Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This past summer I was fortunate enough to attend parliamentary training down in Quebec where I learned of a couple of jurisdictions who created this legislation for mandatory and coerced treatment, that anybody who is a harm to themselves or to others that ended up in the emergency rooms would have to go under mandatory treatment. That really got me thinking and wondering if there is some type of legislation that we can implement here in the Northwest Territories.
Well, I did a lot of research. I talked to some of the jurisdictions, some of their MLAs, to discuss how we can try to do this up in the Northwest Territories. At first they said it would be challenging, but I was very optimistic to see if we could continue to pursue this.
It wasn’t until we went down to Ottawa for NWT Days where I had the opportunity to set up a meeting with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, and chat with their policy and staff and try to see if there is some type of legislation that we can introduce into the House by a motion to ensure that we protect our citizens and our residents that end up in the emergency rooms, that end up in the jails, that need the help when they are harming themselves or others.
So it wasn’t until last week when I had a good chance with our research staff, and we looked and talked about whether or not this is something possible that we can implement in the Northwest Territories, and the same discussions we had would be it would be really challenging due to the lack of resources that we have in the Northwest Territories. Well, as a result of the lack of resources that we have, a lot of people are slipping through the cracks and not being recognized or getting the help and the treatment that they need.
So last week when I went home, I took home with me the Mental Health Act. I said if we can’t create new legislation, let’s look at the type of legislation we have here and see how we can amend it, see where we’re failing, and see how we can fix this so that people who are ending up in emergency rooms, that are ending up in the correctional facilities, in the jails, how we can help them and get them back into the help that they need so they can become healthy residents.
Well, I reviewed the Mental Health Act over the weekend and there were a lot of sections that raised a lot of questions for me. I’m glad I had the opportunity to do so. Today I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services, as well as the Minister of Justice on how we can address those. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
