‘We really need to be more proactive’: NDP wants preventative measures taken

Members of the Saskatchewan NDP are asking to work together with the SaskParty to address the northern suicide crisis.

Nicole Rancourt, the Prince Albert Northcotte MLA, said she hopes the NDP and Saskparty can set aside their differences and work together to address the challenges some northern communities face.

“We respond when incidents happen. We really need to be more proactive,” Rancourt said. “It’s kind of like an epidemic at this point. I think we need to treat it as such, and go in and provide all the resources we need to.”

Rancourt commended the ongoing efforts of the people involved in each of the affected communities but said “we need to come up with a plan on how we’re going to address issues and ensure that things like this don’t happen again.”

Rancourt suggested working between all levels of government, including the Prince Albert Grand Council and the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations to find long term solutions.

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“We need to be providing them more support so people in the North aren’t feeling that they’re being neglected,” Rancourt said. “I feel that the government has not been providing enough resources and support to those communities.”

She cited the pending removal of the NORTEP-NORPAC program as an example of how people in the north are not being supported. Rancourt said she sees the removal as a step backwards and believes the cuts will have lasting effects on northern communities.

“If we can all collectively work together and come to the table and put whatever resources we can together, we can support these communities,” she said.

Doyle Vermette, the NDP’s Cumberland representative, called for the communities of the North to come together when the time is right to address mental health needs.

“This is a crisis. For myself, we need to support the families, lay their loved ones to rest, and then there needs to be some tough questions answered, and asked,” Vermette said. “Provincially, federally, everyone needs to come together.”

Vermette said incidents like this ongoing suicide crisis are hard on these smaller northern communities.

“It’s so impacting, it impacts the whole community,” Vermette said. “The local leadership, I’ve seen the way they’re handling it and they’re doing a great job making sure the supports are there.”

Vermette said he hopes when things start clearing up, people can start looking for the root causes of problems like suicide in the North. He said it is essential the people of the North are involved in these discussions.

“We got to ask those that are most impacted, were those supports there?” Vermette asked. “I don’t have all those answers and we need to find out from the families, the teachers, the staff, the leadership… lets make sure everything was in place that could possibly have been done to support the mental health, whatever the issue was that we are facing.”

Vermette said it’s not about pointing fingers; it’s about doing a better job taking care of northerners.

“We cannot lose one more young life. One is too many, and we know that. But four of them? It is a crisis and it has to be addressed once and for all,” he said.

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @BryanEneas