Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This Assembly needs to prioritize the importance of our community members who wish to take programs to help themselves and their families to live a healthier lifestyle. The recent shutdown of the Nats’ejee K’eh Centre in Hay River has caused great concern for Northerners. As a result, clients are now looking at similar programs in the South.
Clients who wish to lead sober lives and who wish to go for treatment and counselling services should be given the highest priority. Rather, they are told to stay sober for one month and then we’ll send you to treatment. In most cases, some clients need help as soon as possible and have a hard time leading that one-month sobriety.
My concern is that we lose too many of our people to alcohol and drugs, and if we can help them when they need that extra support, we should be looking at alternative methods and getting them the help that they wish to receive.
I’d like to go back in history. In the late ‘70s there was an alcohol centre established in Fort McPherson. The founding members took it upon themselves to go through an alcohol and drug treatment program in Alberta and went on to get further training so that they, in turn, could help members of their community. The success rate of the community programs that were offered in the 1980s is extremely high. We have many of our community members in each of our ridings that have 20, 30 and 40 years of sobriety. Similar programs are being practised in some of our communities through various funding organizations, but we all know funds are limited and come with criteria. We need to sit down and analyse what’s working and what’s not working.
