NWT politicians call for mental health crisis intervention team

The NWT’s regular MLAs united this week in calling for crisis intervention workers to help respond to mental health emergencies, a role that currently often falls to RCMP.

Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins introduced a motion in the legislature on Wednesday asking for a crisis intervention team to reduce police contact in mental health-related emergencies.

Hawkins said that would allow RCMP to focus on disrupting the illicit drug trade.

All 11 regular members voted in favour, with the legislature’s seven cabinet members abstaining.

Hawkins noted RCMP have said they are often not qualified to respond to mental health calls and have asked for help from trained health and social workers.

“Police officers are police officers to fight crime. I don’t classify most of these mental health challenges as true crime,” he said.

“Showing up with cuffs and a truck and all of the other tools and utilities is the wrong impression when someone is having a difficult time.”

‘I want RCMP to be RCMP’

Yellowknife RCMP received some 2,268 calls to shelters between April 2022 and April 2024, Hawkins said, only three percent of which resulted in charges.

Advocates have recently said Yellowknife’s shelter system is in crisis and facing overcrowding.

Inuvik Boot Lake MLA Denny Rodgers, sharing his support for the motion, said: “I want RCMP to be RCMP.”

“I want them doing what RCMP do,” Rodgers said, “which is catching the bad people that are in this territory doing the bad things. And we need to also focus on the people that are suffering from the consequences of those bad things.”

Dehcho MLA Sheryl Yakeleya supported having a crisis intervention team and encouraged the territory to consider how the program would roll out in small communities.

Yellowknife North MLA Shauna Morgan agreed there is need for a more appropriate response to people in mental health crisis. She said that should include intervention as well as follow-up supports and services.

Morgan said the solution needs to include NGOs providing front-line services. She pointed to an ongoing city-led review of the street outreach program, which the Yellowknife Women’s Society is hoping to expand.

Premier RJ Simpson said he has spoken with RCMP about providing more social supports and that approach is something he wants the government to move toward.

Simpson cautioned, however, that he doesn’t “want anyone to get their hopes up that we’re going to have around-the-clock services like that any time soon.”

Motion madness

Regular MLAs have passed a slew of motions since they were elected in November.

In this sitting alone, regular MLAs have passed motions calling on the NWT government to:

• draft emergency plans for communities;
• address the municipal funding gap;
• reinstate an RCMP canine unit in Hay River;
• complete the block transfer of land to communities;
• forgive debt owed by seniors;
• initiate a cross-border crime reduction forum;
• provide grants to Indigenous governments to complete home inspections alongside funding to support housing initiatives;
• update its business case to complete the Mackenzie Valley Highway, and;
• provide funding for temporary housing in Enterprise.

Prior to this sitting, newly elected MLAs had already passed motions asking for a wildfire public inquiry and declaring housing to be a human right.

Motions from regular MLAs are non-binding.

Cabinet members ordinarily abstain from voting on these motions, and the territory is then given 120 days to respond.