Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Addictions and its effects in the NWT are a big problem. It’s sad to see many of our people struggle, and like many, we are compelled to try to do something. Chief Roy Fabian and his council on the K’atlodeeche First Nation were trying to do that. We have an unused and empty facility on that reserve.
Will the Minister commit to working with Chief Fabian and his council to consider reopening the treatment centre? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In 2011 the Nats’ejee K’eh Board funded an organizational review, which made many observations about the issues at the facility that impacted negatively on programs, clients and staff. We worked closely with the board to try to find some solutions. Unfortunately, they were unable to implement any of the solutions to improve the situation there.
In 2013 the executive director advised that no further intakes should take place due to the risk of client safety in that particular facility. When that happened, we were in no other position than to withdraw funding from that facility and prioritize it into other area that it was going to meet immediate demands.
We recognize, as I said the other day, that the people of the Northwest Territories want a continuum and a range of services, including on-the-land programming, community treatment, community counselling-type treatment in communities. We’ve offered the Matrix program and we have contracts with four southern facilities that are providing those services that we’ve never been able to get through facility-based treatment here in the Northwest Territories.
Having said all that, I have been working with the chief of the KFN to try to find a solution for that building. We’ve funded them $44,000 to hold a workshop in 2014 where they brought residents from across the Northwest Territories together to discuss possible options, not including a treatment facility but a wellness centre, a training centre for mental health and addictions, a spiritual centre for Aboriginal people, as well as possibly the home location of what will be the future of a mobile treatment option. All of these seem reasonable. We discussed those with the chief at the time. Even the chief, at the time, indicated that they did not want to open a facility; the facility they had had too many challenges and even their board were the ones who directed that it be shut.
I’m absolutely interested in having a relationship with KFN to find a way to use that building outside of a dedicated treatment facility and we will continue to work with KFN to do that. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Minister for his reply. Can the Minister expand the fundamental issues in terms of having customized made-in-the-NWT treatment programs? Can the Minister explain to this House the cost deficiencies in terms of having customized addictions programs here in the NWT versus sending people down south? Mahsi.
Thank you. At any given time here in the Northwest Territories, even when Nats’ejee K’eh was in fact opened as a territorial treatment facility, we have approximately 12 people in treatment at any given time. As I explained earlier this week, we have 12 people going out and they’re going to a wide range of programs that we haven’t had in the past. Nats’ejee K’eh offered one sole program. We have a women’s facility; we have a men’s facility; we have a facility focused on narcotics and other drugs.
What we do know is at this time those facilities in the South are costing us around $150 a day for a wide range of programs we’ve never been able to offer, whereas Nats’ejee K’eh was costing us $420 per person per day, which is significantly higher for a very limited program where people and clients were not safe. Thank you.
In the NWT we pride ourselves on made-in-the-North solutions and we always try to be independent in terms of trying to aspire to make things work here for us.
Why can’t we have our own people treat our own people in addictions to help them recover and at least reach a productive life in communities and in the NWT? Mahsi.
We do do that. As I indicated, when the Minister’s Forum on Mental Health and Addictions went out, we heard a number of things: made-in-the-North solutions, on-the-land programming, community counselling, all sorts of different options. People wanted a variety and a range of programs. Facility-based treatment is only one of those options.
We provide money to different Aboriginal governments and organizations around the Northwest Territories to have custom made, regionally specific, culturally appropriate made-in-the-North programs for our residents and those programs are seeing some positive results. We also have community counselling positions and many NGOs who are doing incredible work across the Northwest Territories with a real focus on the North. We also have programs like the Matrix, which are community-based treatment programs with no facility that are being delivered around the Northwest Territories by Northerners for Northerners.
We have responded to the Minister’s Forum on Mental Health and Addictions, which was very clear, a wide range of programs, options that are available and we have moved down that road.
I still think the facility, the Nats’ejee K’eh facility, has a great opportunity to provide some service, whether it’s a wellness centre, whether it’s a training centre, whether it’s a spiritual centre of some capacity, something that is going to benefit all people of the Northwest Territories, and we’re open to having those discussions with KFN. We just don’t feel that, at this point, re-establishing it as a treatment facility that has failed over and over again is going to provide any benefit to the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s very clear and there’s no denying that we have a huge addictions problem in the North.
Will the Minister admit that we do have a problem and that the treatment centre is one solution and that the treatment centre should be reopened? Mahsi.
There’s no question that we have challenges here in the Northwest Territories with mental health and addictions. Addictions is rampant throughout the Northwest Territories, and in direct response to the Minister’s Forum on Mental Health and Addictions, we’re taking the actions that were directed by the people of the Northwest Territories, who said support on-the-land programming, get community counsellors in the communities and regions, make sure that we have a wide range of programs and options. Treatment facilities are but one, and in the Northwest Territories, treatment facilities have failed every time that we have tried to open one. They’ve failed because of staffing reasons, high cost, $420 per day compared to southern facilities at $155, safety issues that were clearly articulated, and underutilization.
These facilities in the South are run and successful because they can maintain a very, very large number of clients at any given time. Poundmaker’s can take between 80 and 100 people, which helps them bring in psychologists, psychiatrists and permanent staff who can really work with the clients. We don’t have that capacity.
So I’m not going to commit to reopening Nats’ejee K’eh as a treatment facility. I will commit to working with the community to finding a use for that facility that will benefit all people, something like a wellness centre, a training centre for mental health and addictions, or a home location for what will be our mobile treatment option at some point in the future, but not reopen it as a treatment facility again because we’ve failed and we’ll continue to fail. We don’t have the capacity. Let’s do something that’s actually for the benefit of our people rather than just result in another failure. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
