Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is an incredible need for intense alcohol and drug treatment programs to be based here in Yellowknife. Alcohol and drug abuse, as we’ve all seen, continues to have a profound impact on this city and the North in every single community. This problem, as we all know, is longstanding, but right now, wherever I look, people are united in wanting to take support and action on this particular issue. We have seen what easily could be defined as a rare and united consensus on taking action on this particular issue.
It is not often that a very respected Supreme Court justice advises this government that rehabilitation services are needed in the communities, such as John Vertes did in March. As well, the business community has been calling for action for some time. Our government needs to heed the advice the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce has been offering, and I will remind the government that in April the executive director, Tim Doyle, told the media that in our capital city’s downtown area alone, the human cost and the business cost are incredibly huge. He is correct in his assessment and comments.
In Yellowknife the burden of the downtown issues are many. However, substance abuse is the cornerstone of many of those problems. And if that’s not enough, then there’s the territory’s chief coroner comments -- that’s Cathy Menard -- and the jury’s recommendations after the death of Raymond Eagle. The coroner’s jury recommended a rehab centre for substance abuse in Yellowknife and a halfway house to help the people cope with alcohol and drug problems.
If that’s still not enough, we have the good advice of the Members of this House. Even the Standing Committee on Social Programs recommended in its Report on the Review of the Child and Family Services Act that “alcohol and drug treatment be readily accessible and convenient to all communities.” In response to that recommendation, this government has accepted that point. However, they shamelessly qualify their acceptance by saying “subject to the availability of resources.” That is why I’m here today: to focus resources to help the people of the Northwest Territories. Because I, like many us here in the building, am here to help those who cannot help themselves.
I can tell you from experience, when I worked years ago at the corrections centre as a corrections officer, that many good souls were lost to the ills of drugs and alcohol.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
What I found, working at the corrections centre, was that when many of these souls did dry up and cleaned up from their alcohol and drug problems, I would find that they rid themselves of those drug and alcohol demons and they were truly decent people. Clearly there is a problem.
By now what I’m trying to say is this territory needs better options. We need a treatment centre in Yellowknife and it should be a program that includes treatment for crack, meth addiction, as well as prescription abuse. I remind the Health Minister that this is truly an important issue in the public that needs addressing.
Later today I will raise the particular issues of what experience has taught us, that we may not be able to build a centre immediately but we can commit today to a plan of action on addressing these particular issues that is significant not just here in Yellowknife but to the territory as a whole.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
