The province is contributing more than $21.6 million towards the redevelopment of the Native Addictions Council of Manitoba building in Winnipeg’s North End. Kevin Lamoureux, member of Parliament for Winnipeg North, and Theresa Crow, executive director of the Native Addictions Council of Manitoba, announced Tuesday.
The money will support the redevelopment of the current facility as an addiction centre serving the Indigenous population of Manitoba.
“The opioid crisis is out of hand and we have so many reserves and isolated communities that there’s a lot of easy access to opioids,” Crow told Global News.
“Addiction is the outcome of something that’s happening in our hearts and so that grief and that pain that people don’t have access to talking to somebody, or processing that grief… At the end of the day, addiction is just the end result of something that’s not resolved in people’s lives.”
The council provides many services to people seeking help with addiction.
“We have an in-house healing program. It’s a six-week program and it’s a land base.” Crow said.
“We do men’s cycles and women’s cycles and we have 50 acres. We do medicine picking, we have a ceremony, we have two sweats, we have a detox sweat, and then we have a ceremony called Calling back or Calling back our spirit.”
Crow said they also have a day program available for those who can’t stay; it runs a few days a week.
“It’s just to help people have tools after they’ve had some sobriety to ‘how do I live out here?’ Because we’re smack dab middle of the North End and so they’re surrounded by those temptations often.”
Through this project, the Native Addictions Council of Manitoba will continue empowering individuals on their journey to healing and recovery from addiction.
The funding will also support the development of new programming and provide the highest quality of care for those that are healing from addiction through traditional Indigenous practices in a safe and nurturing space.
“We’re going to be able to maybe do some renovations in the building and provide higher, better quality care and it’s exciting,” said Crow.
Additionally, the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings program uses innovative, clean solutions to help Canada adapt to a greener, low-carbon economy.
“This project will allow the Native Addictions Council of Manitoba to leverage renewable energy and reduce the building’s environmental impacts while continuing to provide essential services to the Indigenous community,” said Lamoureux.