Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services getting back to my statement that I made earlier today. In my statement I highlighted a Yellowknife scenario, but believe me, the situation where parents are losing their teenage sons and daughters to alcohol and drugs can happen in communities across the Northwest Territories; Inuvik, Fort Smith, Hay River, just to name a few.
Many families here in the Northwest Territories are being ripped apart with nowhere to turn when their children aged 15 to 18 take to the streets, are drinking, doing drugs and stealing. We need to make sure that as a government we have the resources to help the parents who find themselves in this nightmare scenario of not knowing where their son or daughter is and whether they are safe.
In the example I outlined in my Member’s statement where a mother goes into Social Services and absolutely lays all of her cards on the table, my first question is: why in cases where it is very apparent that the young person is obviously making bad decisions and bad choices does Social Services say that unless this person is willing to agree to help, they cannot make them do it? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Firstly, I’d indicated that I believe that in almost every community, if not every community, there are places to turn. There are your parents. There are your relatives. If there are health officials, if there are social service people, if there are teachers, if there are other people that work in the community, there’s your clergy that may be available, that we have those resources. The issue that the Member asks about in terms of the example he raised, I don’t have the full details, but I would assume that there’s an age issue and that the individual, the youth is old enough and they have certain rights of their own, as well, that have to be respected. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, if a child is 16 years old, why can’t addictions treatment be given and mandated to that youth at a parent’s request when the teenager who is oblivious to their problem says no, the treatment can’t be enacted upon? I’d like to ask the Minister why this is the case that a 16 year old whose parents want them to get treatment cannot force that child into treatment. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, there are rights issues based on age. There are very few cases where you can have some type of custodial disposition that will give legal authority to take somebody involuntarily into a treatment program. Those usually work through the courts, if it’s through the young offenders process or if it’s through an arrangement with the Department of Health and Social Services where there is an actual custodial disposition through the courts. But as a matter of practice for those types of situations where you’re dealing with family issues and these types of circumstances, when you’re 16 years old they have rights that have to be respected regardless of what the parents may think or want to do. You’re not in a position to do it unilaterally. Thank you.
I suspect that from the age of 12 to 18 it would be the same answer that the Minister would give us. I’d like to ask the Minister specific to families that are experiencing difficulties with the youth between 12 and 18 years of age what programs and services currently does the Department of Health and Social Services have at their disposal to help families going through these traumatic experiences with their children. Thank you.
Yellowknife has the best selection of services of any community in the Northwest Territories; things like the SideDoor. We have all the Health staff, Social Services staff that are here, the counselling agencies that are here, the health services at Stanton that are here. They have all the other network opportunities that are here. You have all the other access as well of some of the opportunities that I indicated earlier through other non-profit NGOs, as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. This issue was clearly identified during the review of the Child and Family Services Act that was conducted by the Social Programs committee just recently. I’d like to know whether or not the government is going to take any action to address the gap in services and the help available to families that are going through these difficult times, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
The response to the committee’s report was in this House during the last session. There were agreements reached in terms of some additional funding to look at trying to get some of the community and family services committees set up, as well as a review and internal work that we’re going to cover from within in terms of policy review and those types of things. Those commitments will be honoured. The other recommendations will be brought forward through the business planning process and will be there on the table for the incoming Assembly of the 17th Assembly in October or November when they have to grapple with the budget for that coming next fiscal year. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
