Over $1.6M allocated for drug crisis relief in Yellowknife and Sahtu communities

The federal government is allocating over $1.6 million to the City of Yellowknife and the Sahtu Secretariat Inc. to support their outreach and harm reduction efforts amid a drug crisis in the territory.

N.W.T. MP and Crown-Indigenous Affairs Minister Rebecca Alty made the announcement Friday afternoon in Yellowknife. 

“Every community is different and no one can face this alone,” she said. 

The money comes from the federal Emergency Treatment Fund, and is not part of the federal government’s budget.

Over $900,000 is going towards Yellowknife’s Enhanced Street Outreach Program, run by Home Base Yellowknife. Mayor Ben Hendriksen said it will support on-the-ground work through harm reduction supplies and assisting people with housing, health and social supports. 

City manager Stephen Van Dine said it’s still too soon to say in more detail what will change on the ground, because the city and its partners still need to determine what the best use for the money will be.

“But the security of having these dollars available is really good news for the community and for the program,” he said.

The rest of the money will go towards the Sahtu Harm Reduction and Support Program to fund overdose prevention initiatives as well as culturally-appropriate education and support to increase community capacity.

The program has had two workshops so far, said Joseph Kochon, who was at the news conference and spoke on behalf of the Sahtu Secretariat Inc. 

He said leaders in the Sahtu did not expect the drug crisis to reach their door so fast.

“A lot of our young people have changed overnight,” he said. “There was a time where you’d see them harvesting wood. Now we don't see them anymore."

He said police resources are not adapted to the needs of small communities.

“We’re running into a lot of challenges but that doesn’t mean that we give up,” he said. “It makes us more determined because we want to stop burying our young people.”