Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk today in relation to the theme day that we are having on addictions. The thing I would like to talk about is the repatriation of youth requiring residential addictions treatment in the South.
Mr. Speaker, the latest information we have is that the Department of Health and Social Services children's services division is spending roughly $4 million a year on southern placements. Many of these children are sent south for addictions treatment in concurrence with other specialized mental health treatment. The reason they are sent south, Mr. Speaker, is that the capacity to offer residential treatment programs does not exist in the Northwest Territories at this time. We are spending $4 million of our government's money in the South. No northern businesses benefit other than the airlines who fly our kids back and forth. There are many forfeited benefits when we send our youth south. Besides the obvious economic benefits of spending program money in the North, we are missing out on an opportunity to expand our professional community. The more professional services we can offer in the NWT, the more likely it is that families will stay here.
Mr. Speaker, when we send our young people south for treatment, we are sending them away from their families and support network. A lot of these families will not be able to visit their loved ones in these southern provincial facilities. A youth addictions treatment facility in the North would at least allow for more involvement by the family in the treatment protocol through either direct involvement or through our telehealth facilities.
So we are at a crossroads, Mr. Speaker. Do we continue to send our young people south for addictions treatment, or do we take bold steps to develop specialized residential addictions and mental health treatment programs here in the North? I believe that wherever a relatively strong case can be made for delivering a service in the NWT at roughly the same cost as sending patients south, we should be doing everything in our power to hire the necessary mental health professionals to develop and run a northern program.
Mr. Speaker, $4 million a year would go a long way toward paying for the necessary capital infrastructure, professional staff, operations and maintenance for such a facility. This is the point where we are in residential youth addictions programs, Mr. Speaker. I strongly encourage the Department of Health and Social Services to quit studying the issue and get on with it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause