Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
WHEREAS enhancing addictions treatment programs has been identified as one of the Believing in People and Building on the Strengths of Northerners priorities of the 17th Legislative Assembly;
AND WHEREAS Northwest Territories rates of substance abuse are among the highest in Canada and clearly related to and aggravated by equally high rates of major negative social indicators, and that police report substance abuse as a factor in more than 90 percent of complaints;
AND WHEREAS an innovative addictions treatment approach was piloted in Old Crow, Yukon, in 2004-2005 with a 50 percent rehabilitation success rate over the succeeding 12 months;
AND WHEREAS the program is based upon preparation of participants in the community before they depart for a program at a treatment facility, and providing community-based follow-up programs after formal treatment is completed;
AND WHEREAS the effectiveness of formal treatment has been shown to improve as a result of the mutual support enjoyed by grouped participants preparing for and returning from treatment together, in contrast to the current approach of individual treatment without the availability of peer support;
AND WHEREAS this program approach is ideally suited to integration and coordination with on-the-land treatment approaches, and could draw upon community wellness and other local resources at limited additional cost;
AND WHEREAS this community-based approach addresses the weaknesses of current programming;
AND WHEREAS the improvement of programming based upon piloted and newly proven approaches responds to the critical need for more effective substance abuse treatment programming;
AND WHEREAS preparation for the anticipated increased court and corrections costs resulting from introduction of the federal Bill C-10 provisions requires urgent action to prevent and reduce the criminal activity so commonly associated with substance abuse;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that the Department of Health and Social Services investigate the potential for successful implementation of similar programming and work with standing committees to test and introduce a similar program in the NWT;
AND FURTHER, that the government provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 120 days.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. I will give Mr. Bromley closing remarks.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I moved this motion because I believe the program described is too good an idea to ignore. Debates in this Assembly in recent days, throughout our term to date, and throughout the previous term indicated the priority placed upon effectively treating the plague of substance abuse that causes such sorrow to our people and harm to our economy and cultures.
Combating addictions is a specific action item in the Believing in People and Building on the Strength of Northerners priorities adopted by the 17th Assembly. This program approach appears to offer an opportunity to improve the effectiveness of our current addictions treatment programs in a culturally appropriate way, possibly with little increased costs and maximizing the effectiveness of the resources currently being devoted. The dramatically higher success rates described in program reports on pilot projects are extraordinary.
The program is straightforward and based on that rarest of talents: common sense. In a nutshell, rather than having individuals go through treatment isolated and alone in their community with nobody available that can relate to what they are experiencing, it begins by grouping them in two or three or four people. Weekly meetings would be held for a couple of months prior to the group entering a treatment program during which they would learn about and explore what will happen during treatment and how they can maximize their benefits as they go through it.
The group would then attend the treatment program together, then return to the community with a by now closely-knit support group with the same experience to share. They would again go through 10 or 12 weeks of weekly meetings to provide mutual support and to be available to each other for support as they reintegrate into the community in a healthy way. Community wellness workers seem well situated to provide support during this process.
As we look for ways to avert the anticipated upsurge in costs anticipated from the passage of federal Bill C-10’s regressive measures, we must urgently pursue programs that not only treat sufferers more effectively but divert offenders from the policing, courts and corrections route.
This motion does not call on the government to incur immediate costs. Rather, it provides a program free of infrastructure and well adapted to meeting spaces readily available in our communities. It can potentially be delivered through community wellness workers with a simple addition of a coordinator to begin to evaluate the program. This recommendation only looks at the possibility of introducing similar programming ideally based on some analysis and testing.
It’s been developed and tested in the Yukon by Mr. Wade Meszaros, who now happens to be a resident of Yellowknife, and undoubtedly would be approachable to discuss this work, should this Minister of Health and Social Services and/or Justice, whoever wants to take this one, be interested. Those are my remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I will be asking for a recorded vote, and recognizing the fundamental and ubiquitous NWT-wide nature of this issue, I think it would be really great for the Premier to enable a pre-vote for Cabinet members on this motion and drop the policy of Cabinet solidarity for this instance. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Colleagues, before we go, I would like to welcome back former colleague of ours, a good friend and former CA to Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Joe Bailey. Welcome back to the House, Joe. It is always good to see you.
---Applause
To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of this motion. The second whereas of the motion talks about NWT rates of substance abuse. We are among the highest rates in Canada. It seems to me that we have been doing the same thing to deal with our addictions and our substance abusers for a very long time. Our treatment programs really haven’t changed a lot. We have gone probably down in the number of treatment programs that we have over the last number of years. In my mind, we haven’t been successful doing the same thing over and over.
