Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased to rise in support of this motion and to second it. I think there's an interesting debate going on, as my colleague alluded to, in the Northwest Territories right now of how best to resolve the increasing rates of crime in our communities and addictions and substance abuse. And I think, unfortunately, this discussion turns into a binary of either you support more policing, or you support more addictions, and you can't do both at the same time. And I think you can -- I know because I certainly do, and speaking with our police services as well they certainly do, that you can address a public health crisis at the same time as you address an organized crime crisis, a drug trafficking crisis. But you need different resources to do that, and that's what this motion calls for. And specifically one thing we're missing is a community policing-based support.
I want to commend the GNWT for working on building something like this in Fort Liard with their community safety officer pilot program. I hope we can see more of those roll out across the Northwest Territories. And I think that would be an appropriate model for what this motion contemplates. We have to allow the police to do police work and create the kind of resources that can do this kind of work. The statistics are not good. I don't think anyone who is in -- who is unhoused or who is suffering from addictions and the issues that relate to that, I don't think they want to be dealing with the police. I think they'd much rather have a more supportive trained -- well-trained professional, who can get them into programs that can help support them. But when you're dealing with armed thugs, that's not a situation for a social worker either, and I don't think social workers want to be in that situation. So, you know, we need all the resources to bear to address this crisis, and I think this motion is a good way to give voice to what many people have been calling for, which is a different approach that isn't the heavy hammer of the police, so everyone can get back to doing what they do best and tackle the areas of this multifaceted problem that they're best equipped to deal with. So I support this motion. I encourage other Members of the House to do so as well. Thank you.