Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the wake of accepting the meagre budget for the Mental Health and Addictions Plan, reluctantly, I must add, I have decided to give this topic a bit of sunshine today.
We have heard, been reaffirmed and even guaranteed by the Minister of Health and Social Services that our residents today are in better care in their most desperate time of need. We are told that in 24 hours or less if you come forward with addiction issues you’ll be whisked away to one of four out-of-territory fabulous resorts where you’ll be given state-of-the-art care, and this is all being done at huge savings compared to what we were offering at Nats'ejee K'eh.
Many of us from the Social Programs committee have visited the Poundmaker’s Lodge in St. Albert, and I agree, there appears to be a successful addiction treatment centre there. But, in reality, are there savings, or should it be about savings? Are we spending the right amount of budget dollars as we did before in addictions or are we spending more? Clearly, addictions, especially alcohol addiction being the number one social issue in the North, is it getting the right investment? I mean, surely this government must be spending enough money to remedy this huge social epidemic.
Well, we know that from past budgets Nats’ejee K’eh received a little over $2 million a year in funding, so we must be at least spending this or more to treat addictions. No? I mean, we waited over two years for mental health and addictions plans from this government, so we must be serious about investing some money to take a bite out of addictions, right?
Let’s take a look at the budget of this long-awaited Mental Health and Addictions Plan, shall we? On-the-land treatment program, $900,000. Check. Children and Youth Resiliency Program, $500,000. Check. Four lofty contracts for out-of-territory
provincial treatment program, $1 million. Check. Cha-ching! It comes up to $2.4 million. Ironically, slightly more than we were given annually for Nats’ejee K’eh.
Where is the bit and the bite? Where is the real investment with addictions? Sadly, these numbers speak for themselves. When this government spends more in building one kilometre of new highway than dealing with the number one issue plaguing our generation, this is more than shameful. It’s embarrassing.
