Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too will talk about mental illness. Obviously, some Members have already spoken on that.

Nationally, we have Clara Hughes who did a bike ride to bring light to this issue. Even famous people like Howie Mandel have come out with some of their issues. One of the things he said was… If I told you, Mr. Speaker, this afternoon that I had to go to a dentist, you would probably not blink an eye about that and allow me to do that, but if I had to tell you that I had to go see my psychologist or psychiatrist or my counsellor, you may have a different situation.

This is something we need to work on strongly, especially when we know that some of the statistics in the North are rising. We’ve had the opportunity in Hay River to have a revamp of our mental health. We have new counsellors. We have a better system. We have a couple of addiction wellness counsellors who are helping us out. But as we stir the pot, as we bring up some of these issues to people, there’s more and more demand, and now we’re experiencing that in some of the communities and some of those people that we’ve brought up.

We’ve had opportunities to have a couple of group sessions and stuff like that, but now the demand is so great on those counsellors and that organization, we have to look at putting more money into this organization to deal with mental illness throughout the Northwest Territories.

I know it’s a daunting task, especially with the pressures we have financially, but it’s something we have to continue to work at, to strive at, to get more counsellors, to get more help for the people that are needing it in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.