Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister confirm if the direction this government is taking to combat the drug trade in the NWT working; do we need to reevaluate the department's approach and the RCMP's approach? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If anyone's familiar with the war on drugs in the United States, I think they've spent about a trillion dollars over the past number of decades and they have more people incarcerated for, you know, possession of drugs than anywhere else in the world, and they still have problems. So if this is -- like I said, this isn't something we can arrest our way out of. Now that being said, the RCMP are well aware of the situation. I know a lot of people measure the success of the RCMP by, you know, the number of maybe drug dealers in their communities. But the fact is that if there's a drug dealer who's arrested and put away, there's going to be another one who takes their place because there is a market. If there is someone who wants to buy drugs, there's going to be someone to sell them those drugs. So the investments that we've seen, not just in the territory but around the world, that have made the most difference are investments in things like helping people who are vulnerable in overnight shelters, in, you know, providing services for people who, you know, might be addicted or at risk of being addicted. So those are the types of investments that we need to focus on. Enforcement is, of course, an important part but it really is those social aspects that we need to focus on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when I talked to persons addicted to drugs, or those that are dealing for that matter, I let them know that I'm willing to work with them to help them move away from that lifestyle. I also let them know that not changing their lifestyle or dealing with the addiction problem would result in one of three things happening, which is being murdered, overdosing, or being incarcerated.

Can the Minister tell me what emphasis is placed on education by law enforcement to convince people that selling drugs in the NWT is not a career path? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I don't have examples of, you know, RCMP giving talks in the schools but the RCMP does do a lot of community outreach. It's a little more prevalent I think in smaller communities where they have more opportunity to have the -- those one-on-ones. But I think that it should almost go without saying that it's not a great career, being a drug dealer. And it's not just the RCMP's job to instill that in people. Everyone needs to do that. And so in the education system, we can't just say don't be a drug dealer. We need to say here are some alternatives, these are things you can do. It's one thing to just say no, it's another thing and more successful if you give someone an alternative. So we are working on that as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the community and residents of Hay River are very concerned with the events over the last several months that resulted in a number of overdoses and alleged drug offences. It has become a crisis.

Can the Minister confirm that he is willing to have his department set up a meeting with the RCMP, Town of Hay River, and NGOs, to discuss solutions to address the issue of the drug trade? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I was just on the phone with the mayor today of Hay River to talk about such a meeting where we bring together those organizations, and I'm happy to do that.

As well as MLA, I've had constituents reach out to me in Hay River, and they would like to have a public meeting with the RCMP so that they can ask questions. A lot of people wonder, you know, I know that there's a drug dealer in this house, why haven't you arrested them. And sometimes there's some valid reasons and we need to have that dialog. We need the public to know what the RCMP is doing so that they can support them. This is a community issue. It's not an enforcement issue. It's not an education issue. It's a community issue. And so we need the community to sit down together and start an open dialog. And so as MLA, I've invited the sergeant, and whoever he would like to bring, to a constituency meeting and he's open to that as well. So in the coming weeks, perhaps after this session, we can set something like that up in addition to getting all of the community groups together, like the town, like the RCMP, in trying to figure out a path forward as well. So yes, we are working on this on a number of different levels. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.