the development of bullying.

With that, I will leave it at that and look forward to rising again in support of this motion. Mahsi.

To the motion. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Members for

bringing this motion forward on the floor. As you know, bullying is a destructive and shameful thing and we cannot tolerate it anymore.

As I stated in this House today, that at ECE we are exploring with other jurisdictions in North America their stance on bullying legislation. We are very serious about anti-bullying in our schools, in our communities, in our homes. Together, with the support of parents and community leaders, I’m confident that we can ensure that our students are safe from this type of behaviour. I’m very glad that this motion is on the floor today and commit to working with the Members to treat this issue very seriously until it is completely eradicated from our society.

This is a recommendation to our government. Since it is a recommendation to our government, the Cabinet will be abstaining from the vote. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. We’ll let Mr. Dolynny have final comments to the motion.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank my colleagues here today in support of this motion who spoke. I’d like to take a moment to thank the Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro, for coordinating a concerted effort with our students out there at N.J. Macpherson, and I appreciate her doing so. I’d also like to thank the seconder of this motion, my esteemed colleague from the Sahtu. As a new Member, I’m getting to know and learn his genre of music. We’ve gone from country to R and B and now to hard rock. We are not going to take this anymore. I’m looking forward to what he is going to choose for rap soon.

Ideally, what we’ve brought forward here is, really, the framework for measures for a proper campaign. As I mentioned, it is to preserve our culture. I think this is a clear message that we want to denounce bullying everywhere, and I think it’s time that this government needs to put that best foot forward.

In time we’re hoping that this will cause legislative behaviour changes. With that, we can do a lot more investigation in terms of some of the root causes of bullying out there, as mentioned by some of the other Members as well. I think those are critical factors. Both of those, between finding the root causes and finding legislative behaviour, are two ships that have to sail on the same ocean. We’ve got to make sure we don’t lose fact and focus of that fight.

We’ve heard from the Minister across the floor, they may be abstaining from voting, but I’m hoping that 120 days from now, if we don’t hear anything forward, I can tell you, and I assure you, that it doesn’t matter which Member from this side of the House, there will be a private member’s bill coming forward. I can assure you of that, whether it’s me or one of them.

To summarize, I’m hoping a change of heart. I’m hoping for all Members within this Assembly to vote with your heart and to vote for the victims of bullying out there, because they are there and they’re looking towards us for our guidance and our wisdom. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. To the motion.

Question has been called.

---Carried

The motion is carried. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to deal with Motion 4-17(2), which I gave notice of yesterday. Mahsi.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Question has been called. I will give Mr. Bromley closing remarks.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I moved this motion because I believe the program described is too good an idea to ignore. Debates in this Assembly in recent days, throughout our term to date, and throughout the previous term indicated the priority placed upon effectively treating the plague of substance abuse that causes such sorrow to our people and harm to our economy and cultures.

Combating addictions is a specific action item in the Believing in People and Building on the Strength of Northerners priorities adopted by the 17th Assembly. This program approach appears to offer an opportunity to improve the effectiveness of our current addictions treatment programs in a culturally appropriate way, possibly with little increased costs and maximizing the effectiveness of the resources currently being devoted. The dramatically higher success rates described in program reports on pilot projects are extraordinary.

The program is straightforward and based on that rarest of talents: common sense. In a nutshell, rather than having individuals go through treatment isolated and alone in their community with nobody available that can relate to what they are experiencing, it begins by grouping them in two or three or four people. Weekly meetings would be held for a couple of months prior to the group entering a treatment program during which they

would learn about and explore what will happen during treatment and how they can maximize their benefits as they go through it.

The group would then attend the treatment program together, then return to the community with a by now closely-knit support group with the same experience to share. They would again go through 10 or 12 weeks of weekly meetings to provide mutual support and to be available to each other for support as they reintegrate into the community in a healthy way. Community wellness workers seem well situated to provide support during this process.

As we look for ways to avert the anticipated upsurge in costs anticipated from the passage of federal Bill C-10’s regressive measures, we must urgently pursue programs that not only treat sufferers more effectively but divert offenders from the policing, courts and corrections route.

This motion does not call on the government to incur immediate costs. Rather, it provides a program free of infrastructure and well adapted to meeting spaces readily available in our communities. It can potentially be delivered through community wellness workers with a simple addition of a coordinator to begin to evaluate the program. This recommendation only looks at the possibility of introducing similar programming ideally based on some analysis and testing.

It’s been developed and tested in the Yukon by Mr. Wade Meszaros, who now happens to be a resident of Yellowknife, and undoubtedly would be approachable to discuss this work, should this Minister of Health and Social Services and/or Justice, whoever wants to take this one, be interested. Those are my remarks.

Mr. Speaker, I will be asking for a recorded vote, and recognizing the fundamental and ubiquitous NWT-wide nature of this issue, I think it would be really great for the Premier to enable a pre-vote for Cabinet members on this motion and drop the policy of Cabinet solidarity for this instance. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Colleagues, before we go, I would like to welcome back former colleague of ours, a good friend and former CA to Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Joe Bailey. Welcome back to the House, Joe. It is always good to see you.

---Applause

To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of this motion. The second whereas of the motion talks about NWT rates of substance abuse. We are among the highest rates in Canada. It seems to me that we have been doing the same thing to deal with our addictions and our substance abusers for a very long time. Our treatment programs really haven’t changed a lot. We have

gone probably down in the number of treatment programs that we have over the last number of years. In my mind, we haven’t been successful doing the same thing over and over.

I think it is time to reconsider what we are doing. It is time to reconsider our drug and alcohol treatment programs. They certainly need to be increased in one form or another. I think this is a really viable alternative that we have to seriously consider. This motion asks for us to look at a different way to run our drug and alcohol treatment programs. It is interesting that Mr. Bromley mentioned common sense. I also feel that common sense says that pre and post support for any activity is necessary. That is, again, what I think this particular motion is asking for in its approach. We do it in our health care system. I don’t think anybody would contemplate an operation on their knee, for instance, without pre and post op support. Yet we don’t do that with our drug and alcohol treatment programs.

I want to mention a couple of things, give a couple of quotes. One is that addictions cannot be addressed in isolation. There are factors that affect addictions that run right through our community and it is a community issue. It is also a family issue. We can’t expect to deal with addictions without also considering the family and the community. This quote, “All the historic evidence indicates that significant community development takes place only when local community people are committed to investing themselves and their resources in the effort. This observation explains why communities are never built from the top down or the outside in.” I think this particular approach to treatment is not top down and it is not outside in. It does involve the community and therefore makes it successful. Addictions treatment is one of this Assembly’s priorities. I think that has been mentioned several times already today. This motion allows us to bring success to that particular priority. It brings success to the program users. I think it has to be noted as well that, if we get successful addictions treatment programs, that will eventually lead to safer communities. I think that is what we all want. It fits in with the theme today, bullying, safer communities, the whole issue. I think we are right in line with supporting this motion certainly. I urge all Members to do that, to support the motion. I would like to reiterate Mr. Bromley’s request that the Members across from me, across the floor, seriously consider being able to vote on this motion. Thank you.