SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Despite calls from at least two NWT aboriginal chiefs and at least one MLA, there will not be a residential drug and alcohol treatment centre in the NWT anytime soon.

Glen Abernethy: Health and Social Services Minister says sending people south for treatment best way to help Northerners. - NNSL file photo

That is according to Health and Social Services Minister Glen Abernethy. He was asked about the issue of addictions facilities in the territory by Deh Cho MLA Michael Nadli in the legislative assembly on Oct. 2. Abernethy said that at this time, his department has no intention of opening a residential treatment centre.

"In the NWT treatment facilities have failed every time that we have tried to open one," Abernethy said. "They have failed because of staffing reasons and high cost - $420 per day compared to southern facilities at $155 (per day) and other reasons."

Nadli raised the issue following a news release issued by K'atlodeeche First Nation (KFN) Chief Roy Fabian in which he called for the reopening of the Nats'ejee Keh treatment centre on Fabian's reserve, which was closed in 2013 after the territorial government cut its funding.

Fabian stated in his release that the NWT has gone from four treatment centres - including Nats'ejee Keh - down to none. He maintains the centre worked and was considered one of the best in North America, with a 43 per cent success rate.

"Over the last six months, we have been in discussions with Minister Abernethy and his department, trying to find a way to work with them. The minister has been adamant that a full Northern treatment program is not on the table," Fabian stated.

He said that the KFN developed a proposal to include all regions of the NWT in a plan that would include training and support for clients as they wait for a spot in southern treatment institutions. It would also, according to Fabian, provide support to interrupt the addiction cycle that has resulted from decades of post traumatic stress disorder and offer support to communities offering "on the land" addictions programs. Fabian said the shuttered Nats'ejee Keh centre is the logical place for that but

that proposal was rejected by the GNWT.

"We can only assume that the Department of Health and Social Services does not want to work collaboratively to find real solutions. They offered us $20,000 to do a job that would cost ten times that . The GNWT knows how much these initiatives cost. It was a real slap in the face," Fabian said. "I think residents should be asking serious questions about sending our precious and limited resources south for services that we can do very well ourselves."

Abernethy said that the dollar total that Fabian quoted in his news release is a little bit misleading.

"We gave $44,000 the year before and they actually held a workshop where the brought people from all over the NWT to have a dialogue about what this facility could be used for," Abernethy said. "There were suggestions that it be used for a wellness centre, an addictions training centre, a home base for the mobile treatment program and a couple of other ideas . These are things they could have fleshed out and taken one of those options and come to us with a plan. But when I met them in the spring (of this year) that's what I believed they were going to do. Instead, they came to us with a proposal asking us to give them $195,000 to develop a plan and that is not what we discussed."

Abernethy points out that the dormant Nats'ejee Keh centre is a territorial government asset and any future use for it will be done in consultation with the KFN because it is on their land. He added that he doesn't like to see any government facility sit empty.

"It is a difficult time for us to get money given where we are in the budget cycle plus it is right before an election. That decision would likely be in the hands of the next government," Abernethy said.

He insists that using southern residential drug and alcohol treatment facilities in the south is the best financial option at the moment but he remains open to other options like the on the land program which is in use currently. He also thinks the idea of a mobile treatment program that would visit the communities has merit.

Fabian's call for action on the addictions issue was backed by the Fort Providence-based Deh Gah Gotie First Nation. Its chief, Joachim Bonnetrouge, called for a full inquiry into the matter.

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