Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the years of this 17th Legislative Assembly, I’ve stood in

this House many times to speak to the importance of having recovery and treatment programs for the people who are battling with mental health, alcohol, drug addictions, and they need those services. We continue to see those in a high need throughout the Northwest Territories.

You’ve seen in the news recently our Standing Committee on Social Programs did a tour on one of our bills and we constantly heard the need for a treatment centre here in the Northwest Territories. There’s been a lot of underlying issues, and it’s not only alcohol addictions but we also deal with grief, we deal with trauma and, more importantly, residential school and the experiences people have had with those. It takes more than just a day to get

an assessment or for somebody to go into the emergency room and be let go the next day or within a couple of days. We need to find a better way to deal and address the issue of people who are battling with their addictions and can’t get the help on their own. There’s got to be a process where they get a full observation and assessment.

I know here in Yellowknife, if you go to the psychiatric ward they’ll keep individual patients here for seven to 10 days and get a complete assessment. That’s not offered on a regular basis to the people in the communities or even the regional centres, and as a result, a lot of people are slipping through the cracks and continue to fall down into bad situations within their communities. It affects not only themselves, it affects their families and it affects their communities.

However, I know that we do have a lot of people who go to treatment and they come back with very successful stories; they come back wanting to help their fellow residents in the communities, but sometimes they come into roadblocks by not having the services and the programs in the communities to assist.

Looking at some of my statements from the past, I want to make reference to one question I did bring up in 2011 with the Youth Conference Report. Even our youth recognized this in 2011, where they wanted consultation for regional treatment centres with the end goal of creating treatment centres with culturally sensitive multicultural staff, trained professionals and unique treatment plans for youth, adults and elders.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted