Monday, January 20, 1997
Closing centre will cost money
Minister of Social Services Kelvin Ng said that rising costs in his department "forced the decision."
Coming only a couple of months after Addictions Awareness Week, one would have thought that the social, judicial and economic costs of addiction would be fresh in the minds of the politicians who so keenly lent their support to that worthwhile effort.
Now the GNWT is sending mixed messages. On the one hand, there is talk of turning over the responsibility of coping with substance abuse to the communities.
On the other hand, money will be allocated to a travel fund to be set up at the Inuvik Regional Hospital to send clients to treatment facilities in Yellowknife, Hay River or Iqaluit.
The minister can't have it both ways. Sending people such a distance can hardly cuts costs, if everyone who needs help is to get it. In light of the uproar in the region over the closure, the communities were not consulted and are not in agreement.
Neither is fiscal responsibility a valid excuse. The costs incurred in policing the resultant family violence, jailing drunken offenders and supplying health care as a result of substance abuse make clear the monstrous costs of substance abuse.
Drug and alcohol abuse is widespread in the North, as the recently completed territorial survey on drinking and drugs so plainly shows.
For Kelvin Ng to propose withdrawing funding for Delta House shows that the territorial government either isn't thinking or doesn't care.
This has happened before and will happen again. It shows just what's wrong with City Hall. (1/20/97)
The sad incident involving the boy set on fire in Tuktoyaktuk, as with the earlier incident in Iqaluit, sparks much soul-searching.
How could such a thing happen? What can we do to prevent it happening again? They are the questions that have no easy answers.
But Tuk Mayor Eddie Dillon comes closest to the heart of the matter by applying precious common sense.
"Incidents like this, you really can't prevent them. People just have to look after their kids."
The more we take Dillon's words to heart, the more we reduce the risk of further tragedy. (1/20/97)
One can almost hear Inuit carvers breathing a sign of relief. A new source of their favored material, alabaster, has been found on the northeastern plains of Victoria Island.
No longer will they need to import rock from Brazil or Italy, as they've done for years now thanks to a dearth of domestic supplies.
Of course, this latest discovery won't last forever, either. But in the meantime, mining firms in search of gold and other minerals should keep an eye out for soapstone and alabaster deposits. More than a few Northerners would appreciate the effort. (1/20/97)