Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I was very happy to read in the Inuvik Drum yesterday, recognition of the Wise Women Awards, specifically a former worker, Greta Sittichinli. Mr. Speaker, we’re all here because of women in our lives that have supported us, that have encouraged us, motivated us. Women that are our mothers, our sisters, significant others, so that we can be sitting here today and assisting and leading the people of the Northwest Territories in providing good programs and services.

In my life as a worker in the public service, I’ve done a lot of good work and there’s a lot of work that I’m very proud of that I can say we’ve put a lot of action to. I can say that a lot of those actions happened because of the women that I’ve worked with in terms of committees and the work that they did, and the drive that they had to make change and create action in the Northwest Territories.

My campaign team, actually, for me to get into the Legislative Assembly, was made up of pretty well all women who made things happen, who got out there, got the work done. For someone who didn’t even have a campaign, they helped me to be who I am today.

Women have had a significant effect on my life in terms of being who I am today with the knowledge and experience that was provided to me. The Status of Women Council has been distributing an award, the Wise Women Award, since 1992 for the five regions in the Northwest Territories. The wise women recipients are role models who demonstrate wisdom, perseverance and dedication, while standing up for women, children and families in our

communities. They strive to make the North a better place to live, work and raise a family.

I’d like to take this moment to recognize one of those women: Greta Sittichinli. I’ve worked with her. She’s done a lot of good work, she’s one who has overcome adversity, who is a single mother, who goes above and beyond to make sure that the people of Inuvik thrive, and are healthy, and have opportunity to succeed and to live, much like all the other award recipients across the Northwest Territories. She’s the go-to person who spends a lot of countless hours volunteering for the church so that people who are less fortunate get a chance to succeed.

At this time I’d like to celebrate all women across the Northwest Territories that are doing significant work and making a positive impact in their families, in their communities and across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we come across a program that is as successful as this one in a community that is so similar to a lot of our communities across the Northwest Territories, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that we should be putting a program like this or something similar into place to affect one of our factors in the health and social services system. Our Health and Social Services budget is the biggest out of our whole government budget. If we can put a crack or dent in that by finding programs such as this that is going to help our people thrive and become part of society, we should do that.

I am in support of this motion. I’m very honoured to second it. Thanks to Mr. Bromley for bringing it forth onto the table. I hope that we do seek such programs so that we can start making our people part of society again. It doesn’t take a very long walk from here to understand the issues that we’re facing here in the Northwest Territories in our regional centres. Inuvik has a big issue. This is one thing that we need to address in Yellowknife as well. It’s a huge issue.

I strongly support this motion and want to once again emphasize something I’ve said time and time again in this House, and that’s dealing with drug dealers and bootleggers. I’ve questioned Ministers on that. I want to address those issues in the communities. The underlying factors that keep our people down are the drug dealers and the bootleggers in our communities. Those are the people that we need to get out of the communities so that our people have a chance to go into programs like this, and not be worried that if they do come out of programs someone is going to be waiting around the corner for them. Those are the guys we need to get out of our communities, out of the territory so that we can be a healthy territory

once again. It’s something that I’ve brought up and something I will continue to fight for over these next four years, that eventually if it’s not in the territory, then hopefully in Inuvik we have a drug-free community.

I do support this motion and I’m very happy to hear that the community of Old Crow has a successful program as this and they’re helping their own people out. We should take the reins and follow suit and help our people out in the Northwest Territories.

I am in support of this motion and I, too, reiterate my fellow colleague Mr. Bromley, that the Premier allows his Cabinet members a free vote on this one. I’m sure that all Members of this House have had somebody with alcohol and drug issues, either a friend, family, a relative, go through the system. It’s not funny. It’s a serious issue. It’s our number one driving force in the health and social services system. That keeps a lot of our people employed to take care of them. I would like to see that today, first time ever, and something that touches everybody.

Thank you, and once again I thank Mr. Bromley for bringing this motion forward.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I can honestly say that I’m very honoured to be standing in this House today, discussing an issue and a matter that’s important to a lot of people in the Northwest Territories; right across Canada, for that matter. This is something that we’re talking about and that legislation is on the floor now. I do hope that we get support from all Members today on something that affects everybody: our friends, our family, our youth, our kids. I feel very strongly about this, that this legislation should be put into place and that we start discouraging the actions of bullies everywhere.

Bullies, as some of the Members have said previous, have issues as well. They have problems that we have to address through this legislation and some of the work that we do. What is the reason? What are the underlying causes that make people bully? Address those issues. It could be home life. It could be community life. We need to help those people out as well. The victim is the victim, but we also have to help some of the people who are put in positions where they are bullies.

It’s kind of unfortunate that we’re bringing the legislation forward now. I feel very sorry for the people that have been hurt because of bullying and because actions from adults and people in society not taking action and standing up for people in our

community. That’s something that we should be doing.

