Carrier Family Services Board President and Cheslatta Carrier Nation Chief Corrina Leween say the passing of the Safe Streets Bylaw highlights the profound need for health & wellness services along with recovery support, especially for Indigenous citizens.
The bylaw was passed during Monday’s City Council meeting, which was intended to reduce and restrict perceived ‘nuisance behaviours’ from people, many of whom are living with addictions and experiencing homelessness downtown.
Chief Leween says the bylaw is a temporary fix to a much larger issue and needs to be supported by programs such as the new holistic Healing/Treatment Centre being built on Tachick Lake, which will greatly support those suffering from addiction.
“It’s a band-aid solution to a bigger problem and so Carrier Sekani Family Services is trying to get the Tachick Healing Centre off the ground and we’ve done a lot of work, it’s been years of work, to try to create a treatment facility for our people,” said Leween.
She notes that an increasingly toxic drug supply, combined with the harms of historical and present-day colonialism, has led to Indigenous people dying from toxic drugs at a much higher rate compared to other BC residents.
According to the First Nations Health Authority, in 2020, 14.7% of all toxic drug deaths in BC were Indigenous people – a group that represents only 3.3% of BC’s total population.
The authority also reported that there was a 119% increase in the number of toxic drug deaths reported among the First Nations population from 2019 to 2020.
“So we’re trying to mitigate some of the things that the City of Prince George are having problems with when presenting the bylaw. So what we’re trying to do is help the city help them,” she explained.
Chief Leween adds she really couldn’t understand how further displacing already displaced people will help mitigate these issues, and says treatment facilities like Tachick Lake are important for displaced residents to recover.
The building of the facility has hit some financial roadblocks, according to Chief Leween, but Carrier Sekani Family Services continues to reach out to potential fundraisers for assistance.
However, she says they still have millions of dollars to raise.