Debates of June 1, 2006 (day 3)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, whenever MLAs go into small communities, the interactions with residents always turn into discussions on the state of alcohol and drug treatment in the Northwest Territories. It’s also the number one issue being brought forward in written submissions to the JR Panel on the Mackenzie gas pipeline hearings. Mr. Speaker, people are divided on just what should be done to improve alcohol and drug programming in the Northwest Territories. Some believe there needs to be regional residential treatment centres and some residents believe that there is need to increase community capacity to deal with the issue at the local level. A recent study by the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse quoted in News/North stated that the cost of the NWT economy for the abuse of alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs were about $80 million for things like the medical costs of treatment centres, the extra costs of the justice system and the loss of productivity of jobs. When I hear the term lost productivity, it makes me think of the lost generations that we have in the Northwest Territories.

Fallout from the residential schools has affected more than just one generation that were focussed on attending these schools. Their children are affected because their parents never learned how to be parents. Children have no self-esteem because their parents’ self-esteem was crushed by the residential school experiences. Children don’t know their language or their heritage because their parents never taught them because they just don’t know it.

Mr. Speaker, many aboriginal residents have lost their way. They aren’t at home out on their own land and they are not home in their own communities. This is why it’s time to get off the bandwagon. Community-based alcohol and drug programs may make people more comfortable taking treatment, but the treatment will not work if people seeking help are not comfortable with themselves. There needs to be an on-the-land component to any program delivered at the local level.

Mr. Speaker, the department is always saying we need to treat the whole person to be very effective in their healing. So it logically follows that reconnecting aboriginal people to the land and their culture should be a part of any treatment program. If people feel better about themselves, they will get better. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause