Tłı̨chǫ Government planning treatment centre study

The Tłı̨chǫ Government has begun planning for a study on the feasibility of an addictions treatment centre in the Tłı̨chǫ region.

Applications are being accepted for positions on a treatment centre advisory committee.

The Tłı̨chǫ Government said a study would form an important step toward establishing sustainable, local options for healing.

It envisions providing a treatment facility with a full spectrum of supports, grounded in Tłı̨chǫ values and practices, to support Tłı̨chǫ citizens rather than send them south for treatment.

Loreen Beaverho, director of healing and community wellness for the Tłı̨chǫ Government, told the Tłı̨chǫ Assembly in Behchokọ̀ on Monday that community engagement sessions are expected to begin this fiscal year.

Indigenous leaders across the NWT have called for enhanced addiction supports as communities face a growing drug crisis.

The last residential treatment facility in the NWT, the Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre on Kátł’odeeche First Nation, closed in 2013.

Subsequent NWT health ministers have declined to reestablish residential addictions treatment in the territory, citing issues that led previous facilities to close.

Instead, the NWT government sends residents to centres in the provinces for facility-based addictions treatment.

The territorial government also provides annual funding for Indigenous governments and organizations to deliver culturally relevant, community-based mental health and addictions projects.

Terri Naskan, who began working as an addictions counsellor in the 1990s, raised the need for land-based treatment during a public forum at the Tłı̨chǫ Assembly on Tuesday.

“We’re battling with a lot of alcohol and drug addiction in our community,” she said.

Naskan said to be effective, addictions programming must be designed at the community level and based on Indigenous perspectives and culture.

She said there are facilities and people with training across the Tłı̨chǫ region that could support such programming.

“We’re not starting from scratch,” she said.

“As a parent, as a grandmother, I wish something like this comes to light and we want our youth, you know we love them, and we don’t want to bury any more.”

‘Everyone is different’

Presenting an annual report on Monday from the Department of Healing and Community Wellness, Beaverho told the assembly renovations are under way at a healing camp in Whatì to ensure land-based programming can proceed.

She said the department has “been getting very creative” in trying to host programming in all four Tłı̨chǫ communities. In the past fiscal year, she said, 115 people participated in nine healing camps.

“These are individuals that came back from treatment centres. These were individuals that were wanting to go to treatment and wanted to work on their sobriety or their detox, so we helped them to get into treatment,” she said.

“And some individuals refuse to go to southern treatment, and that’s OK. If they want to go out on our lands where our ancestors were raised and were taught … we’re giving that opportunity to our own people who are struggling. So we’re not saying southern treatment is everything for everyone.

“We’re making sure we have the resources for our people, because everyone is different and everyone is unique and everyone has their own challenges.”

In February, Beaverho added, the First Nation hosted an on-the-land detox program.

Infrastructure projects

Representatives from other Tłı̨chǫ Government departments also presented reports to the assembly on Monday.

Anuradha Kanchani, a Department of Infrastructure asset manager, highlighted projects under way in the region.

Those include a $14.2-million family resource centre in Behchokọ̀ that will host childcare, family, and health and social services programs. Kanchani said the design for the facility is nearly complete and construction is set to start soon.

She said construction on a nine-unit transitional home in Behchokọ̀ for women fleeing domestic violence will begin in fall 2026, while expansion of the Tłı̨chǫ Government building in Whatì will start at the end of the month.

Kanchani said the design of an upgraded access road to Nàı̨lı̨ı̨, or Whatì Falls, is complete. The Tłı̨chǫ Government is planning to build a park, day-use area and campground at the falls.

Regarding replacement of the the Dehk’è Frank Channel Bridge, Kanchani said a construction contract is being negotiated.

Lastly, she said the Tłı̨chǫ Government is working on a proposal for a new climate-controlled archival building to protect government documents and cultural materials.

Education and tree planting

Itoah Scott-Enns, director of planning and partnerships, said the Tłı̨chǫ Government is working toward taking control of education in the region.

“We are ready to start taking over more control and have power over the future, especially for kids,” she said.

Scott-Enns said figuring out what is needed to achieve that will not be easy as, so far, no First Nation has control over education delivery in the territory.

“The GNWT has been the one running education all these years, and so for them to adjust to having someone else in charge takes a lot of work and planning,” she said, adding that will mean working with the federal and territorial governments and taking it “one step at a time.”

Scott-Enns said the Tłı̨chǫ Government is also exploring potential opportunities related to the Arctic Security Corridor. Formerly known as the Grays Bay project, it proposes an all-season road between Yellowknife and Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region to provide access to mineral resources.

“We’re trying to be very involved to ensure Tłı̨chǫ interests and our priorities are represented,” Scott-Enns said.

Tammy Steinwand-Deschambeault, director of culture and lands protection, highlighted the planting of 1.5 million seedlings around Behchokọ̀ this summer.

While the seeds were collected locally, they were grown into seedlings in the south. Steinwand-Deschambeault said construction of a greenhouse to grow seedlings in the NWT is set to begin next year.

The Tłı̨chǫ Government plans to plant 13 million trees across Tłı̨chǫ lands over six years.

Next summer, Steinwand-Deschambeault said the plan is to plant two million trees around Wekweètì.