Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked yet again about the concern of the lack of a treatment centre here in the Northwest Territories. I’m committed behind this problem in such a way that it doesn’t have to happen here in Yellowknife; it can happen anywhere that it can be properly resourced to treat people who have problems. Yes, as the Member for Yellowknife, it would be nice if it was here, but I care about the problem more than where it shows up. That’s what’s truly important. I’ll make a deal with the Minister of Health today. I’ll stop nagging about this issue if he’ll start doing something about this issue.
My challenge to the Minister of Health is this: What is he willing to do in a practical and effective form to help treat hard drug addictions here in the Northwest Territories so we stop sending people out to places like Ontario, Alberta, or even Vancouver?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although it may appear that the drug issue is a huge issue in Yellowknife, we want to identify exactly how huge the issue is. One of the first things that we are doing is to put together groups of individuals that will be looking at the addictions across the territory, including Yellowknife. So we have a group of people that we’ve selected that will look at the addictions issues in Yellowknife. That’s the first step.
That’s certainly good news. I’m glad to hear that it sounds like we’re making headway on this particular file. This particular group that the Minister is able to form, which I have to admit this is public news now for everyone, is he able to describe what mandate this particular group has? Do they have the power to make the suggestion and provide a direction to the Minister of Health to build a treatment centre in the Northwest Territories?
No. The only people that have the power to determine capital infrastructure is this House.
I’m talking about a particular mandate that this group would be empowered with. If they decide that the treatment problem is significant enough, as I’ve been saying for nine years, that people have said over the last six weeks during the municipal elections, people said over four weeks of the last territorial election, that half the population of the Northwest Territories is expecting some type of response on this particular issue. If they say a treatment centre is needed, what is the Minister of Health and Social Services willing to do?
I guess, first off, a Caucus priority was to look at a treatment centre, looking at existing infrastructure. Where the actual treatment centre, if that is the direction that the various forums across the Territories come up with and that is the best direction they feel that it’s going to be to have a treatment centre located somewhere in the Northwest Territories in addition to Nats'ejee K'eh, then we will move in that direction.
Right now we’re serious. We’ve employed these 14 individuals who will go across the territory, and they will come to us with recommendations. If a recommendation is to have an actual treatment facility, a physical treatment facility in one location or another, indications were that they were looking for, initially, just discussions in the communities have been looking for a treatment centre near into the Beaufort-Delta area and something in Yellowknife. That was something that we are hearing often. We want to have these people take a closer look at it. It’s not going to add that much time to it. We’re expecting these guys to come back with a report by the end of this fiscal year.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. A final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to know a little more about this various group of people and when they’re expected to deliver a decision. I couldn’t quite hear the Minister’s last comment on his response, although I was listening very carefully. Is he expecting them to provide him a report that he can table here in the Legislative Assembly by the end of this particular year, and if that’s not the case, when will be the case that we’ll expect a report to be tabled with those types of recommendations, and who is this particular group that he can inform the public?
I think there are a few questions there. What we’re doing is we’re bringing these individuals together. We’ve appointed an overall chair of the groups. We have one group that is going to do the Beaufort-Delta. We have another group that is going to do the Sahtu and Tlicho communities. We have another group that’s going to do Deh Cho and South Slave, and we have another group that’s going to do Hay River and Yellowknife. They’re going to get together and they’re going to determine what the best action would be to go out into the communities to gather information. At the end of all of their travel, they will get back together again in another location and sit down and determine the best course of action to address the addictions issues. I have no problem whatsoever with tabling the report in the Legislative Assembly.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
