(Clockwise from top left) The Ministry of Justice’s Plan for 2015-16, NAS employee Harold Johnson, and the July 2016 findings of the NAS report.
New liquor restrictions being proposed to La Ronge town council are making waves this month, but the provincially-funded group behind the proposal has been working in the community for quite some time.
MBC has composed a timeline that captures the roots of the proposal, from the Northern Alcohol Strategy’s (NAS’s) inception to present:
March 18, 2015: The government of Saskatchewan releases its provincial budget, accompanied by ministry plans for the budget year. The Ministry of Justice Plan for 2015-16 mentions developing “a Northern Alcohol Strategy to address issues of alcohol and substance abuse by youth in northern communities” as part of its strategy to “provide a therapeutic approach for those with Mental Health issues and Addictions.”
Dec. 16, 2015: Harold Johnson reaches out to MBC to discuss his new project to address the alcohol-related harms in northern Saskatchewan. In an interview, he says he had been working as a Crown prosecutor for eight years, but the Ministry of Justice is now sponsoring him to make public presentations on Lac La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB) and Montreal Lake Cree Nation about sobriety. Johnson says his job is to make presentations about alcohol’s hold over his people, then come up with working groups on what needs to be done and what people can do to change their story.
He says a common message was that people need to be role models. Johnson says the problem isn’t alcoholism, but alcohol. When asked if treatment was a solution, he says “we’ve got all sorts of treatment programs. Most of them don’t work very well… so we’re trying to change the story from within. We’re trying to make the community the treatment.” When asked what the project is called, he says “I’m calling it Changing the Story. I think what government is calling it is Community Alcohol Management Plan.”
Jan. 1, 2016: After the Deputy Ministers of Justice grants Harold Johnson’s request to “change the story” around alcohol, he along with Joan Johnson and Carla Frohaug are seconded from their government jobs for six months. They commence work as the Northern Alcohol Strategy (NAS) team “with a mandate to work with and for communities to develop grassroots informed, Community Alcohol Management Plans (CAMPs) in the greater areas surrounding La Ronge and Montreal Lake.” Source: NAS’s CAMP report, which was completed in the summer of 2016.
March, 2016: Ministry of Justice Annual Report for 2015-16 says it is “working with two northern communities to shape sustainable Community Alcohol Management Plans (CAMP).” It lays out a June 2016 conclusion to consultation and planning, “with the two communities activating their CAMP along with a sustainability plan. In 2016-17, we will complete the collection of baseline data and establish an evaluation framework to measure the outcomes of the CAMP model.” The CAMP committee includes 15-20 community members from La Ronge, LLRIB, Air Ronge, and representatives from the RCMP, Population Health Unit, education, social services, Indian Child and Family Services, health centre staff, and mental health. Source: Matt Klassen, who represents La Ronge council on the committee, and Carla Frohaug.
March – June, 2016: NAS rolls out a community survey as it does research for its CAMP report, due in the summer. The survey is “mailed to households, made available online, distributed in municipal utility bills and at various human service agencies and completed by the team with random individuals,” the report later explains.
April 8, 2016: The NAS team holds a drug and alcohol addictions strategy meeting in La Ronge, with plans to discuss a plan of action going forward.
May 18, 2016: Harold Johnson speaks at a New North justice conference, saying a drug called Naltrexone has been used by the medical profession to help people overcome alcoholism. Its success rate is 78 per cent, Johnson says.
June, 2016: The Saskatchewan government releases provincial budget, accompanied by ministry plans for 2016-17 budget year. The Ministry of Justice Plan for 2016-17 Ministry of Justice Plan for 2015-16 mentions partnering “with local community leaders to develop and implement sustainable Community Alcohol Management Plans in two northern communities to minimize the nature and extent of harm caused by the misuse of alcohol” as part of its strategy to “provide a therapeutic approach for those with Mental Health issues and Addictions.”