Earlier in my Member’s statement I said we all have a voice. Let’s speak up and talk about this. Let’s make sure things happen so that people in our communities don’t have to hurt anymore.

I’m very honoured to be here today so that we can make this move forward and take action. I hope it doesn’t come down to a private member’s bill, because it shouldn’t. We should take action on this and move on it. I’m very honoured to be standing up in front of the group here and in front of the people of the Northwest Territories in support of this motion.

I’d also like to recognize some of the schools. We had a grade school here today, a class come in and kick-start this off. Because one school did it, hopefully we can start bringing that awareness, that campaign into all schools across the Northwest Territories. It doesn’t have to end at schools. It should go into the workplace. It should go into the work areas and protect the people that work with the bullies in the workplace as well.

I am in support of this motion and I hope that all Members today do support this motion, because like I said, it affects everybody. It affects our families, our youth, our friends, our leaders. Even our leaders. Our leaders get bullied into making decisions when that shouldn’t be the case.

Today when we pass the motion, I hope we do get unanimous consent from everybody.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regards to diversion and keeping our youth out of the system, will the Minister commit to creating a territory-wide awareness campaign to youth to educate them on the consequences that, if they participate in drug dealing or other violent crimes when this new bill comes in, we can protect our youth so they don’t have to go through the system? Will he commit to creating a territory-wide

awareness campaign so that our youth understand and know what they are getting into, and that we keep them out of the system and keep them living a healthy lifestyle? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Like I said, drug dealers preying on our youth to sell their product for them and some cases when the youth do get sentenced, it is usually just a slap on the wrist or diversion to another program where they are let back out into society and they continue to repeat the same type of actions. I want to get commitment from the Minister that he will speak on our behalf to ensure that if the drug dealers aren’t getting, I wouldn’t say punished or convicted, then the youth should understand that by them participating in this type of action, they are going to get convicted under the same type of criminal convictions that an adult would if they were selling drugs, and harming our people in the community, and continuing to keep our society down and contributing to our problems. Will the Minister commit to speaking on behalf of people of the Northwest Territories that he will address drug dealing, in this case, with youth?

In respect to the theme day we had today, a lot of our drug dealers in the communities are bullying and getting our youth to sell drugs for them. In some cases, when it comes to drugs, you do tend to have violent crimes, so it is good to hear that any youth that are participating in this kind of behaviour are going to be starting to get sentenced as adults.

In regards to that diversion, I know we look at a lot of diversion programs. Is the Minister looking at the diversion programs in terms of sentencing our youth, or will they be put on the crime bill, as well, in terms of getting sentenced to jail? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my opening Member’s statement I mentioned that I was going to have some questions today for the Minister of Justice in regards to the new proposed crime bill and how it is going to affect our Youth Criminal Act as well as our diversion programs.

How is the new crime bill going to affect how our youth are treated in the court system? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. In one time or other, a lot of us have been bullied. In some cases, some of us may have been the bully. Today we come into the House talking about bullying as a major topic within our schools, but it doesn’t only happen within the schools. It happens within our communities. Kids get bullied but more on top of that, adults get bullied. Elders get bullied. Co-workers get bullied. People in the work force also get bullied. This is not a problem that is only in the schools, but I am really glad that the schools have addressed it.

We did have a presentation in the House in the Great Hall one day about My Voice, My Choice. It seems that this government is getting a lot of direction and encouragement, a lot of motivation from our youth, which is really amazing and something that should be looked upon in a very positive way.

We all have a voice. Let’s use it. We have to stand up, take a stand against all the bullies in our communities. We have to stand up and talk to our counsellors, talk to our teachers, talk to the RCMP officers, our leaders, the adults in the communities that can help us. We can’t sit back and let it continue to happen. We have to take action on this.

We want to let the people across the Northwest Territories know that they are not alone, whether they are getting bullied by coworkers or other people in their schools or even in some cases our biggest bullies out there are the drug dealers, which I will have a few questions about that later to the Minister of Justice.

As I said, Mr. Speaker, we are behind everybody. They are not alone. Use your voice, stand up and let’s address the issue and tackle this issue of bullying so that it does stop. People who do get bullied face depression. They face isolation. They bully themselves, like one of the Members said, just to see how it feels. The worst-case scenario is suicide. We can’t give in to that action, let that happen. We have to address the issue before it even gets there.

There was a news report on CBC the other day about one in two people being bullied. That is not acceptable, Mr. Speaker. I believe this government can make a change, take a stand against this and help the people of the Northwest Territories by creating policies and legislation to support our people in the Northwest Territories so that they can live a life, and our children can be children and play and have fun and learn how to be a child. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regards to the revitalization of Aboriginal languages and he has also talked previously about Aboriginal student achievement. Can he combine the two and make languages in elementary schools part of a strong curriculum in the schools and enhance that and put more funding towards that? Will the Minister commit to those funding dollars? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.