Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be supporting this legislation as brought forward by Mr. Yakeleya. I’ve listened to the general comments and the debate with great interest. I’d like to thank Mr. Yakeleya for responding to the requests for his support on this issue and bringing it here to the Legislative Assembly.

To Mr. Miltenberger’s comment that we can’t have a patchwork of legislation as legislators, might I suggest that as we devolve more authority from our government through self-government agreements and other things, there is necessarily going to be a patchwork, and it is not unprecedented, and to me this is a form of devolution of authority to a region

who is asking for it. When we look at things like self-government agreements for communities or for regions or for groups, we look at giving them control over issues, potentially, like this, so if this legislation being enacted gives the people of the Sahtu that authority to control this substance within their region, it gives them more control, more authority, I think it’s a good thing.

To be honest with you, when it comes to alcohol, I know that maybe this is not, as someone said, the panacea that is going to address all the problems and all the issues. Agreed. But if I can make somebody go one mile further, have to take one more turn in the road, one more step to make it more difficult, I will.

You know, alcohol is, as we said in our theme day today, having a terrible impact on our people and ironically we want to sit here and say, well, it’s people’s personal choice, but if we can help people with that personal choice, let’s do it. Anything that can help deter it.

There are lots of people who are listening to this who can say I can drink alcohol. It doesn’t affect me. It doesn’t affect my life negatively. If people have a problem, well, let’s just come up with more programs for the government to help the people who’ve got a problem. And good for you, you know. Good for whoever can drink and not have it affect them negatively.

I made a choice a long time ago not to drink, just on principle alone, because I saw the devastation of it, and if that in any way sends any message to anybody that you can have a happy and fulfilled life without having to turn to alcohol… You know, people drink in excess when they’re sad, when they’re happy, when they’re celebrating, when there’s a sports game on television. I mean, like, any excuse. I hate alcohol. I hate the effects of alcohol. I’ve watched it for the 40 years mostly. You know, I grew up in a little town and I didn’t see a lot as a child growing up, but what I saw when I came to the North made me make a decision not to drink. Even in business, my husband and I made a pact when we started off in business 35 years ago. We will never sell alcohol, just because we’re trying to make a point. We’re trying to draw a line in the sand and say look, people don’t need this.

I’m not trying to sound holier than thou. I’m just telling you that I hate it and I hate to see what it does to people. If you can manage it, well, good for you, but if people want to have a say in how this particular substance is controlled in their communities and their region, I say take it on, run with it. See if they can, through more autonomy, more say, bring about a positive impact.

Will people bring it from somewhere else? Perhaps. Will people load it in their sleds and haul it into the communities? Good. I hope they go off the trail. I wouldn’t care if they did, with their boxes and cases

of liquor. I’m sorry; I wouldn’t care. I just deplore it. I have seen too much devastation. Ironically, we as a government have so much to do with alcohol, you know. I mean, we buy it from the suppliers, we bring it in, we warehouse it, we ship it, we stock it, we give it out on consignment. Now, people aren’t going to want to hear this, but a lot of money that we give to support people who are on government assistance, I have to tell you, we finance a lot of alcohol consumption in the Northwest Territories too.

This seems like a big circle to me. But, you know, it’s not politically correct to talk about it because people have a personal choice. Hey, it’s their personal choice. We’re not allowed to criticize. It doesn’t matter how far down it takes the community or takes a family or takes an individual.

I support this, and thank you to the Member for bringing it forward. I’ll support any motion or any legislation or any action which curbs the consumption of alcohol in the Northwest Territories.