REGINA – Third and final reading has been passed for the province’s legislation that clears the way for requiring addictions treatment in certain situations.
The Compassionate Intervention Act passed third reading Tuesday afternoon along party lines, with the Sask Party MLAs voting in favour and NDP voting against. The NDP ended up opposing the bill after their 17 proposed amendments were shot down in the Human Services committee the previous evening.
After the final vote, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Lori Carr spoke to reporters about what is next.
“The next steps is we will have to put regulations into place, you know, developing the board that will be instituting the committees that will oversee the intake process of individuals that are referred to compassionate intervention,” said Carr.
The facilities for compassionate intervention will be set up in North Battleford. Carr told reporters that they will have an assessment centre in North Battleford, and then if they are referred to compassionate intervention, they will be referred to Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford.
“That's the plan right now. Of course, we want to see how compassionate intervention rolls out. What does it look like? Is it working? Do adjustments need to be made? And it's going to start in North Battleford.”
Opposition leader Carla Beck spoke to reporters after the vote as well, in which she once again outlined the NDP’s concerns about the bill.
“We sought from the government that this would not take focus, this would not take resources away from voluntary beds,” Beck said. “Right now we know that the voluntary beds in this province are full. This is by the Premier's own admission that there's a six-week wait for those vets in our province. This government time and time again watches these social tragedies spiral out of control and then reaches for, in this case, rather untested option by a private provider that is very expensive, that takes resources away from the voluntary treatment sector in our province. We sought those assurances from the government that this was not a concern, this was nothing to worry about. Well, we do think it is something to worry about.”
The NDP had also raised concerns in recent days about Edgewood Health Network, accusing the government of relying on the private provider for treatment. In speaking to reporters Minister Carr made known that the North Battleford facility would be publicly run.
“Last night in committee we made it quite clear that this facility is going to be run by the Saskatchewan Health Authority, not by a third-party provider,” said Carr.
“It will be Saskatchewan Health Authority employees in both the assessment centre and in the facility itself. And that was made quite clear last night in committee. So for the opposition to come up here and just blatantly say something different is really disappointing.”
Carr also addressed some of the other NDP concerns about the bill, including concerns that compassionate care would take voluntary treatment spaces away. “This is a completely different stream,” Carr said. “We have a different funding bucket for compassionate intervention as we do for our voluntary spaces. They're complete and separate, so there is no chance of us taking away any voluntary spaces for compassionate intervention.”
There were also concerns about whether there would be Indigenous representation as well. Care said it is “right in the legislation that there will be Indigenous representation,” and she said it is from that pool of individuals that they will use for the panels that do the adjudication.
Care also assured that there are safeguards in place for those in the system.
“As soon as an individual is taken to an assessment centre and is started down the compassionate intervention stream for assessments, they are offered legal representation. In fact, legal representation is being offered throughout all stages.
At all stages of that assessment, even once they're in a facility, there's an opportunity for them to have another review done if they feel as though their circumstances have changed and that maybe isn't where they belong at that point in time because they have got that capacity back. Then there's opportunities for appeal and review and legal representation at all points in time for those individuals.”
As for concerns that rights might be violated, Carr responded that “at this current point in time, we have individuals who are a harm to themselves, a harm to others, don't have the capacity to actually make that decision to get the treatment that they need. And they have family members, they have loved ones that have tried to get them that help, that have put them in voluntary treatment.
“Of course, they can leave, they don't stay there long enough to get the help that they need. So we're hoping through this process, we can truly get individuals that don't have that capacity the help that they need.”
