Mr. Chairman, just briefly, as the
Member pointed out, late in the evening yesterday he thanked the government for the capital projects: a territorial dementia facility and the Yellowknife consolidated clinic. There is no plan to build a treatment centre in Yellowknife. I think we have a lot of good capital projects happening there.
I don’t think there’s anybody in this Assembly qualified to speak about what exact services should be provided to those suffering from crack addiction or some of the major addiction issues. What I was trying to simply point out is that if you talk to anybody who has these addictions and mental health issues, it is bracketed as the same issue. Addictions is part of mental health issues, and there is a spectrum of services you need to provide, right from medical intervention at the most acute stage, which has to be provided by psychiatrists at the hospital, who are qualified medical doctors, down to the program that Byrne Richards provides in Yellowknife, which is called Crackbusters. So it is very important that we have a whole spectrum of services available. A treatment centre is only one component of that.
I want to assure the Member again, and it’s up to the Member if…. I accept the fact that he would never probably agree with anything I present, but it’s not for me to speak; it’s not for me to convince him. He will do with information that he has. But let me tell you, as the Minister of Health and Social Services, that anybody within our system who is suffering from addiction of any kind, who is in need of support and services and counselling — the services are available for them to tap into in every community throughout the Territories. We have the services available in the whole spectrum — for the children, for the youth. It’s not a simple, black-and-white “enter into this door A and everything to do with your issues is going to be taken care of.” That’s not the approach with respect to a very complex area of mental health and addictions.
Another thing I want to talk about with Nats’ejėe K’eh programming is that I was just there visiting as the Minister as well. They organize their programs very much based on the clientele that is in the place at any specific time. I think that it’s very simplistic to suggest they are doing some simple alcohol- and spiritual-counselling thing. They are professionals and they provide services.
Anyway, I just want to say that we focus on individual-based treatment programming and services for those people who walk into our facilities, and we tailor our programming to suit the individual’s needs.