Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the mover of the motion, Mr. Yakeleya, the Member for Sahtu, for a very good motion. The idea of a mobile alcohol and drug treatment initiative is certainly innovative, and I would say welcome, from my point of view.
I’ve been around here awhile, almost eight years in total, and this is one of the first interesting and, I would say, hopefully ground-breaking initiatives that could probably make a lot of sense when tackling the alcohol and drug treatment problem. I certainly say problem as in lack thereof.
We can talk about education all we want. I think that’s a primary focus of the incoming crowd to the problem, and hopefully divert them so they never actually decide that this is a path that they wish to choose. We also cannot give up or forget about the people who are captured by these demons and held firmly in their grip. I think the solution provided by Member Yakeleya makes a lot of sense. That’s certainly why I’m very grateful for him allowing me to be part of this initiative in the sense of the motion. It’s very important that we find ways to help people who need help. This certainly makes a lot of sense.
As said by him, and I’ll say it in my own way, he was right: youth are being increasingly challenged by this particular problem. As we have all heard or
know and pretend not to, or perhaps even put a blind eye to it, we know that the parties on the weekend are spilling over into the week and affecting people’s lives. The fact is they’re affecting school children every day of the week. Does that mean we need to develop programs in high schools or middle schools? I think that’s a choice we have to start considering.
Alcohol treatment is important and, as highlighted already, we only have one treatment centre here in the Northwest Territories, which is Nats’ejee K’eh. I think they offer good programming for the kind of particular problems they tackle, but they are not a detoxification centre. That still is outstanding here in the Northwest Territories. We need that type of approach, that type of access for Northerners here to seek that type of treatment.
Our Foundation of Change does bring new, innovative ideas, but I would still say that when there’s a particular issue like this lack of services here offered in the Northwest Territories, if you want a united voice, it didn’t take long to start adding up the list, as I spoke last week to. Whether it’s our coroner, or the Chamber of Commerce, or our very respected Judge Vertes all calling for this type of initiative here in the North, this motion is just one more voice adding to the cause. It often makes me worried about how many voices need to go silent before any action is taken to this. I’ll tell you, voices are screaming and saying they want something done. What fears me is the day they stop screaming and saying they want this initiative to be addressed.
As I said last week, I had experienced a few years working at the Yellowknife Correctional Centre, and I can tell you from personal experience, and although I don’t have the stats for accurate context, but I can tell you easily 75 percent of the people incarcerated in that institution were there because of alcohol and drug problems. And I would suspect from what I saw there, that that was the lead-up into their experience of doing wrong and certainly what they suffered from and perhaps led them down the course of making some of their mistakes that they are punished for.
Mr. Speaker, you don’t have to look far to find those types of experiences, but interestingly enough, as I said last week, when you’re there getting to know people, you found that once they dried out or they cleaned up and they were starting to get involved with themselves in programming, they were taking a different outlook on life. All of a sudden their spirit rose once again and the trueness of hope and opportunity came forward in the sense of getting away from those demons, and that’s an exciting thing to watch. The trueness of their heart and their spirit came out as they got away from these problems.
The example I provide to the House is quite a true example. You could ask any number of the corrections officers or any number of the addictions counsellors in Yellowknife, in the communities, whether it’s Nats’ejee K’eh or wherever, the fact is they will all tell you somewhat of a similar story, that a lot of good people get caught up in these demons and we need options.
Mr. Speaker, the motion to establish a mobile drug treatment program is an initiative that is truly innovative, because we need ways to get out to the communities to ensure that they get the health resources and programming that they rightly deserve.
Mr. Speaker, I’m definitely in favour of on-the-land programming, because I think every problem has a different type of solution. There is no one-size-fits-all. But the way it’s prescribed now is if you have a particular crystal meth problem, you have to be sent to one of the local programs, whether it’s in Hay River, or on the Hay River Reserve, sorry, or here in Yellowknife, and you have to fail in order to be further recommended to an Alberta detox centre. Mr. Speaker, I think that’s significantly disappointing, because the families get caught up in this emotional struggle. It’s very challenging to watch, whether it’s their spouses or their children or even sometimes their parents get caught up in this world where they’re like the living dead. They’re rotting away in their bodies while these diseases are consuming them, and the only way to get treatment is to be sent south for these particular issues. Yet, there is no way to fast track this process, yet it’s a matter of sending them somewhere to fail before we’ll reconsider them again.
