Stewart still hopes to see NDP’s Suicide Prevention Strategy move forward

The executive director of the Battlefords and Area Sexual Assault Centre and Battlefords resident said she is aware of the community’s needs.

On the issue of suicide prevention, Stewart believes more must be done.

“The fact that the Sask. Party voted down a suicide prevention strategy is sad for our province,” she said. “I know here in the Battlefords we experienced so much tragedy with the teen suicides that we had seen happen two years ago. We see such high numbers of suicide in the province, and for the Sask. Party to simply vote it down, I don’t understand the reasoning behind it. It is definitely something the NDP will continue to push for.”

Cumberland NDP MLA Doyle Vermette, the NDP critic for northern affairs, introduced the legislation on suicide prevention. But the act was defeated by the provincial government last month.

In May the province introduced its program, the Pillars for Life: The Saskatchewan Suicide Prevention Plan to reduce Saskatchewan’s suicide rate, Stewart said “it doesn’t have the teeth to put into action what is needed to address suicide in the province.”

She also said there was a lack of input from Indigenous and Métis leadership and communities in the province’s document.

“Pillars for Life did not have any consultation and has been widely criticized,” Stewart said.

The province’s Ministry of Health spokesperson Colleen Book said in an email to battlefordsNOW “the tragic loss of a person by suicide is felt not only by family and friends, but by the entire community. We want to assure the public that suicide prevention is a priority for the Government of Saskatchewan.”

Book said the province is investing over $1.2 million in new funding to support the first-year actions in the Pillars for Life. She stated Rural and Remote Health Minister Warren Kaeding recently met with representatives of both the FSIN [Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations] and the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan to discuss the Pillars for Life plan.

Book said Kaeding reached out to offer to meet with Métis fiddler Tristan Durocher who is currently involved in a suicide prevention walk from La Ronge to the Saskatchewan Legislative Building in Regina this summer. Durocher began the walk after the NDP-led suicide prevention bill was defeated in the Saskatchewan Legislature.

For Stewart, she said the NDP still hope to see their suicide prevention strategy bill implemented.

“We strongly advocate for stronger mental health supports, the suicide prevention strategy, but the Sask. Party lets us down at every turn,” she said. “We don’t have a strategy for gender-based violence. We don’t have a plan for suicide. We don’t have a strong plan for mental health. All of those things are failing our community members.”

— With files from CKOM

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW

by Angela Brown

Stewart still hopes to see NDP’s Suicide Prevention Strategy move forward

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