The Trudeau government has slated close to $24 million in new funding for projects in northern Saskatchewan.
A total of $11.6 million will go toward a wellness, healing and recovery centre to be built on the Lac La Ronge Indian Band reserve.
The money will be used for a ten-bed facility and a remote community program of mini-lodges for people in transition.
Minister of Indigenous Services Seamus O’Regan, who was in La Ronge for the announcement Thursday morning, says timely access to mental health and addictions services is essential.
“In order for the recovery to be sustainable, it really is important that you be as close to your community and your support network as possible,” he says. “As close as possible to your friends and family and that they be near by. And I think that’s especially important in northern and remote communities.”
O’Regan speaks from personal experience.
In December 2015, he checked himself into a treatment program for alcohol addiction.
La Ronge band Chief Tammy Cook-Searson says the recovery centre has been a top priority for the community for a number of years.
“It’s so important, we needed this for a long time,” she says. “It is much needed services, especially for mental health and addictions services in the north and just enhancing services that we already have because it’s building capacity.”
The La Ronge First Nation is also kicking $2 million toward the recovery centre and the province $2.5 million for a total of about $16.1 million with the federal dollars added in.
The funding will be distributed over three years and the plan is for the centre to combine western and traditional Indigenous approaches to healing and recovery.
Cook-Searson says they hope to have the project fully completed in roughly 2.5 years.
O’Regan was also in Saskatoon later in the day to announce $12.1 million for upgrades to the Fond du Lac airport.
The minister of Indigenous services, who grew up in Goose Bay, Labrador, says well functioning airports are vital for remote and northern communities.
“Air traffic to a community in the north that’s isolated for most of the year is essential and I know that because I worked at an airport. So it’s much more than a transportation announcement, it’s a life link to a community.”
The funding will go toward rehabilitating runway asphalt and new flood and edge lights.
Fond du Lac was the site of a plane crash in December 2017 where several people were injured and one person died.
(PHOTO: Indigenous Services Minister Seamus O’Regan talked to students in the mental health and wellness program at Northlands College before an announcement in La Ronge on Thursday. Left to right, Shaylyn Bouvier, O’Regan and Brittany Hoeft. Photo by Fraser Needham.)