I think it is time to reconsider what we are doing. It is time to reconsider our drug and alcohol treatment programs. They certainly need to be increased in one form or another. I think this is a really viable alternative that we have to seriously consider. This motion asks for us to look at a different way to run our drug and alcohol treatment programs. It is interesting that Mr. Bromley mentioned common sense. I also feel that common sense says that pre and post support for any activity is necessary. That is, again, what I think this particular motion is asking for in its approach. We do it in our health care system. I don’t think anybody would contemplate an operation on their knee, for instance, without pre and post op support. Yet we don’t do that with our drug and alcohol treatment programs.
I want to mention a couple of things, give a couple of quotes. One is that addictions cannot be addressed in isolation. There are factors that affect addictions that run right through our community and it is a community issue. It is also a family issue. We can’t expect to deal with addictions without also considering the family and the community. This quote, “All the historic evidence indicates that significant community development takes place only when local community people are committed to investing themselves and their resources in the effort. This observation explains why communities are never built from the top down or the outside in.” I think this particular approach to treatment is not top down and it is not outside in. It does involve the community and therefore makes it successful. Addictions treatment is one of this Assembly’s priorities. I think that has been mentioned several times already today. This motion allows us to bring success to that particular priority. It brings success to the program users. I think it has to be noted as well that, if we get successful addictions treatment programs, that will eventually lead to safer communities. I think that is what we all want. It fits in with the theme today, bullying, safer communities, the whole issue. I think we are right in line with supporting this motion certainly. I urge all Members to do that, to support the motion. I would like to reiterate Mr. Bromley’s request that the Members across from me, across the floor, seriously consider being able to vote on this motion. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank Mr. Bromley and his seconder for putting some thought to this motion and bringing it to the floor so we can have some discussion. What I understand from this motion is that Mr. Bromley is asking this government for some formula for success for our people. There is a formula out there. He is asking the Assembly as a whole. We are asking our leaders that we elected for Cabinet to investigate, look at the possibilities of a successful program, look at success for people in our communities, look for success in our children and to look at and come back to us and say this is what we found that is going to be successful.
Several years ago I was watching the program in United States. They got really radical in the States on issues with drug and alcohol and substance abuse, so radical that this school in the States is called Sobriety High. Young kids were in the schools and they were drinking and missing school and all that. The community got behind this issue and said we’re going to have a sober school. It’s called Sobriety High. They have a pilot project where the kids were in there. They did the school but they also introduced many self-supporting techniques, meetings, 12-step programs that these young adults were doing. It’s so cool to see these young people in Grade 11 and 12 going for lunch and having a 12-step meeting. They are so cool to listen to them talk about what it’s like to be sober in school. It wasn’t 100 percent successful, but it had a high degree of success for these people in the United States. They had a really good celebration. People teased that school because it was called Sobriety High. You could see the sparkle in their eyes, the enthusiasm and the success. I think that’s what we are asking through this motion that we do some innovative thinking.
We have a lot of reports where 90 percent of our RCMP time is spent because of drinking or drug use or some contributing effect because of the abuse of it. We can cut down the alcohol. RCMP is going to have many other things to do that will help the communities, but they are so busy.
This motion here is asking this government, the ones that we elect to be our Ministers, to get your department behind you and say, what can we do? Can we come up with a successful formula? Education, Justice, Health, what can we do when we put our heads together and say, is this the right formula? Can their departments look at what we’re dealing with? A disease that is in the North and it is hitting us hard.
When you deal with a disease as in a medical field, you have to have a remedy. There are remedies. Mr. Bromley talked about it in Old Crow. Good for those people in Old Crow. Maybe we should invite them with us and talk to us. That is our own people that have the tools. We have a lot of good people even in Yellowknife who we could talk to. We have to get everybody together. This is not a race issue. This is a humanity issue right across the board. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor. I think we need to get a new remedy, talk about it.
You go to the Justice correctional facility. I bet you 98 percent of those people are in there because of alcohol. How much do we pay each day for them to stay there? They have it good because we wheel down the food to them. They don’t even have to get up to eat it; we push their food to them. They have it good, but most of them are there because of drugs or alcohol.
That’s what I like about this motion. It talks about going back to the land and healing from the land. It may not seem quite right for some people, but most of the issues we need to work together on. The land is where you are going to find the healing. That is why I like this program.
Mr. Speaker, I want to say, for the record, I will be 110 percent behind this motion.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we come across a program that is as successful as this one in a community that is so similar to a lot of our communities across the Northwest Territories, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that we should be putting a program like this or something similar into place to affect one of our factors in the health and social services system. Our Health and Social Services budget is the biggest out of our whole government budget. If we can put a crack or dent in that by finding programs such as this that is going to help our people thrive and become part of society, we should do that.
I am in support of this motion. I’m very honoured to second it. Thanks to Mr. Bromley for bringing it forth onto the table. I hope that we do seek such programs so that we can start making our people part of society again. It doesn’t take a very long walk from here to understand the issues that we’re facing here in the Northwest Territories in our regional centres. Inuvik has a big issue. This is one thing that we need to address in Yellowknife as well. It’s a huge issue.
