Nunavut MLAs seek suicide prevention update

Some members of Nunavut's legislative assembly say a training program that aimed to curb the territory's high suicide rate seems to have fallen by the wayside.

MLAs had questions for Health and Social Services Minister Tagak Curley this week about the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) program, which the government began rolling out over the past year.

The program provides Nunavummiut, including teachers, government officials and youth, with suicide prevention and intervention skills that they can use in their home communities.

Quttiktuq MLA Ron Elliott said MLAs were told last year that the first ASIST workshops were a major success, so the training would be rolled out across the territory.

But Elliott said he wonders what's going on with the program now, as it's important to have a lot of people trained in suicide prevention and intervention in communities.

"When you're approving budgets and money, you'd like to know where the workshops are happening and when they're happening," Elliott told CBC News on Thursday. "So far, we haven't gotten any answers as to when that's happening."

Nunavut, with a population of just over 33,000 people, has among the highest suicide rates in Canada. Twenty-six suicides were reported last year, and at least four more have been reported so far this year.

Pangnirtung MLA Adamee Komoartok said the territorial government must make sure suicide prevention and intervention training is offered even after the initial workshops are done.

"You have to have follow-up and make sure everyone who has been trained gets further training, gets updates. That's the only way we can keep up with what we're seeing today," he said.

Komoartok has submitted a list of 14 questions to Curley, in the hopes of getting detailed answers about the number of people trained through the ASIST program to date, the amount of funding for the workshops, and plans for the future.