Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker,
WHEREAS there has been an alarming number of suicides in the Northwest Territories in 2022;
AND WHEREAS Tabled Document 64919(2), the Office of the Chief Coroner 20212022 Early Release of Suicide Data Report, raised concerns about the 18 suicides so far in 2022;
AND WHEREAS the Office of the Chief Coroner did not wait until the end of the calendar year to provide data on suicide in the territory in order to elicit a territorial government response now;
AND WHEREAS the majority of those deaths by suicide is impacting youth and young adults in smaller communities;
AND WHEREAS a Department of Health and Social Services Community Suicide Prevention Fund is available by application and provides a maximum total $225,000 each year to applicants throughout the territory;
AND WHEREAS communities facing these crises require coordinated support from the Government of the Northwest Territories;
AND WHEREAS recreational opportunities are linked to better overall health and wellness, reduction of stress and depression, and resilience building against adverse situations in life;
AND WHEREAS many small communities severely lack recreational opportunities for youth which are sorely needed;
NOW THEREFORE I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nunakput, that this Legislative Assembly calls upon the Government of the Northwest Territories to establish a suicide prevention fund of $250,000 in each region and is expedited directly to communities in crises without application.
AND FURTHER, that the Government of the Northwest Territories create a coordinated, collaborative, multidepartmental suicide prevention team, to meet with communities in crises, to assist community leadership identify suicide prevention strategies and activities as well Government of the Northwest Territories funding that communities can access;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories subsidize all recreation fees in small communities and create new recreational activities for youth and young adults;
AND FURTHERMORE, the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to this motion within 120 days.
Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, we put this together today to present to the government for immediate responses that the government is able to do to provide to communities across the Northwest Territories. We look to Tuktoyaktuk and the example that they set by sitting down and meeting with youth, and youth immediately called on actions that pertained to leaders in community, so being able to sit down and speak to role models and, more importantly, also spoke to activities that youth could immediately access to stay busy and find healthy ways to sit down together to we heard from the Member for Nunakput today, to be able to do volleyball and basketball and painting classes. This is what the youth of the Northwest Territories are asking for. These are the same things that the youth in the territory are asking for that we heard through the Standing Committee on Social Development when we specifically took time to sit down with youth and find out what youth want for healthy communities and healthy families. Youth asked for activities that they could do with their families that were healthy activities. So this motion speaks specifically to what our youth want and what our youth are asking for and are items that this government can put in place today, even before the 120 days is up. These are items that can be actioned today to save lives. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. It's for me, I was really honoured to be able to second this motion because we've been hardest hit, I guess in the whole Beaufort Delta in my riding of Nunakput this last few months. And then our communities are stretched out enough in regards to try to provide service for our youth, and it's being put back towards the community. I really think that something like this will be really beneficial because there's so many hoops you have to jump through to access funds when something like this happens, and then I think being able to access it through the I guess the Hamlet of Tuk or the community corporations would be the best access to get these funds that's needed when something like this happens. We've been down this road, Madam Speaker, numerous times in my community.
Finally, you know, as leaders we look to working with our youth and, like, with our mayor and our community corporation chair. We ask instead we brought forward our suggestions and we weren't even close on what they were asking for. So our mayor, our leadership, we went and we met with them and they brought things forward that they wanted, and we accessed funding through the two different pots of funding through our government that we have now and we're really thankful that we did get them to provide this service for our youth that was needed at the time. And I think that when you're put in situations like this, you're more reactive instead of proactive. And we were reactive. We have to be able to work with our youth, you know, our future leaders, our stars I guess, of the community and giving them support to be able to do what they want.
With this money too, like, you know, the funding that we're giving per region I think we could do a lot of good. And just by listening to the you know, a good leader will make everybody a leader around them instead of holding them back. We got a couple of young youth in my home community of Tuk are like that. They're young leaders that are really helping promote and uplifting. And I really I'm really thankful for them because it got us through this last probably three months have been really tough. But when you look back, I guess we're able to help all 19 Members of this House.
I called, about two weeks ago I brought up this and I challenged every Member in this House to support what we're doing, to work together for our youth across our territory, sporting events with the schools, with MACA, you know, getting more into the communities, which we've been lacking because of COVID. But I think COVID's over now and we got to start really moving forward for the people and for our youth.
