Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just like to follow up to my Member’s statement and ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, in regard to our priorities that we set in the 17th Legislative Assembly, has the department gone out in the Northwest Territories and identified any existing infrastructure that we can potentially turn into a treatment facility for residents that are battling addictions?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, we have contracts with four facilities in southern Canada. We also have $1.2 million in the Northwest Territories budget that we’re going to be using for on-the-land programming, and we have gone to the Aboriginal governments to distribute those dollars and we’re looking for plans.
With respect to facilities in the Northwest Territories, what we’re hoping to do is have a mobile treatment option program where we have a program in the Northwest Territories that can go to different regions at different times in different facilities that happen to be located throughout the Northwest Territories. There are a number of buildings or facilities that would be appropriate for mobile options, but before we actually finalize any of those locations, we need to finalize the work we’re doing on the mobile treatment program. We have made some progress on that. It has been slow. I will admit, we haven’t got as far as we would like and we’re not ready to roll out a program, but that will be where we’re able to use local facilities throughout the Northwest Territories and provide yet another option for our residents who are seeking treatment.
The mobile treatment unit sounds like a great idea; however, if the mobile treatment is going to the community of Inuvik but we have somebody, say, in Norman Wells or Hay River that needs that treatment program, we need that one facility, functional facility that’s stabilized that will provide the services that will bring people from across the North to a place that’s safe, a functional facility.
If the mobile unit is going to Hay River, you know, why do people in my community have to wait for that mobile unit to get to Inuvik to get the treatment that it needs? Can I ask the Minister, is he looking at creating one facility here in the Northwest Territories?
We’ve actually done that a number of times and it’s failed every time. Right now we have contracts with four southern facilities that have massive economies of scale and can provide programming that has never been able to be delivered here in the Northwest Territories just by the sheer size.
I do disagree with the Member. If we have a mobile treatment option that’s going to different communities at different times, anybody can go to that program at any point in time regardless of what community they’re in. But what we’ve heard is people do want to have options in their communities, so we could run a mobile treatment program in the Sahtu for a 48 day period, then we could run it in the South Slave, Hay River as an example, for 48 days, then we could run it in Inuvik for 48 days, but because it’s run in a different region does not mean that we are excluding people from other regions from participating while it’s being run. There are options for people. When we finalize the program, the mobile treatment program, we will be utilizing northern facilities.
What I heard in those answers is that the department is not looking at creating a treatment facility in the Northwest Territories due to the costs, but as I mentioned in my Member’s statement, mental health and addiction is the biggest cost-driver for this government. We have four contracts going down south.
Can I ask the Minister, has the department looked at streamlining our residents who are applying for treatment? Is that process streamlined? I know in the past we’ve had residents who have had to wait 30 days or been sober for 30 days before they can even look at treatment. We don’t have those facilities, and our counsellors are already overworked to get that opportunity. Is he looking at streamlining the process, so we get people who are battling addictions who really need it into the treatment that they need right away? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we’ve already done that. We’ve streamlined the application process for individuals who are seeking treatment. We normally require residents to go through four counselling sessions, but we acknowledge that clearly sometimes now is the right time. So, we have put in a modified process, an expedited process. An individual would go to their counsellor or other professional that happens to be available to them, and a referral can go to the department and we can have literally 24 hours turn-around time on approval of the application. Through that we’ve been able to direct people into one of our four treatment facilities in as short of a turnaround time as 48 hours.
Now, I will acknowledge that I have had an opportunity to travel throughout the Northwest Territories this summer. I have talked to people throughout the Northwest Territories about the modified process and I have had some health professionals come to us and say we weren’t aware that there was this expedited process, so clearly we needed to do a better job of helping our professionals understand. I have directed the department to put a little bit more of a communication strategy together, so that our staff know and they can respond to those individuals in a timely manner. We still do suggest that people do try to attend four sessions, but as I said, we know that sometimes now is the right time. We’ve had residents in treatment programs in facilities as early as 48 hours after they’ve come to a professional. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer, but we can get quick turnaround. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. In my Member’s statement I talked about doing a unique approach, a pan-territorial approach with our northern territorial partners, Nunavut and Yukon, and look at using one of our existing facilities and getting funding to look at creating that facility where Northerners from Nunavut, Yukon and the Northwest Territories can get the treatment and services that they need.
Will the Minister be willing to look at that option for all Northerners, Yukon, Nunavut and Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
This was actually an idea presented to me by committee. I believe it was the Member, during business planning. Since then I have had an opportunity to attend the federal/provincial/territorial of Social Services Ministers throughout Canada. I did have an opportunity to briefly mention the concept to my counterparts in Nunavut and Yukon. No decision has been made, but we’ve asked our officials to start having conversations about the possibilities.
I do recognize that each of those jurisdictions has plans in place for their own treatment as far as sending people south or having on-the-land or other programs available. We have actually begun having some of that dialogue. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
