The western Nunavut community of Gjoa Haven is still in dire need of more mental health and addictions services.
That’s why Gjoa Haven’s mayor, Joanni Sallerina, continues to lobby for a new regional mental health and addictions facility to be located in Gjoa Haven, as revealed in his letter to Nunavut’s premier and cabinet, tabled by Gjoa Haven MLA Tony Akoak, on Nov. 7, in the Nunavut legislature.
This time, Sallerina has a new plan to promote: he suggests the federal government use revenues generated by cannabis sales to finance the construction of a regional mental health and addictions centre in Gjoa Haven.
“The federal government … will be earning billions of dollars in the years to come from cannabis sales,” Sallerina wrote. Some of that money could be used to offset the problems related to the legal sales of cannabis, he suggests.
“Such sales will also be leaving us with the onerous task and increased cost of dealing in mental health and addictions programs,” Sallerina’s letter said.
The need for these programs has grown “exponentially” with the legalization of cannabis, he said.
If nothing is done, addictions will contribute to a “vicious circle of poverty,” the letter said.
With 50 per cent of his community of about 1,600 under 16, their mental health is often influenced by peers and family members addicted to alcohol and drugs, he said.
“They are also being influenced in a negative way by other addictions like gambling and the consumption of negative products like cigarettes and poor food choices such as the overconsumption of pop,” he said.
One consequence is that only about half of eligible students attend school.
“Presently mental illness patients need to travel down south for required treatments and follow-ups. This travel is extremely costly and hard on the individuals and their families … this is something that our people should not have to endure just to get treatment,” Sallerina said.
Akoak also tabled the resolutions from this past September’s Kitikmeot mayors’ meeting in Cambridge Bay during which a demand for improved mental health care was also made.
A similar demand was made last year by the Nunavut of Association of Municipalities, following a motion approved at last year’s annual meeting.
The motion called for the Government of Nunavut to spend profits from Iqaluit’s beer and wine store, and its territorial cannabis sales, on a treatment centre.
Credit: nunatsiaq.com