Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 12/05) - With the support of several political leaders, workers at a Yellowknife home for troubled children will challenge a government plan this week to move the program to Hay River.

Employees will present Health and Social Services minister Michael Miltenberger with 500-signature petition to keep the Territorial Treatment Centre in the capital after the legislative assembly reconvenes today.

"When this program goes, there is nothing left for children," said Laura Johns, an administrative assistant at the 52nd St. home. "We are not fighting for our jobs," she said while handing out petitions at the Centre Square Mall on Friday. "We are fighting for the well-being of the children."

The treatment centre has been in Yellowknife since 1988. Its 12 full-time and eight part-time workers supervise children with severe behavioral disturbances and mental disorders. The children come from the Yellowknife, Tlicho, Sahtu and Inuvik regions.

The territorial government announced in March the treatment centre would be moved into an abandoned jail for young offenders in Hay River. The decision created a small uproar in the legislative assembly, where Yellowknife MLAs criticized the move. Miltenberger said at the time the decision was final.

The plan to move the home, which can house up to eight children with behavioral problems, from the capital to Hay River could affect patient care, critics said last week.

"Most of the kids who use this facility are from Yellowknife," said Great Slave MLA Bill Braden.

The capital has a network of psychiatrists, pediatricians, special eduction teachers and other professionals that might not be available south of the lake, Braden said.

"This is not a program you can pick up and move. (The government) is eroding the quality of service by moving this to another community."

Johns said the territorial government needs to invest more money in facilities for troubled children because many are sent away to centres like Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer and Vancouver.

A spokesperson for the department of Health and Social Services did not return a phone message before press time.