Mr. Speaker, this is a bit of a demeaning process that I can only imagine leads to further failure, and I’ve often thought that we could skip some of this process and if we could bring some type of detoxification services here in the North, you know, although as the Yellowknife MLA the first thing I think, of course, is we’re a large community, we need these services here. You know, that’s beyond any doubt. Should it be here? I mean, as the Yellowknife MLA, I always say that. Of course, let’s look at that. But as a territorial MLA, it doesn’t have to just be here.
My issue, number one, is how do we get the services in the North. I mean, to me where they end up is a small piece of the puzzle. I mean, you can put them in the Wells; you could put them in the Nunakput riding; you could put them in the community of Inuvik or Smith. It doesn’t matter to me. The fact is the services are demanded and yet there’s no response. Right now we’re sending people to the hospital, or the people are committing themselves to the hospital.
Mr. Speaker, the hospital is no place to treat itself as a detoxification centre, and quite clearly it’s not a detention centre either, and it can’t be used for that. A hospital is not designed that way. Certainly this one isn’t. Yet, it keeps pulling it back together that we need some type of solution, and perhaps the mobile alcohol and drug treatment program could be the way for this opportunity to be addressed.
Mr. Speaker, alcohol and drug abuse has had a profound impact in Yellowknife, in the communities, and to all northern families. I mean, we all know somebody who’s been caught up in these types of problems and, generally, there is no happy ending to this particular case. It’s a long time coming if there is particularly one.
Mr. Speaker, people are united in trying to find ways to support the program. I know the Minister always says we don’t have the money, but, I mean, my goodness, there really are two or three priorities in the Northwest Territories that always rise above all others, and this certainly is one of them. I mean, people don’t want to watch other folks go through this. I mean, the human cost of this particular problem is very consuming. It’s like a train wreck. Their families get destroyed, they lose their jobs, their kids get neglected, the kids, you know, who knows what kind of trouble they get into. It’s an open door for further opportunities to go downhill, Mr. Speaker. That’s why it’s so important that we establish some type of rehabilitation centre here that deals with the detoxification program created by the headaches of alcohol and drug use.
Mr. Speaker, I’ve said before and I truly mean it this time no less, that is that jails are not always the solution for people with these types of demons. I really believe that. As I said earlier, that when you minus the drug or the alcohol problem, quite often the trueness of how good some of these people really are starts to shine, and again, when they see hope, they see opportunity, and that really is what something like this could do.
Mr. Speaker, as said by my colleague Mr. Yakeleya, kids are getting involved younger and younger in this particular problem. We cannot rest on this particular issue, and the fact is just hoping that sitting around in a circle and talking about what to do and what not to do is... Probably we’re long past that point, Mr. Speaker. I’m not saying that there isn’t a role for that type of education or support group, but we need to now step up to the times that we’re now sitting in, which is these very addictive, very destructive drugs and alcohol issues that are consuming people. Mr. Speaker, it makes good sense to be dealing with them.
Clearly, addiction has become a paramount problem here in the Northwest Territories. It will not get better until we treat it differently, because how we’ve been treating it to date is not getting us any further.
Mr. Speaker, I’ll end with the fact that this is a very important issue in the riding of Yellowknife Centre. You don’t have to go very far before you see somebody who has had a problem or who has a problem during the day. To characterize some of the strangeness or oddness of this is it was just this past Sunday, which would be yesterday, at 10 in the morning I’m doing yard work downtown and I hear a pack of people walking by in the alley. Everyone knows where I live, and I see people throwing beer cans over my fence. This is about 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning. I mean, people are drinking at that hour, and you can’t tell me that that’s not a particular issue. This is a little beyond recreation, Mr. Speaker. I think this is a question of has alcohol taken over their lives, and it’s a shame. It’s a shame. I mean, it’s not a laughable problem that we should sit here and giggle and assume that it will go away, or to pull the wool over our eyes that nothing will happen until it starts to affect us. Well, I think it’s gone way past that point.
Mr. Speaker, there will never be the ultimate answer, but in the same turn we have to keep this relentless spirit and pursuit of trying to get a solution, and the solution may just be the one in front of us. It’s that type of innovation I give credit to my colleague for trying to bring to the table, because you’ll never get anything different if you keep trying to do things the same way. This is certainly an option that stands out clearly to me as an option that says let’s give people hope back, let’s get them into the programming that they need, and I believe very strongly in this type of initiative.
To that, Mr. Speaker, I thank the House for listening and I also thank my colleague Mr. Yakeleya for being involved in this motion, because it is a very important issue for me, and as I know you will hear later today, it is an important issue to many other colleagues in this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.