Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have all heard our Members’ statements, questions, the motion brought to the floor about how big of an issue this is to the people of the Northwest Territories. It goes way beyond the walls of the Legislative Assembly and the decisions that are made here. If I’m going to say one thing, and as we keep our fiscal responsibility in place and the status quo for programs and services, what else is going to be put in place for the status quo is the alcohol-related deaths: 49 percent suicides, 57 percent

accidental, 76 percent homicides, which today, if actions were taken, could all be decreased. Those are big statistics that are way above the national averages. The decision has to be made in this House today, and I’m hoping that our Minister of Health and Social Services is looking at those stats and looking at making a decision on them. When these things happen in our families it doesn’t only affect the families, but it affects our communities and even territorial-wide. We are a small population in the Northwest Territories. When something happens in a community it affects us all, and it affects us very deeply and strongly.

Like I said, if I can leave one thing, if we’re going to keep the fiscal strategy as the status quo, then all our health status reports are going to stay the status quo as well. All the jails, all the crime-related people going to jail for alcohol-related crimes are going to stay status quo unless we do something about it. More importantly, the tragic deaths that happen in our communities are going to stay the same, as well, unless we act on it today.

I am in support of this motion.