So if we work to this I mean work towards this, it's not going to be one it's just going to be able to help. It's not going to be able to fix it right away but we're able to help us help you in regards to the communities because like I said, our communities are really shortchanged already in regards to services that they provide because they tried to overextend themselves and all the staff, the hard work that they do. I think that if we work together to get this done. And while I have a chance, I want this as a recorded vote because it's so important to our youth across the territory.
And thank you, Madam Speaker. And I'd like to thank the mover for moving this and, you know, just thoughts and prayers for everybody across our territory that's hurting and still grieving of all what we just been through these last months. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I too wish to reiterate the comments of both my colleagues here. It is so important that we take action now on suicide prevention as it's well documented that suicide is contagious, and I think that, you know, we can look at the instances in my colleague's riding to know that is true.
I think one of the key things here that we really need to note is that we often speak about how Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations know what is best for their people, and so a key part of this motion that I support is the removal of the hoops or reporting or basically just the rigorous structure of process in order to get this money into Indigenous communities and other communities' hands so that they can spend the money where they best see fit under direction of the youth and others in their communities. I can't stress enough that this is probably one of the most important topics I think that we're tackling within this House.
There's a popular meme going around where it shows people fishing, people out of the river, and really the comment is well, why are we not looking upstream to find out why they're falling in the river to begin with, and to start building that bridge so we prevent people from ending up in the stream of addictions or homelessness. I think our youth are a hugely key important factor to that. And as I mentioned in my Member's statement, there's a huge gap there when it comes for supports for youth. I can only imagine trying to work hard to better myself only to, at every corner, face an obstacle.
I would not have had the fortitude at 16 years old to continue on myself if I hadn't had people pushing me. So I think that we're failing our youth in that we are not supporting them through this critical time in order to keep them out of the system. So I say that I strongly agree with my colleague's comments. I hope that there will be action now and not waiting 120 days on the report. There are items here that could be done immediately that I think will see some direct benefits. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Madame la Presidente. I don't think I really have much useful that I can add but I do want to thank the mover and the seconder for their leadership on this issue, for the work that went in to putting together this motion and bringing these issues forward for discussion in the House. Merci, Madam Speaker. I'll be supporting the motion.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I too will support this motion. You know, it's always hard to talk about this because it affects, you know, not only the people in our communities and the territories but also family members as well. So, you know, anything we can do and this government can do, I think it's important. And I would hope that, you know, and I've said this before, is that, you know, we got to go back to remembering why we're here, and that's for the people of the Northwest Territories. That means for the youth, you know, for adults, for seniors. And they're all you know, there's that infliction. You know, it's not just related to youth; it's also related to other groups as well but we got to start somewhere. And where we start is in listening and not telling, you know, people what they need. And, you know, what I would hope is that in trying to get that out there is that, you know, we engage, you know, with the NGOs that are actually probably the closest to, you know, the youth in the communities. So, you know, there's lots of work and if we can save, you know, one life, you know, that's better than what's been happening. So I support the motion. I thank the mover and the seconder as well. Thank you.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I too will be supporting this motion because we've had several overdoses and suicides in Fort Smith in the last especially the last year, especially during the pandemic. And, you know, I also want to just question the fact that, you know, it's time for integrated services in all communities, especially when it comes to mental health issues. Mental health issues is a very delicate situation. A lot of us many of us, even as parents, don't understand sometimes. And, you know, and we don't realize that it is a very serious issue and, you know, many of us have had to deal with mental health issues. And I want to also, though you know, I know that for a fact that any time there was any mental health issues or issues dealing with death with overdose or with suicide in my community, the department of health was in contact with myself and the people at the health centre and a crisis team was available for everybody involved. I want to acknowledge that. And I want to make sure that, you know, that we have to make sure that we start getting involved as a group, not only here but also in the community.
And, you know, the other part of all this, especially when it comes to drugs and alcohol, that the enforcement part has to also be looked at, okay. The drug dealers seem to thrive on our communities, and that's part of the problem. It's not only a mental health issue. It's making sure that our kids stay on healthy and that is part of the whole problem when it comes to mental health issues. And with that I will be supporting the motion. And I want to thank the colleagues that brought it forth. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Monfwi.
