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Sifting through solutions

It's no secret alcoholism plagues downtown Yellowknife. To view first hand how another city is coming to grips with the problem, Yellowknifer reporter Jennifer McPhee recently tagged along with RCMP and others to Anchorage, Alaska. This is the last of a four-part series.

Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Anchorage, Alaska (June 06/03) - As NWT deputy chief coroner Cathy Menard listened to Anchorage health and human services director Jewel Jones talk about how, 20 years ago, there were minimal services for chronic street alcoholics, one thought ran through her mind

NNSL Photo

RCMP Const. Colin Allooloo keeps watch as ambulance staff respond to an alcohol-related incident this week in downtown Yellowknife. The intoxicated woman, complaining of an injured leg, was taken to hospital. - Jennifer McPhee/NNSL photos


"I was sitting there thinking to myself, that's where we are. We're right there...It was a big wake-up."

Thirteen people from Yellowknife and Whitehorse travelled to Alaska's largest city hoping to learn how another Northern city is dealing with a complicated social problem that wreaks havoc in communities and drains health and police resources.

Both groups were motivated, in part, by a coroner's inquest into the death of a chronic alcoholic in Yellowknife.

Now that they're back, the question remains: can and will Yellowknife adopt any of Alaska's answers?

Last week Insp. Pat McCloskey met with the Wellness Coalition executive, a community group formed recently to address drug and alcohol addiction in Yellowknife.

He gave them the lowdown on the trip and a two-hour discussion followed. By the night's end, they agreed that Yellowknife needs to take a more comprehensive look at the problem here, he said.

Anchorage keeps detailed information about who stays at its sobering-up station. That information enabled them to identify a group of hardcore alcoholics. Counsellors started working with that group, and the number of station admissions has started dropping.

The city and different agencies with interests in helping alcoholics show remarkable co-ordination. They e-mail each other every few days and hold monthly forums to trade information. They all know each other by name.

As the Archie Tsetta inquest earlier this year revealed, Yellowknife lacks this co-ordination.

Yellowknife needs a study to determine what our needs are and what different agencies - government and non-government - are already doing, said McCloskey.

"It's critical that we do that inventory, to start to identify not only what's available but where the overlaps are."

Currently police release people who frequent the drunk tank with no analysis of why they are there. They don't offer a breathalyzer test to determine whose blood-alcohol level is dangerously high and there are no counsellors who ask hungover, repeat customers if they're ready for treatment.

"I think we can prioritize things and say these things are the obvious, the things that could be easily cost-effective," said McCloskey. "We should be looking for -- not quick fixes -- but quick victories."

A sobering-up station would be safer than the drunk tank, he said. But if the money's not there to take this leap, a modified version of the drunk tank could reduce the numbers, and allow police to do more proactive policing. He stressed it's too early to make predictions, and isn't advocating one way or another for now.

One thing Anchorage did seem to lack was prevention programs and community policing, he said. However, he acknowledged Yellowknife is lacking on the community policing front as well, something McCloskey hopes to change by the year's end.

He admits the police let go of community policing because of resource problems.

"I think, at times, (police) can make too many excuses about we're too busy."

He also acknowledges police don't conduct many walk-throughs of bars.

"We've got to get back to that," he said. "That's going to become very common... I can guarantee you it's going to start happening. '

McCloskey said cops in Yellowknife are "going out there and giving it their best shot" but what is sometimes lacking is leadership.

The Wellness Coalition is forming a sub-committee on enforcement and RCMP leaders will be accountable for their actions. McCloskey said police leaders will "have a difficult time explaining why we're not doing some of these things. They're going to want to know what we're doing."

Ideally, he'd like to work together with bar owners instead of doing what Anchorage police did - - building cases against delinquent liquor establishments and revoking licences. He said waging war against the bars would be a last resort.

"I don't think we should hesitate to do it if necessary."

He and Const. Dino Norris, who also went to Anchorage, are willing to walk through the bars themselves to "make a statement to the community that this isn't a safe haven for drug use and raping and pillaging or whatever. And if you do these things, there's going to be consequences."

Health department a no-show

Deputy chief coroner Cathy Menard, Roger Allen, minister of justice, and Kim Schofield, director of finance, at the NWT Department of Justice, also went on the trip. Five of the six people from Whitehorse were health professionals.

But no one from the NWT Department of Health and Social Services made it.

"I was disappointed they couldn't be there," said McCloskey.

What Anchorage has done shows that a health department can take a leadership role on this issue, but doesn't have to shoulder the entire financial burden, he said.

Menard agreed not going on the trip "was a lost opportunity" for the health department. "I think they play a big role in what hopefully is going to happen. It was disappointing especially when we saw all the health people that came from Whitehorse."

Two people from the department, were scheduled to go: Catherine Praamsma, assistant deputy minister of the operational support branch and R. Dana Heide, director of integrated community services.

Everyone was expecting them right up until the last minute -- the group delayed the flight to wait for them. Others, including coalition members, who wanted to go on the trip couldn't because these spots were reserved for health officials.

Heide said the department did write to notify police. Police said they never received any notification.

Heide said the last few weeks have been "quite intense" for the department and they couldn't get away for the full week trip. Heide added they have been attending the public meetings.

"I think it's a great thing the community is doing," said Heide. "I'm sorry I didn't get to go. It would have been a great trip for a number of reasons.

Schofield said she will be going through all the information from the trip and meeting with McCloskey to "pick stuff we want to work on."

She said the Department of Justice's role is minimal since drug and alcohol addictions is the health department's responsibility but that the department could provide assistance by coming up with action plans.

She agreed gathering information is a good place to start. "There's no sense developing programs when we don't know who we're dealing with and what programs they need."

Schofield said she came back from the trip realizing that non-profit groups government, municipalities business and the community "need to band together to come up with something that will help."

McCloskey often talks about a conversation he had with a prominent First Nations leader, who spoke strongly about the crippling effect alcohol addiction has had on aboriginal people. He said something McCloskey isn't likely to forget -- if we don't do something about the problem, we could be accused of genocide.