Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding, and I could be wrong, is that mental health and addictions workers need a master's degree and the community wellness workers require bachelors' degrees. If this is true, is this affecting the department's ability to recruit and retain people? Because a lot of them I would imagine would need to be brought in because you wouldn't have a lot of people in the community with these types of qualifications. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement I made a few hours ago...

---Laughter

...I was talking about the need for first contact workers to be qualified. I'd like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services about the government's direction in regard to qualifications for first contact workers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, during our pre-budget consultations, we heard from many communities that firmly believe that there is a need for regional treatment centres where there will be proper follow-up for clients. Many residents are saying that they need a regional treatment centre, whether they be on-the-land camps, or a facility in town. Why isn't this government listening to their concerns? They are not asking for multi-million dollar facilities, but either bush camps or well designed energy-efficient buildings, new or existing, that the programs can be run out of.

Mr. Speaker, more and more young people are drinking and doing drugs. When they cry out for help, we need to have the capacity to the system in the region and not have to send them away. By having them closer to home, they can have their family's support network when they need it, or want it. Mr. Speaker, some of the hardest working people I have ever met have now, unfortunately, become slaves to their addiction. If we have treatment camps in the regions, many of these people, and also our youth, can go out on the land and reconnect and see what they are missing, by the lifestyle that they have chosen or want to escape from. As a young man I knew once said, being on the land is very therapeutic.

This also brings me to my next point, which is, the people seeking help should be able to get it from someone who has lived in the region and has experienced the lifestyle. There are a lot of folks who might not have a degree this government recognizes, but who have a degree in life and can better relate to the problems facing recovering alcoholics.

Mr. Speaker, I urge this government to give people what they have said over and over again. We need to help people with addictions and not change this policy to the point to where they are phasing out people with degrees in life who have a ton of experience to offer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, after hearing that our tax revenues were $30 million less

than what we were expecting, I felt guilty about the contents of my Member's statement. But I am over that now.

---Laughter

That is why I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to speak on the need, again, for treatment centres and appropriate addictions programs throughout the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Government always speaks of prevention, and we have preventative programs for this, or we have preventative programs for that. One of the best preventions for crime, is having the RCMP be on patrol all the time. My question is, what can be done to enable the RCMP to do more night time patrols when most of the crimes seem to take place? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand that some of the smaller communities will have to go through a centralized dispatch, but some of the larger communities, across the NWT, should not have to go through a central dispatch. If we see something happen, we want to report it and make sure it's acted on right away. Will the Minister commit to doing away with having calls go from some of the larger communities through Yellowknife, and make sure that there is always someone in some of the larger communities to answer these phones and dispatch the calls quickly? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke before about the calls having to go through Yellowknife for the RCMP. I have no problem with the work that the RCMP are doing; I think they're doing a heck of a job. But we have to assure the residents of the NWT that if they make a phone call, that it's answered locally and acted on quickly. I'd like to ask the Minister of Justice why all the calls have to go through Yellowknife. Are there any particular reasons, or statistics, to back this up? Thank you.

This, along with regular patrols around communities, would serve as a deterrent to potential crimes. The police have to be proactive instead of reacting to the crime, then having to do an investigation. We do not appreciate being interrogated while reporting a crime, and having the offenders long gone by the time the police arrive. The police do have a difficult job, but calls have to be taken in the community and responded to quickly. This has been a concern of Regular Members for a long time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge this government, and the Department of Justice, to come down hard on offenders, and let there be consequence for committing crimes like this. Until we quit slapping them on the wrist, they will continue to commit all these crimes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Many residents who work, trying to earn an honest living, continue to have their snowmobiles stolen from outside their residence, where they probably pay mortgages and taxes. There seems to be absolutely no consequence for anyone who steals snow machines, or anything else, for that matter.

Residents from across the NWT are getting frustrated and angry with the lack of punishment for the offenders. Many residents feel that they should dish out some frontier justice to prevent this from happening again. This is not the way we are told things should be handled, but it speaks to the fact that the system is not working. Too many young people today have absolutely no respect for the law and people's possessions.

Mr. Speaker, many calls made to the local RCMP are forwarded to Yellowknife, and, sometimes, are not answered. Many of my colleagues have spoken to this issue before. All calls should be answered locally and acted on right away.