Horgan responded that making sure communities have treatment capacity is a top priority, and the government wants to see the facility built. “I’m not aware the project has been stopped,” he said. “I am aware it has not yet begun.”
In a March 4 letter to three cabinet ministers Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Minister Murray Rankin; Agriculture, Food and Fisheries Minister Lana Popham; and Mental Health and Addictions Minister Sheila Malcolmson Cheslatta Carrier Chief Corrina Leween criticized the Agricultural Land Commission’s decision to reject plans to build the treatment centre and asked for urgent action.
“The decision fails to uphold your government’s commitments to address the opioid crisis on an urgent basis, to close the systemic gaps in medical and health services for First Nations people in the north, to implement the [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] Calls to Action, and to honour the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,”