Thank you, colleagues. We bring again another motion in regard to this issue. We had two other motions in the 16th . So these

motions we bring forward as MLAs because this is a very powerful issue that we’re dealing with.

When we all sat down 13 months ago as MLAs, we talked about our priorities. Our priorities talked about this very issue about having healthy people, independent people and healthy families, and

addiction was one of the biggest issues that we talked about. So this motion speaks to our priorities of the 17th Assembly.

This motion talks about recognizing gaps – and the government also recognizes there are gaps – and how do we help people. We want to look at ways that we can create a place where people who want to get help… Sometimes it becomes very difficult for someone to look for help and even ask for help. So we need to create place, a policy within our government that welcomes them to get help without any shame, without any guilt.

So this motion speaks about the strong abuses that are happening in our communities, it talks about the complaints that we get from the RCMP, 95 to 90 percent of the complaints come from our communities. They RCMP say if we did not have alcohol abuse or substance abuse, we know we would be a pretty good community, but most of the complaints deal with that. This motion talks about how we deal with issues of great importance to our people in our communities. Even the coroner’s report talks about people dying with a high rate of alcoholic-related deaths in our communities, and we know them personally.

The people in the North are calling for help. People in the North are looking to us to help our own people. We have been saying this over time, over time, and that we seem yet to be, I don’t know if it’s stuck or stubborn not to find ways how to help them. This motion talks about some specific actions, investing some money into a program that would help them.

Government may say that’s another $2 million, and where do we find that $2 million. Government will say that. We know that. We ask this help for the 16th , same thing. The Minister has embarked on a

journey with the addictions forum. I think the Minister is on a path that people will tell him what we’re already saying here. We need programs in our communities. If we could find money for the Deh Cho Bridge, we certainly can find money for this here.

I think once and for all – we’re at the early start of this Assembly – this Assembly could be known for attacking the alcohol abuse and drugs in our community. If anything, we can be known for stepping up and fighting the alcoholism in our communities. When we first became MLAs, people looked to us for hope. They looked for us to lead and stand up and say no longer is this the norm in our communities. No longer is it normal to drink weekend after weekend after weekend. They look to us when we ask them to put their X on our names and they ask us to help them.

There are a lot of good people in our communities who have stopped using alcohol altogether. I know a lot. There are a lot of good people who also want to stop. They have a hard time because of their

own personal reasons. This motion talks about creating that place for them. I don’t know what it is but I know people want help.

This motion talks about investing in people. Investing in the hope just as much as we invest in the Deh Cho Bridge, just as much as we invested in the fibre optic line, just as much as we invested money in the Tuk-Inuvik highway. We found money for those infrastructures; certainly we can find money to invest into our people. I ask the Members to speak on this motion and support this motion.