Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When the Department of Health and Social Services shut down Nats'ejee K'eh and first came up with this idea of referring people to southern placements, I bought into it and I’m still not saying that it’s not good and doesn’t have a place, but for a territory that has a problem with mental illness and addictions to the proportion that this territory has a problem, we need something here. We need a flagship. We need a centre of excellence. We need some place that we as a government can say we are committed to working with our residents to solving these problems.
Not everyone wants to go south. Some do, some go with success, and some go many times and don’t come back. It’s a huge transition. I agree with my colleague from Inuvik. We put so much money into infrastructure for so many different things, and yet, as the Premier said today in his statement, we’re being held back. Our people are being held back by this.
I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services again, could there be a facility for the Northwest Territories on the horizon of this government, given the size of the problem? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When the Minister’s Forum on Mental Health and Addictions had their conversations, they heard clearly that programming and services was what people wanted and what people needed. We are looking at putting in a mobile treatment option, which allows us to use different facilities in the Northwest Territories. The important part of any program or of any mental health and addictions facility is the programming that exists within, so we want to make sure we have solid programming for a mobile treatment option that we can go to different communities in different regions and offer our residents yet another option for addictions treatment. So, we are looking at using facilities, multiple facilities with a solid core program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, people are dying. Oftentimes we need a very critical intervention on an emergency basis. Right now there is nothing, nothing in those communities.
When is the mobile treatment program coming to Hay River, because we need it there. Thank you.
I disagree with the Member that there’s nothing in the communities. Throughout the Northwest Territories we have counsellors and many NGOs that do incredible work to support residents. We’ve got communities developing community wellness plans and trying to put in options. We are supporting on-the-land programming that is designed by the people for the people. We do have access in a timely way to southern facilities, and yes, we are looking at mobile treatment.
As I said to the Member from Inuvik, we are a little behind on making progress on the mobile treatment program. We haven’t finalized any programming around that. We’re still negotiating with a potential provider. Once we have a program, a solid program in place, we will start to roll that out in the Northwest Territories.
There are multiple facilities in the Northwest Territories where a mobile treatment program could work. There are facilities in Yellowknife, facilities in Hay River, facilities in Inuvik. We will move it around. It will be a multiple-day program. We believe probably around 48 days before it moves.
So I can’t tell the Member when a mobile treatment program will be utilized in a facility at or near Hay River, but it will come. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
To the Minister’s point that there’s nothing, let me retract that and say yes. If you want to get into long-term planning for housing or treatment or income support or all kinds of support, yes, there are people in offices that you can go to. But in the situation of an emergency or a crises, the person… Mental health and addictions is very much related to homelessness, and so to the guy that’s standing on the front door of the parish priest’s residence because he has nowhere to go and he’s got serious, serious mental health and addictions issues, where does that person go on any given night in Hay River? Thank you.
I think we are now talking about something slightly different than a treatment program; we’re talking about immediate response to individuals who happen to be homeless or in a different type of crisis. I heard the Member when she was giving her statement, talking about the possibility of some sort of housing or an overnight shelter for individuals in Hay River. I don’t believe that exists at this point in time, but I would be willing to talk to the two Members from Hay River about a possibility and what we can or can’t do at this time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, which department would be looking at putting something on the ground in a community like Hay River for people who need some kind of immediate crisis type of intervention help? Which departments would be working together on that? Thank you.
As the Department of Health and Social Services, we are happy to work with the community on any proposals they’d like to put forward. Recently I’ve had the opportunity to travel to many communities, and many communities and their leadership actually approached us and said we want to participate, we want to do something in our community, and we’ve had ideas like respite houses or places where individuals can go when they are returning from care, some work that can be done up front. So we’re open to any idea. We’re happy to talk to the leadership in your community. We’re happy to work with the Housing Corporation, who may be able to assist us identify facilities. We’re happy to work with anybody who can get us to where we need to go. I’m happy to work with both Members from Hay River. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