Yes, thank you, Madam Speaker. Yes, I will support this motion as well. Coming from small communities, and especially with flyin communities, there's not much happening in those small communities but I know that many of those communities, especially in the small communities, they are doing their best. People are doing their best, trying to meet the needs of the young people or to work with the young people. But we lack a lot of programs and services. We lack a lot of resources in small communities that will help and work with the young people. Because even in my region, we have issues. You know, we have issues within two months within two months, we lost four young people, you know, with so many dreams and so many goals. And I do feel, my condolences is going out to well, my condolences is going out to the families, but there's young people left behind. There's parents that are left behind. Grandparents. And especially if there's kids involved, there's kids as young as two years old, as young as less than a year old that we're talking about. So it does affect everybody within it's not just the family members that it affects. It affects everybody in the community, just like what my colleagues said with the suicide. So yes, we are feeling what is happening in my communities. There's lots of issues and there's a lot of healing that needs to be done in small communities. And all this is related to drugs and alcohol. And how many of those suicide was related to drugs and alcohol? So that's the thing that we have to work with. And I'm very grateful to Tlicho government for doing their best. So what they're doing now is through their healing path they're promoting, they're working with their members, because it's this is not just about now. It's for future generations as well because when we're at a meeting, we hear elders talking saying that young people are our future generations. They are our future leaders. So they keep saying that so we need to build on that and do something about it. If we are going to produce and if we're going to have these young people be our future leaders, then we need to start doing something about it. We need to take some actions and fight back against drugs and alcohol and, you know, work with our young people to heal.
Not only that, we have a lot of issues where I said we have a lot of issues, we have parents, grandparents, that are really frustrated. Some of the grandparents are expressing their frustration on social media. I see it on social media where they are frustrated with what's happening with their kids and while their grand kids are being neglected. And there are some parents that are expressing their frustration where their daughters especially when if it's a daughter, they're frustrated with the daughter that is abusing drugs and alcohol. And some of these young people are still even though they are aware the impact of FASD, yet still some are still abusing. So that will be we're not helping young people in that area. I feel like we're not helping young people in that area. Even though there was an education on it in the past but yet young people are still abusing while young mothers, you know, are pregnant. And so I hear from the parents and grandparents expressing frustration on that.
So with that in mind, Madam Speaker, that I will support this motion because I know it will help in the small communities, especially within the flyin communities there's not much to do over there. And what we're doing, this prevention, it will help a lot of those people in the small communities. So that's why I do support this motion. Thank you.
Thank you. To the motion. Question has been oh sorry, I didn't look over this side. Member for Yellowknife Centre, or Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I appreciate this motion. I think it's really important to talk about this area. I think that it helps to remove the stigma, and it helps connect people with the resources they need. There are a number of resources that have been mentioned by Members in their statements.
The important thing here is that we all have a role to play. We can be, as individuals, a mentor to someone who is struggling. We can be a leader in our communities. We can have a professional role in this. But we all have a role to play in ensuring that we hear what it is that people in crisis need and how it is that we can help them.
I want to say that I am not going to comment on the substance of the motion at this time. But I will say that the Community Suicide Prevention Fund has included applications that are by and for youth. There's no age limit on that fund. And the fund has now been spent for its annual allocation but it's my understanding that the department has been able to identify onetime additional funding to support proposals. I want to say that depending on what kind of shape the proposal is in, it can take less than a week for approval. So it's not an arduous process for applying for these funds.
I also want to say that all communities developed wellness plans, and they're online. Most of them were developed in 2018 and they are often youthfocused, written by youth. They're funded by the territorial government with money from Ottawa. Those plans are in the process of being renewed, and they would be a key place to hear from youth about their immediate and ongoing needs.
So with that, Madam Speaker, again I'd like to thank the Regular Members for bringing this motion forward, and they will receive a full response. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. To the motion. Member for Hay River North, Minister of Justice, Minister of ECE.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. As this motion contains recommendations to the government, we will be abstaining. We don't make recommendations to ourselves and we don't want to stand in the way of this motion either. So we look forward to providing a full response within 120 days. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. To the motion. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues, not only for their support today but for their honest and candid conversations that we had in committee. Every single person in this room, I would say, knows somebody that they have lost or who is struggling right now. And so I want to thank the Members for sharing so candidly together because those are very difficult conversations not only to have but to have with your work colleagues. And so I thank the Members for that very, very much.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to challenge everybody, and not only the people in this room, to reach out to someone that they haven't talked to in a while and to actually meaningfully see how that person is doing. Madam Speaker, I'd also like to request a recorded vote. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. To the motion.
Question.
DEPUTY SPEAKER:
