Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to talk today about the Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Centre, which used to operate on the K’atlodeeche First Nation just across the river from Hay River.
Some of my colleagues have referred to this in the House already, and this weekend I had an opportunity to read a post on Facebook, which said, “Where are the Hay River MLAs? Why aren’t they saying something about it?” So this is my chance today to say something about it.
I thought I had already said some things about it. I have already met with the deputy minister and Mr. Andrew Langford, who came down to Hay River to meet with our local Metis government. I had spoken to the mayor and council about this. I spoke with the Chamber of Commerce about this, but I guess I haven’t spoken in a place where everybody could hear what I have to say on the record. That is why I take this opportunity today in my Member’s statement to talk about it.
I was there in the beginning of the Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre. I was at the airport when I saw Pat Martel, John Pollard and a group of people all off on a mission to lobby the Government of the Northwest Territories to build a treatment centre on the Hay River Reserve. So I have been there kind of from the beginning.
The Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre was the vision of a group of people, and some of these folks had been serving on the board up until very recently. A lot of the vision of that treatment centre
revolved around a spiritual, cultural, traditional approach to addressing addictions. That was well and good. The building was built to reflect that as well. It did serve its purpose for many years, but things change and things evolve. The facility became unionized. It is a strange piece of infrastructure in that it is a GNWT-owned facility located on a reserve, managed by a health authority some 600 kilometres away in Fort Simpson that does fall under the Deh Cho Health Authority. It was a bit of a strange anomaly as it was managed.
Things, as I say, do evolve. Addiction evolved. The facility evolved. Addictions now, if you can believe pictures on Facebook, have the ability to give people flesh-eating and bone-eating disease, if you can believe that; but things have really changed. A lot of the vision of the original forerunners on this project was not deliverable at this facility. The Department of Health and Social Services…
Could I have unanimous consent to conclude my statement?
---Unanimous consent granted