Mr. Speaker, for my Member's statement today, I am going to talk about aftercare addiction services in the NWT. As a mother, a former Dene leader, and now as an MLA, I have seen from multiple lenses the adverse effects that addictions have on people. I am very passionate about this issue because it is something which affects me directly because addictions affect all people; addictions affect all walks of life, of every family. Addictions do not discriminate based on skin colour, social class, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or language. Addictions are considered a disease, and anonymity is an essential part of recovery and aftercare.

Mr. Speaker, during my previous leadership at the Salt River First Nation, the former Minister of health and the present deputy minister of health had a three-day meeting on the delivery of addiction services to the North. All 33 community leaders, both Dene and Metis, were included in this meeting, and it was decided at that time that the external delivery was more effective because the teams required to treat these different levels of addiction were not available in the Northwest Territories. These teams include an addictions doctor, a clinical advisor, an elder, a psychologist or psychiatrist, counsellors, and supervisors. These are very highly trained staff. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I think the gap in addictions services in the NWT is the aftercare component. Once a client comes back into the NWT from the outside treatment centre, they go back to the same environment that they left, and it is very hard to remain clean and sober. I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.