Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services in regard to my statement. Knowing that we have a lot of hard drugs that have been reported, will the Minister of Health and Social Services ensure that we are not working in silos in our community and make sure that her department, the mental health and addiction counsellors, public health, are working in partnership with education, RCMP, Victim Services, and Indigenous governments to provide education on drugs, especially the drugs that are circulating in our communities, to all our youth in our communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely. This is something that our department will continue doing, but not only that, if you look at the mandate, Mr. Speaker, a lot of the different priorities talk about working in partnership. It is important that we continue to work within all of the different departments rather than working in silos. I think that is important. All key stakeholders in the communities, we need to work together and continue to do better for the youth and all of the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Would the Minister agree that power is knowledge, and by empowering our youth with education on drugs and alcohol more than once a year in their school class, that this should be provided?
Yes. The Health and Social Services staff works closely with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and we support opportunities to work with youth on drugs and alcohol education. One example I want to bring up is we sponsored The Dope Experience, which is a multimedia workshop that engages youth in art and discussion on substance abuse. Staff are also partnering with the Northwest Territories Association of Communities and Western Arctic Moving Pictures to deliver these workshops.
I thank the Minister for that. I want the Minister to commit to work with the other Ministers, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Education, to ensure that they are all working together to make sure that this happens more frequently, given the amount of hard drugs. I understand that The Dope Experience is for marijuana, and that is because of the legalization. We wanted to educate our youth on how marijuana affects us, but what I want is these hard drugs. In the community, I am hearing from young kids, under 19, who are starting into these hard drugs, crack cocaine and things like this. We need to be doing this education before. We need prevention before we go to reaction.
I hear the Member's concern. We both live in the same community, and it is a big issue for us, but not only just us, for a lot of communities in the Northwest Territories. I am going to commit to that. That, for me, is a third yes today.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand that the Minister may not have this detailed information on hand, but can the Minister advise me if there is a wait time for treatment should someone choose to go for drug addiction, and where can our youths, under 19 or under 18, if they find themselves with this type of addiction, where can we get help for them? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The wait times vary per facility. They usually average between one to six weeks for the wait time, but there have also been situations where we have had to have patients wait for up to two months. That is the one answer I know, and I can get back to the Member on what the process is. I just want to make sure that I give the Member the right answer, so I will get back to the Member with the process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