July 5, 2016: The northern village of Air Ronge hears a presentation from the NAS’s Frohaug and endorses “the community-informed Alcohol Management Plan for Lac La Ronge Region as presented. By our endorsement, we support the provision of alcohol-related data to the Northern Alcohol Strategy team by all sectors for ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the plan. We understand the information gathered is owned by the Community and will be stored by the province on our behalf for the purposes of analytics of the plan.”
Aug. 11, 2016: The five-year La Ronge and Area Community Alcohol Management Plan is released to the media, with endorsement by council in Air Ronge, LLRIB, and La Ronge. It reveals that in 2011, people aged 15 and over in La Ronge spent an average about $1,800 per person annually on alcohol as compared to the provincial average of about $700. The report contains the results of community surveys. Respondents suggested 15 items that would be helpful to address excessive alcohol consumption, including a local detox and treatment facility, stopping bootleggers, stopping the glorification of alcohol consumption, and more awareness and education around the harms of alcohol.
Sept. 23, 2016: Harold Johnson speaks to MBC about the release of his book “Firewater: How alcohol is killing my people (and yours).”
June 14, 2017: La Ronge town council passes a motion that accepts the report from the CAMP committee as presented. “The recommendations were informed primarily by the CAMP document and developed by the CAMP Committee with assistance from the Northern Alcohol Strategy team, who provided policy options based on their national and global research” a Ministry of Justice spokesman later writes in an e-mail to MBC.
The La Ronge meeting’s minutes say the group hears from Sergeant Troy Dumont and NAS/CAMP’s Carla Frohaug “with respect to a Public Safety Compliance Team program which has been implemented in the City of Prince Albert” with the main focus of education, zero tolerance, and over-serving. The group discussed concerns over feasibility of such a program in La Ronge, putting the responsibility onto the owner, and what enforceability measures the municipality can implement.
June 28, 2017: La Ronge town council passes a motion “that the request for a letter of support of the Ice Wolves Beer Gardens at the Elk’s Fair be approved with note that Town of La Ronge shall endorse measures put in place from the Northern Alcohol Strategy and encourages the Ice Wolves to exercise control over service including safe serving practices.
La Ronge town council approves a motion “that the Town of La Ronge Council supports, in principle, the measures put forward by the Northern Alcohol Strategy Committee, however will require further review and public consultation prior to adopting with specific respect to” two measures: the first to restrict hours of alcohol sales, the second to restrict minors from admission to alcohol-involved events “except in the case of a family occasion such as a wedding or anniversary.” Mayor Ron Woytowich and councillor Rex McPhail vote against the motion.
July 4, 2017: Business owners in La Ronge receive a letter seeking their input on the NAS report, which was simplified into a point-by-point list of the 49 recommendations contained in the report.
July 5, 2017: The province announces it will cover the use of Revia (naltrexone) and Campral for the treatment of alcohol use disorder, both to be used as part of an alcohol counselling program.
July 12, 2017: MBC reports on Tania Colbert’s Facebook post of the letter she received about the proposal and the initial public response to the recommendations, with comment from NAS’s Carla Frohaug. Town council holds a closed meeting with business owners and SLGA reps about how the proposal would affect them if approved. The group only gets through the first 13 recommendations contained on the list, and plans to discuss the recommendations further at a later date.
July 13, 2017: Town councillor and CAMP committee member Matt Klassen issues a news release and speaks to MBC about the proposal as well as the previous night’s meeting.
July 14, 2017: In response to a request for information from MBC, a Ministry of Justice spokesman sends an e-mail saying “The salaries of three officials working with the community on the project continue to be paid by government through the Ministry of Justice while they work in community, along with any necessary administration costs. There is also some support being provided by the Population Health Branch, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Services.” An interview request is not granted.
July 18, 2017: The Chamber of Commerce holds a special meeting with presentations from NAS members and gets response from the business community on the proposal, Mayor Ron Woytowich clarifies his stance on the proposal.