Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, just speaking in general terms about the bill, I found it interesting that, when we went around and did our tour, in general, we heard some mixed opinions on whether or not cannabis should be introduced, legal cannabis should be introduced, into the small communities. Essentially, all of the larger communities will have liquor stores, and there will be cannabis, legal cannabis, sold in the stores, in the liquor stores. In general, my feeling is that the government is introducing legal pot into some communities and is refusing to introduce legal pot into other communities, therefore keeping the door open for illegal pot or illegal cannabis in small communities.
What I feel that we are asking by making a motion, I guess which we are going to discuss today, was to ask the government to open it up to everyone equally. At this point, the government has essentially set up a two-tiered system, one for larger communities that already have liquor stores, and then, for smaller communities, they are left to their own devices to how they are going to bring legal pot into their communities. That's one alternative. The other alternative would be continue with the consumption of illegal pot.
I can't understand why the government would want to paint themselves into that corner, and I don't know why.
It seemed like, when we went out, when we were asked to take the bill on the road, for the most part, people felt that they should be treated equally. All people in the territories felt that they should be treated equally, that opportunities to go down a couple of blocks and purchase legal pot should be available to everyone. I can't believe that people would be so ignorant as to believe that by preventing a marijuana store in a community will prevent people from smoking marijuana. That is unbelievable to me.
Marijuana has been in the Northwest Territories, I think, since the 1960s, a long, long time, and many people smoke marijuana in the territories and across this country. That is why it's becoming legal. We have heard from the experts that there is no one in prison because of smoking marijuana; there is no one dying from smoking marijuana.
When the government introduced alcohol to the Northwest Territories, when the government allowed people, Dene people, to drink alcohol, it was just done because the government was making a lot of money off it. Initially, the bootleggers were making a lot of money off it, so the government introduced alcohol, and I am not glad there's not alcohol in all of the communities, mind you, but marijuana is a different kind of drug.
People don't smoke marijuana and then go out and commit heinous crimes, and that's a fact, and I don't think anybody could dispute that, not in here or anywhere, so I find it very unusual that the government takes a position to introduce marijuana to certain communities only, and so, if you're in a fly-in community, maybe it's going to cost you five, six, seven, or eight hundred dollars to get to a marijuana store if you want to purchase legal pot, in addition to the cost of the pot.
I believe that the actions of this government are going to only increase the sale of illegal pot. There is no way that individuals -- and, as I have said many times in the House, there is no employment in small communities, and people will have the legal right to smoke marijuana, but it's going to be very expensive if you don't have a store in your community, very expensive. You're going to have to fly somewhere or drive somewhere. Even the drive, I have two communities that will be quite a distance from the nearest liquor store. One community, it will cost $450 to buy a plane ticket to come to Yellowknife. In another community, you have to drive 330 kilometres round trip in order to purchase legal marijuana. In people's right minds, they're not going to do that, and the government's got to know that.
It's ridiculous that the government could say, "We're just going to open in certain places because it'll govern that we don't want to put it in small communities." That's a right. It's a legal right for individuals to have marijuana, and that's going to happen on July 1st right across this country, yet we, as a government, make a decision that we are going to restrict it to certain communities. You know, it was good that they had allowed plebiscites in communities that don't have liquor stores. That's fine. If the majority of the communities say they don't want to have marijuana present in their community, legal marijuana present in their community, that it's illegal to possess marijuana in your community, even though it's legal in every other community, then that's their right to do so, but they should be given that option. Why would they remove the option? Why is the government presupposing that that's what should happen and remove that ability or that right for individuals to have marijuana in their communities?
I find that -- like, I can't explain it. I can't explain the rationale. People have come in small communities and said, "If we put a store in a community, it's going to, you know, it's mad. It's like alcohol." Well, it's not like alcohol, at all. You've got to quit advising people that this is an enhancement of alcohol. It's two different drugs. Two different drugs have two different types of effects on a person's body.
There are a lot of people that do not do either. Many people in the territories don't smoke marijuana. Many people don't drink alcohol. That's a personal choice. They have the right to do it, but they don't. However, if we pass this bill as is and we don't look at changing it and we don't look at opening it up to smaller communities, then that right is removed from individuals. The government must be flexible. It must be flexible to be able to positively allow people their rights.
Everyone in the Northwest Territories should have the right to be able to purchase marijuana where they wish to do so if they wish to smoke marijuana. The government has to be prudent enough to let the market decide how drugs or marijuana should be sold in the communities or cannabis should be sold in the communities. The government's going to go into liquor stores. They are going to set the price. Drug dealers are going to come in and lower the price. It's gonna happen, guys. You got to open it up. This is not a prudent thing to do, restricting it to only some communities and everybody else can fend for themselves. Thank you.