Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to my colleagues for having this motion and on certainly supporting it to get it at least to this phase of the process. That said, Mr. Speaker, I've spoken at length about how important our RCMP are, and that's absolutely true, and I'll never change that, Mr. Speaker. At the same time, I'll also say that the RCMP, as they've acknowledged in this motion, and they've said themselves, you know, they're not social workers, and sometimes when the call comes in and they're the only one answering the phone, they cannot unanswer that phone. They can't let it ring and ring and hope somebody else will take it. It's unfortunate, but the situation is that. They are the last person to call and they can't turn around and say, call somebody else. So they end up showing up at many calls that aren't typically orientated on the type of service they are. I mean, there's a saying, as they say, if you're a hammer all you see is nails. Well, police officers are police officers to fight crime. I don't classify most of these mental health challenges as true crime. I think people are -- some people are in distress. Some of these situations are dynamic and fluid. They don't require a police officer. But unfortunately, if you call the police, you're going to get a police response.
The nature of this motion really is saying things like we want different type of people to talk to people, and we want people to talk to people. We want social workers, as an example, to work with somebody who is in some type of distress. I mean, showing up with cuffs and a truck and all of the other tools and utilities is the wrong impression when someone is having a difficult time. There is a time and place for those types of responses, absolutely. The stat given, I even highlighted it today in a different type of process in my Member's statement, where I pointed out 2,268 calls to shelters over a two-year window only resulted in 3 percent in actual charges. Again, that reaffirms or underscores the fact that the police really aren't there to respond to police-related emergencies. Again, they're probably called because of different challenges, shelters, and different types of situations where it's difficult to manage and they have no one else to call for help hence they call the RCMP.
My heart goes out to the job and sometimes the thankless jobs that they do. But, you know, if they're called because someone's not allowed in because a shelter's reached its capacity, it's after hours and they can't let them in, I mean, when the police are called, that's not a crime. I mean, it's a crime they can't get in and stay warm. It's truly a crime that they have nowhere to go. That's the real crime. But, I mean, when we call the police officer to show up, they have to put it on the books that they have a call. All they do is -- all the public sees is the police officers picking up someone who probably just needs somewhere to go. And I'm actually feeling frustrated saying this stuff, Mr. Speaker. I mean, you know, this is awful. You know, they don't like to wear these statistics. You know, as a matter of fact, you know, I get the feeling, you know, they feel very uncomfortable that they have to respond to these types of calls. But when they pick someone up in a condition that can't enter the shelter and, you know, we know addictions consumes a lot of people and a lot of families in terrible ways. But when they have to pick someone up, the resources are tied up with that individual because they just can't drop them off at the hospital. The hospital won't take them if they're in a very difficult state. In other words, the conditions of the addictions are managing their current situation. They can't drop them off down the street and say hey, we'll just drop you off in this area and be good, right? No, they can't. They have to take full carriage of that individual until they're able to manage themselves or their safety is no longer at risk or the public's safety is no longer at risk.
So ultimately, Mr. Speaker, it frustrates me seeing this happen. It frustrates me knowing sometimes we just have nowhere for them to go. And, again, maybe that's the crisis here, you know. It's a multifaceted issue, and I have every belief that the government can help rise to this challenge. We're never going to solve all the problems, but we certainly have to chip away at them and that's what I always say when I'm here being relentless. Like, I'm relentless. I don't care how many times you say no, I'll keep coming back because I'm fighting for that one yes. And that one yes builds to two, and two yeses build to three and, all of a sudden, we're changing the nature of our community.
So, Mr. Speaker, I get a really burning feeling inside and frustration and upset every time I think about that this is the way society currently thinks is best to manage people. I think it's probably almost the worst way to manage people. And I even mentioned it in committee one day, like, I would throw myself in front of the police door and not allow someone to say, well, we don't know where to put them, let's put them in an open-door cell. Like, that is the worst place to put people in crisis in trouble. They need somewhere to go. So not only this speaks to we have to find better ways to work with people, we have to find better ways to help people. And that's really what it's saying in different ways.
And I know the government knows this, and I know the Minister knows this, and I know the Minister cares about these things, and there's no comment here that the government doesn't care, and there's certainly no comment here that, you know, they ignore this issue. It's just we now have to find a new way of doing business. And on that note, Mr. Speaker, I'll leave what I've said so far is to open up discussion. I mean, I'm looking forward to hearing what my colleagues will say. But this truly is an issue throughout the territory, not just here. And unless I forget, I'll make sure I ask for a recorded vote now, so it's not forgotten. But I look forward to the opportunity, like I said, to hear my colleagues and their struggles and maybe even their solutions to this particular issue. And I'll close off debate at the appropriate time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.