Tom Beaulieu

As one MLA said today in the House, can we afford to do nothing about addictions? I think that was the reason I, as Health Minister, began the job. I could see that the first job that needed to be done that impacts everyone, that impacts every community, that impacts the economy as some MLAs said, we need to do this work. I will be a champion to make sure the work gets done on addictions.

As I indicated earlier, that was a common theme for the small communities that we visited, that they felt that treatment, on the land programs that they would do with the people that were suffering from addictions, families, elders, youth, was the way to go. The department has made available through the authorities $25,000 to any community that wants to put a program together for treatment on the land. Some communities have taken advantage of that. We think that in some of the communities that is a way to go. One thing was that the communities felt that wasn’t enough money. That’s one of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is nothing in the capital plan for new treatment centres, new detox centres, as most people in the House know. We have made a decision at the beginning of this government that any infrastructure needed for addictions, treatment of addictions, would be from current infrastructure, existing infrastructure that’s owned by the government and we’re still on that task. We haven’t changed in the first year of this government to all of a sudden make a decision that we’re going to set aside other capital issues or plans that have been on the books for several years and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Dr. Ewan Affleck, if he’s still in the House, and his wife, Susan Chatwood, and his father-in-law, Susan’s father, Andrew Chatwood, who are here to watch their daughter Anika work today as a Page.

Building a curriculum for students realized that that was something that has come as a request. There are health programs and addiction programs and so on in the high schools. That is something that ourselves… It’s not early childhood development work but ourselves and Education that would be prepared to collaborate on in the development of curricula for that, but it’s within the mandate of ECE in order to develop that curriculum.

Mr. Speaker, treatment is available to individuals that are incarcerated, but the success, again, is difficult to determine. Sometimes individuals will go to treatment, go through their incarceration without any issues, any indications, and once they get out, then at what point do we measure them?

It’s difficult to determine success. You see it. There are successes. There is no question about it. There are a lot of people out there who have successfully quit drinking or have successfully quit using drugs. Again, how they affiliate with the treatment centre that is sitting on the Hay River...

The terms of reference for the addictions forum will be to get the information, gather the information and the recommendations. Their recommendations are going to be to ourselves and will consist of this is what the issue is and the community thinks this is the way it should be addressed. Our responsibility at Health and Social Services would then be to apply our authorities’ and our department’s work to what the recommendations are. It’s going to be at that point where those health programs and what the recommendations from the addictions forum will meet. It’s not specifically in the mandate...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although within the health system we don’t actually have designated beds for people to detoxify, we do have beds so that an individual that is saying that he is ready now to quit and needs to go through detox, then the health centre should be getting in touch with the authority to advise if there are any beds available for that specific individual.

Each case is different. If this person does go into the health centre needing detoxification and is ready to go, then I think it is incumbent upon the health centre to go through their authority and try to find them a bed in...

It’s nothing specific. In the cases where individuals are going to treatment and apply for treatment down south, or there’s a recommendation from the authority through the community counselling for an individual to go for treatment down south is usually because of the complex nature of the individual’s addictions. Sometimes addictions and mental health are very, very closely associated. I think 40, I hate to mention the percentage, but I think over half of the individuals that go for counselling for addictions also had mental health issues.

I don’t have that information with me. I think it’s a fair amount of people. We’ve come back for supps to the Legislative Assembly on an annual basis for southern placements and so on for addictions. It does go through the Territorial Southern Placement Committee, so the committee would then determine that an individual would go down. But the exact number, I don’t have with me today, but I can provide that to the Member if he wishes. Thank you.