Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Alcohol is a big issue in our communities, including regional centres and Yellowknife. In the last government, I was the Minister of Health and Social Services for two years. I could not believe that we were spending well over a million dollars a day in that department.
As I travelled to the communities, I asked the nurses what they thought were the biggest cost drivers in their communities. In almost all cases, they said alcohol.
I believe the causes of alcohol abuse in small communities, some of the causes, can be attributed to bootlegging. Mr. Speaker, I think it is time for us as a government to look at ways of preventing bootlegging from running a thriving business at the expense of our citizens.
Recently the City of Yellowknife discussed liquor store hours. Maybe there is merit in looking at changing liquor store hours one way or the other. Maybe you have liquor store open hours longer that will have the customers go to the liquor store instead of a bootlegger, or maybe we shorten the hours, I have not thought about that fully, to get away from the bootleggers, or maybe we shorten the hours. I do not know what it should be, but it certainly should be reviewed, Mr. Speaker.
The one thing our government may want to look at is the restriction on the amount of liquor that a customer can buy. A person should not be allowed to buy cases and cases of hard liquor, take them home for after the liquor store hours are closed, and then they have it for resale. We put restrictions on the purchase of cannabis and the possession of cannabis. I think we can do the same with alcohol. We must find a way to prevent the bootleggers from going to the liquor store and buying all kinds of alcohol, and everybody knows it's for resale, without affecting the average citizen who wishes to go to the liquor store and buy some wine or some beer or even some hard liquor for themselves, for their own consumption in their homes, so we must find a happy medium. Allowing bootleggers to buy unlimited amount of alcohol from liquor stores is not correct, and that should be stopped. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.