Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a follow-up to my Member's statement, in my discussions with Staff Sergeant Dave Grundy, he said in the last 11 or 12 days, he's had 13 different sets of parents with their kids in to speak to him, worried about the fact that their kids are doing drugs. As I said, this is definitely not just a government problem, but I wonder if the Minister could outline any steps the Department of Education is taking to try to deal with this problem in schools here in Yellowknife and across the territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What the police are telling me is that trends that we see in southern Canada are slowly coming north. They're using soft drugs to hook kids and getting them onto harder drugs. What's happening in southern Canada, then, is the kids turn to B&Es and robberies. The average cost to feed a drug addict's habit is estimated at $88,000 to $100,000 a year, in B&Es and in robberies. Young females in southern Canada sell their bodies for drugs. The police see the beginning of that trend here in the Northwest Territories.

The drug elements are more sophisticated and I think that we, as a society, have to become more sophisticated. Communities like Yellowknife and Iqaluit don't stand on their own; they're feeder communities to the smaller communities, so the problems that you see here are problems that are spreading throughout all our communities in the Northwest Territories.

Parents and educators need help. This is not just a police problem or just a school problem or a government problem, this is a community problem. Everybody in the community must be aware of the problem and must be involved in the solution. I say to people that if you see any drug activity, report it to the police. A lot of people don't and the police are very frustrated because they're not getting enough assistance from the community at large. Parents should get more involved in their schools. If you want to do something about this problem, parents have to get involved. Parents should write to their school boards, to their MLAs, to their aldermen. If your kids are experimenting with drugs, talk about it. I think too many people are ashamed of it. Drug use is happening in every family, in the best of families, and unless people acknowledge that it's happening and seek counselling, we're never going to get a solution to this problem.

What I would like to conclude with, Mr. Speaker, is that all of us have a part to play in the fight against drug use, especially among our young people. It's a community problem. The government and the police have a very strong role to play in providing support mechanisms and providing coordination, and we do need a coordinated approach. I want to really emphasize, Mr. Speaker, that at the end of the day, this increasing problem in our schools, if we don't deal with it now the problem five years from now is going to be very difficult to control. All of us have a responsibility to do what we can do to control the increasing use of drugs in our schools. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk about a very serious problem. It's a problem that is happening here in Yellowknife and in the communities all over the Northwest Territories. It's the alarming increase of drug use in our schools. I've talked to the RCMP, I've talked to educators, and I've talked to concerned parents about this issue. Last night there was an excellent meeting at St. Patrick's school, where the principal and teachers held an awareness seminar with parents and discussed some of the realities of this increase of drug use in our schools here in Yellowknife.

The feeling with the police and with educators is that over the last two years the use of drugs in our schools, in our post-elementary schools, has increased at a dramatic rate. The opinion of the police is that the drug elements in our communities are better organized now than they've ever been. They are targeting at-risk kids. Mr. Speaker, I would like to seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Could the Minister maybe give us some idea of when a decision will be made?

I have a question about the justices of the peace program. Has the Minister made a decision as to who is going to replace Sam Stevens? There was some talk at one point of having a judge being responsible for the JPs. I know Chief Judge Halifax has sort of looked after the program for many years, but what are the present plans of the department?

I understand that and I'm not overly concerned with that as long as there is a commitment from the department to make sure that the coroner's office gets the resources they need to do their job. Also, I think the Minister will agree, the job of a coroner is a difficult one, at times quite unpleasant. I think we have an obligation to do everything we can to support the coroners, especially the coroners who are in the smaller communities. I'm just looking for that commitment from the Minister that if the money is not adequate and funding is not here in the budget, that the department will ensure that the coroner's office will be able to carry out their functions.

I do understand the pressure that this Minister and other Ministers are feeling because of finances. I notice that there's not an increase in this task. Historically, the department has brought forward supps. I just want to make sure that there's enough money here, or enough money will be committed if it's necessary, so that the coroners will be able to carry out the work that they do. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I would like to ask the Minister or the deputy about the workload and the complexity of the work of coroners. Is the workload increasing and is the work becoming more complex?

Thank you. First of all, because the firearms task is in here, I would like to congratulate the Minister and Mr. Avison for the work they've done in support of the Legislation committee who have just come back from Ottawa. Mr. Avison did an excellent job in support of that committee.

My second point, Mr. Chairman, is that I've been working with the mayor's office about getting a meeting set up. The mayor has been in Rankin Inlet and will be in Iqaluit, but after he's back from Iqaluit we'll definitely set up that meeting that the Minister had kindly committed to attend. I have just one question on this task and it has to do with coroners. I wonder if the Minister could tell me what is in the works for training for coroners, if anything?