Thank you, Gary.
Ever since CERB came along, our addictions have really skyrocketed. Our domestic violence record speaks for itself. In four months we had 1,148 calls for the RCMP. They couldn't focus on any drug-related activities. They couldn't even have a coffee break is what they were saying.
That was somewhat alleviated with the security coming on. They can at least have a coffee break. The area served really took a toll in the addictions area. We had a lot of people having a lot of money that they had never had before. They could just spend it any way they wanted. The children actually suffered more from that.
I lost I think it was five friends due to alcohol. We just buried one here recently, and two of them here just this past weekend. Alcohol is a major contributing factor to our people's addictions.
Right now all of our centres are closed, even our AA centre. Our people do try to go out but they are also scared of the virus. We have to find more people to help in the addictions area. We have two, but they're scared to go out there too.
Elder Morningchild talked about taking our children back to their cultural ways and bringing along the parents with them to learn how we used to live. Alcohol wasn't a major problem in my era. It was for some, but not as much as now. The kids are crying out that they want to find their identity, so this is one of the ways with the community scan that we're trying to get them out and maybe do some snaring or teach them how to shoot a gun so they can shoot grouse, and then when they're older they can learn how to hunt on their own.
Also, in our ceremonies we're trying to get them back to singing groups. We hardly have any of that right now because with all the addictions some of our people who are skilled in the traditional areas have addictions too.
Our young are very important. We have to teach them how to become self-sufficient and help them with their future for when they're older.
Another thing we want to touch on with the other chief was, yes, we do have a severe housing shortage all over. We have young families that are living with their parents, and they have kids of their own and they don't have anywhere to go. We're also caught in that housing situation.
If a kid goes to school from a happy home, he'll be happy to learn all day. If they don't have that overcrowding to deal with, they can study and try to upgrade their skills.