Dr. Carolyn Bennett, the federal minister of Health and Addictions and associate minister of Health, visited Whitehorse on Tuesday to address the government’s commitment to improve health outcomes for Canadians and work toward ending the national public health crisis. 

She announced that $2 million is coming to the territory to help battle the ongoing opioid crisis. 

The funding will be shared between social workers system navigation and harm reduction initiatives and First Nations in the form of land-based-programming dollars to help secure personal and cultural identity in treatment and prevention programs. 

Some of the health services offered by social workers include cognitive behavioural therapy, drug coverage assistance, opioid agonist treatment, and other supports for wellness.

“We know there’s no one size fits all solutions to preventing or reducing overdose deaths, and the funding we are echoing today and the critical investments towards truly integrated health care in budget 2023 are an important start,” Bennett told an afternoon news conference. 

Later, she also said the approach has to include the four pillars of internationally recognized drug policy: prevention, harm reduction, treatment and public safety approaches. 

The federal government’s 2023 budget, tabled March 28, proposes $144 million to support Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program (SUAP). 

SUAP projects provide funding for community-led and not-for-profit organizations across the county that help to combat harms related to substance use. 

More than $360,000 has already been invested in federal funding for the Yukon government through SUAP.

The funding will allow the territorial government to provide more access to social workers for people who use substances to best reach their health and wellness goals. 

According to a Health Canada press release issued Tuesday, the funding is also set to help individuals who face barriers and are at risk of experiencing substance-related harm.

This includes those in the 2SLGBTQIA+ and youth. 

“The toxic drug and overdose crisis continues to take such a heavy toll on every part of the country and has hit the Yukon particularly hard, leading to the highest per capita death rate,” Bennett told the news conference.

“But, after the (March 11) murders in Mayo, suicide, we know that this is all related.

“And it is about mental health and wellness, and how we can work together to really be able to keep people well and thriving,” Bennett said.

The federal budget announced $198.3 billion to strengthen Canada’s universal public health care, and provide “high-quality and timely health care Canadians expect and deserve.”

In a statement following her meetings with Bennett, the Yukon’s minister of Health and Social Services, Tracy-Anne McPhee, said the territorial government’s 2023-24 budget contains $25.7 million for Mental Wellness and Substance Use Services.

“This is in addition to funding to create a Mental Wellness Unit at Whitehorse General Hospital, $1 million to provide additional mental health supports for youth, $825,000 to improve the delivery of restorative justice programs, and $615,000 to provide supervised housing services for people involved in the justice system,” McPhee said. 

In 2022, the territory’s coroner’s office said 25 overdose deaths had occurred from toxic illicit drug use that year, and 19 of them involved fentanyl.

In the first three months of last year, the territory’s death rate was three times the national average.

“This is no longer a ‘them’ problem, it’s a ‘we’ problem,” Bennett said.

“People know somebody, these are friends, family members, colleagues, neighbours.”

In the summer of 2022, the RCMP announced that at least five organized crime groups operate within the Yukon. 

They said organized crime has persisted, and only adds to the further complexity of the Yukon opioid crisis with the supply of illicit illegal drugs coming into the territory, creating a market of more dependent users. 

Under the four pillars of effective drug use policy, public safety and law enforcement go together. 

In a later interview with the Star, Bennett said she talked with Mayor Laura Cabott.

The minister said the city will receive some of the federal Building Safer Communities Fund dollars for public safety. 

She also emphasized the speech U.S. President Joe Biden made to Parliament two weeks ago, and how Canada will be working with the U.S. to stop fentanyl and the precursors of fentanyl, as the minister noted some of it is being made in Canada. 

Bennett said it’s really about getting to the youth before they become street-involved by providing sports recreation opportunities in schools and on-the-land programs to “immunize young people against getting street involved.

“It is important now that we have to do something bold and different that the status quo hasn’t been working. And the truth of the matter is people who use drugs need support, not judgment,” Bennett said

“They need community, they need connection, not isolation, and they need empathy and understanding, not stigma.

“And until we find ways to reduce this stigma of people who use drugs, we know that the barriers to care remain,” Bennett told the news conference.

The stigma needs to come down, she added, and people shouldn’t have to beg for treatment. Instead, it should be available to them with an open door. 

In January 2022, McPhee recalled, “the Government of Yukon declared a Substance Use Health Emergency in response to the substance use-related harms in the territory.

“This declaration was a call to action for all governments, commu-nities, organizations, partners, and Yukoners to do their part in preventing the next tragedy, and a commitment to a coordinated response,” 
McPhee said.

“Sadly, our territory leads the country per capita with toxic illicit drug-related deaths. Every one of these deaths is a personal, human tragedy.”