Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to welcome all Members back into the House here.

The Premier, in his sessional statement, mentioned that personal challenges such as mental health and addictions will continue to hold our people back. Earlier in the 17th Legislative Assembly, all

Members of this government got together and we developed priorities that were going to lead us along this path for four years. One of these priorities was enhancing addiction treatment programs using existing infrastructure so we didn’t have to put more dollars into creating new buildings. We were also told at the onset of the 17th Legislative Assembly, one of the biggest cost-drivers to this government and previous governments was mental health and addictions. Today that continues to be the case.

We are three years into our mandate and, yes, we have done some work in this area. We have started creating things that are going to help those who are battling these addictions. We’ve developed a Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, which some of those actions were already taking place during this past fiscal year. We’ve had the Minister’s Forum on Addictions, where we heard from residents of the Northwest Territories and took the recommendations seriously. We’re also looking at creating a new Mental Health Act so that those who are falling through the cracks get the help that they need.

I just want to point out that we do have a lot of facilities in the Northwest Territories where they are

government stock or facilities that are owned and operated by our Aboriginal partners, so we can still look at addressing one of these priorities that we as a government agreed to at the onset of this Assembly.

We have taken a few steps moving forward, but there is still a long way to go. There are still a lot of obstacles, challenges that we need to overcome, such as follow-up and support for people who go through treatment. Detox centres are another one that we really need to address.

I’m going to make a suggestion that moving forward – I know we are at a fiscal responsibility time within our government – this government take a look at taking a pan-territorial approach with our northern partners, Nunavut and Yukon, and create a northern treatment facility that meets the unique needs of Northerners in the North, for Yukon, for Nunavut, for the Northwest Territories, also working with the Aboriginal governments that can meet the unique needs of Northerners that desperately need this type of help and this type of service. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.