I strongly support this motion and want to once again emphasize something I’ve said time and time again in this House, and that’s dealing with drug dealers and bootleggers. I’ve questioned Ministers on that. I want to address those issues in the communities. The underlying factors that keep our people down are the drug dealers and the bootleggers in our communities. Those are the people that we need to get out of the communities so that our people have a chance to go into programs like this, and not be worried that if they do come out of programs someone is going to be waiting around the corner for them. Those are the guys we need to get out of our communities, out of the territory so that we can be a healthy territory once again. It’s something that I’ve brought up and something I will continue to fight for over these next four years, that eventually if it’s not in the territory, then hopefully in Inuvik we have a drug-free community.
I do support this motion and I’m very happy to hear that the community of Old Crow has a successful program as this and they’re helping their own people out. We should take the reins and follow suit and help our people out in the Northwest Territories.
I am in support of this motion and I, too, reiterate my fellow colleague Mr. Bromley, that the Premier allows his Cabinet members a free vote on this one. I’m sure that all Members of this House have had somebody with alcohol and drug issues, either a friend, family, a relative, go through the system. It’s not funny. It’s a serious issue. It’s our number one driving force in the health and social services system. That keeps a lot of our people employed to take care of them. I would like to see that today, first time ever, and something that touches everybody.
Thank you, and once again I thank Mr. Bromley for bringing this motion forward.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake is exactly right; it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to bring this motion today to the table, it takes a bird scientist.
---Laughter
And I want to make that known.
Addictions are, no less, the breakdown of the moral fabric of our society. I don’t think anyone in this room would contradict that at all. Abuse, whether it’s the addiction to alcohol, drugs, prescribed drugs, these are not going to go any time soon. In fact, our statistics are showing that this is growing at an alarming rate. We need to think outside the box. We’ve got to look outside the box to the current on-the-land programs. We’ve got to look at ideas that were brought forward by Mr. Bromley and seconded by Mr. Moses. These are areas we’ve got to put into place and into practice.
We cannot continuously use square-pegged holes for round-holed solutions. This has to stop. We’ve got to provide tools to the tool belts of our workers so that they can go fix this addictions bus. This bus is broken.
I’ll be voting towards this new toolbox, this new toolkit and this new tool to help support our bus.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. As a government, we know that the rates of substance abuse are far too high amongst our residents and we need to take action. Substance abuse contributes to crime rates and is a cost-driver in the health care system. It also takes a terrible toll on our communities and our families.
In my travels through the communities over the past few months, I have heard repeatedly that we need to find more efficient ways to help our people with addictions. There is no one approach that works for everyone. We need to develop and offer a range of options within our system to help people deal with their addictions.
Aftercare in the community is important support for people returning from residential treatment programs. We also need to look at other creative approaches. For example, some communities have successfully piloted day treatment programs as an alternative to residential treatment. The department currently offers a variety of services for people who are struggling with addictions. We offer a 28-day gender specific residential treatment at Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre located on the Hay River Reserve. This treatment centre is open to all residents over the age of 18 from the Northwest Territories.
In addition, the department offers community counselling programs to all the regions in the NWT. Community counselling programs provide counselling and support to all age groups and help all age groups with mental health addictions and family violence. The department works with the authorities, Aboriginal governments and communities to try to find approaches to treatment that are culturally appropriate and work at a local level. For example, the Deh Cho Health and Social Services is currently working with funding from Health Canada to pilot youth addictions treatment programs and this will fill a major gap in our system. The department has funded the Gwich’in Tribal Council to pilot an aftercare program for people returning from residential treatment. The department has made $25,000 available this year to all communities who want to sponsor on-the-land programs.
Before Christmas Minister Lafferty and I met with the Tlicho Services Agency. They told us in no uncertain terms that their priority to develop a substance abuse treatment program is grounded in Tlicho values, beliefs, language and culture. We need to find ways to respond.
As this motion gives direction to the government, the Cabinet will be abstaining from the vote. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member asked for a recorded vote. I’ll give Mr. Bromley closing remarks. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the comments from all Members of the Legislative Assembly here today. Basically in summary, we have exceptionally high rates of addictions in the Northwest Territories. Our current programs have stagnated, but we need a practical approach. This program draws on the tried and true buddy system, it’s community-based, it allows us to work together, it recognizes the high costs of addictions in terms of human health, correctional and community costs and so on. It’s a priority of this Assembly and it’s a step toward addictions-free communities. This is only one of a range of options and creative solutions, as the Minister has said, and fits well with an on-the-land program and we do indeed need to have this and other programs, other steps and options that we do develop, soundly based in cultural and spiritual aspects for people.
