New Brunswick’s new rehab facility will serve people seeking treatment voluntarily, not those forced into treatment under the upcoming Compassionate Intervention Act according to addictions minister Sherry Wilson.
Wilson was less willing to give any details to either the committee or reporters on where patients compelled into treatment would be housed.
“We’re talking about a bill that hasn’t even been introduced yet, so I can share those details with you when it is introduced,” she told reporters Friday.
The new act was first promised in last year’s throne speech and made another appearance in March’s budget speech. Both Premier Blaine Higgs and Public Safety Minister Kris Austin have shared some general details about the intent of the bill and how it will work, including that there will be some sort of medical evaluation process contained in the legislation.
Yet, Wilson steadfastly refused to give any details, even after she said she looked forward to clearing up “misinformation” about the bill.
“I’ll be happy to share that with you when the bill is introduced,” she said when asked what was inaccurate.
Similar answers during Wilson’s estimates committee frustrated both opposition parties, who were unable to glean much information about the new treatment facility or the bill, despite the budget having funding for both. The estimates committee is intended to be a forum for opposition parties to ask a minister, backed by department staff, about spending, before approving it.
“They don’t seem to have any answers and it’s very frustrating for us to spend hours asking questions and to walk out of there and still not know what is happening,” said Green MLA Megan Mitton.
Liberal MLA Jacques Leblanc said the entire situation around the new bill has made it appear that the government doesn’t know how to address addiction.
“It seems to me they’re trying to deflect from the real issue, we have addiction problems, we have mental health issues and we’re not attacking the root cause,” he said.
The reaction to the bill from advocates has been negative as well. Debby Warren, the executive director of Ensemble Moncton, says there’s no research that shows forced rehabilitation works.
She estimates that her harm reduction organizations serves about 1,500 to 1,900 people in the Moncton area and that 300 to 400 are the highly visible, highly at risk type of population the new legislation is intended to address.
- Some 2019 candidates ‘appeared willing’ to engage with foreign interference: Hogue inquiry
- Princess Anne to help commission new navy vessel in B.C. ceremony
- Foreign interference ‘undermined’ public confidence in elections: inquiry
- Canada, Manitoba to develop Red Dress Alert for missing Indigenous women and girls
Warren says that the money and effort spent on that front would be better invested in real wraparound services that address the root causes of homelessness and addiction.
“Nothing will change,” she said. “Honestly, if you force me into treatment and then you let me go after, I don’t know, six months let’s say, well then there I go, I have no place to go.”
Warren said what’s really needed is a recovery centre that allows people from treatment to transition back to the outside world with supports, but decision makers continue to neglect the advice from her and front line service providers like her.
“I just wish they would listen and talk to us,” she said. “They don’t even talk to us.”
Comments