Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I would like to talk about something that we hear about almost weekly in the news in the NWT, drug-related charges, offences. In Inuvik, at a recent town council meeting, it was reported 69 reports of possible drug trafficking in 2019 compared to 15 in 2018. This was according to the RCMP stats in January. In an article on February 13th, CBC quoted Constable Chris Main out of Inuvik: "In recent years, the Northwest Territories as a whole has seen a dramatic increase in the presence of drug trafficking, and Inuvik has been no exception to this," and reports to Inuvik RCMP of alleged drug trafficking shot up in 2019, more than quadrupling the number from the year before.
He also said the jump in this is the direct result of people choosing to alert the police about specific drug traffickers. Reports from the public work as a compass, he said. They help direct police toward certain locations or people.
Traffickers are coming up from provinces. Main has stated that criminal organizations, often from provinces, have set up operations in a number of NWT communities. "These groups rotate in and out of the communities, often with one drug trafficker replacing another," he said, adding they mostly deal in crack cocaine and powder cocaine.
"Particularly troubling for the police," said Main, "is that the traffickers are regularly using people's homes as bases for their operations, exploiting residents who are already living with addictions and poverty." Traffickers, he added, will seek out people who are isolated and who won't speak out against them. I would like to thank the RCMP in our community who are taking action on this, as well as the residents who are brave in reporting this to the RCMP.
Mr. Speaker, these drugs are coming in by road, by air. How can we, as a government, stop this? I don't know, but I do know that it is a problem. I see that the RCMP are doing their part, and the residents are doing their part. If we can provide local, culturally-relevant healing and focused aftercare in support for our residents who are struggling with addictions, we may see less and less of these news release headlines and do our part as government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.