N.W.T. government ends relationship with B.C. treatment facility

CBC

4 days ago

The N.W.T. government is no longer contracting a B.C. facility to provide addictions and PTSD treatment to territorial residents, but past participants credit the program with their continued sobriety and healing.
Edgewood Health Network in Nanaimo was "not successful" in securing a renewed contract, spokesperson for the facility Mary Doyle said in an email. In its own response, the N.W.T. Health department said Edgewood did not apply on a request for proposals in August 2025.
Department spokesperson Andrew Wind said in an email the government sent 105 residents to the facility in the last year. He said clients of the Nanaimo program with intake dates up to and including March 14 would still be funded for the duration of their treatment and a year after.
Neither the department nor Edgewood could confirm how many people were waitlisted when the contract lapsed on March 31.
The end of the contract could be discouraging for patients who relapse and want to return to a facility they are familiar with, said Peyton Straker, who attended Edgewood and is active in Nanaimo's recovery community.
Straker, who is originally from the N.W.T., celebrated 12 months of sobriety in May.
Past participants say program helped, but had flaws
Straker said they found the treatment effective — the program they were in lets clients leave the facility for Narcotics and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and interact with the recovery community through support groups and rallies.
It wasn't perfect, though. Straker said there was room for improvement, especially where Indigenous cultural sensitivity was concerned, since smudging and beadwork supplies weren't allowed into the facility when they were there.
The facility applied "rigid" visitation policies that recognized nuclear families, but turned away visitors with other ties, they said.
Straker said they thrived in the reading and writing components of the program, but saw N.W.T. clients with low-literacy struggle.
Straker observed that clients fluent in Dene languages, but who could not read or write in English, were not given accessibility accommodations to understand reading and writing assignments.
For those patients, "not having the ability to read or write really interferes with your treatment plan, but nobody tells you that before you arrive," they said.
Aftercare options to help people stay sober are also costly, and not subsidized despite being a "key piece of what keeps people clean," said Straker.
A privately-operated living space that is a safe, substance-free place to maintain your recovery can cost between $1,600 and $3,500 and is not covered by the government, they said.
Staying clean post-treatment is critical, because relapse after treatment carries the highest fatality risk, they said.
"The financial strain makes it so that patients aren't actually able to follow the recovery suggestions that are given by the recovery treatment itself," they said.
Straker said when they attended Edgewood, the program cost between $40,000 and $50,000 for anywhere from 50 to 120 days of programming, which is paid by the territorial government.
The health department budgeted $3 million for facility-based addictions treatment in 2024/25, and contracts six different facilities in Alberta, Ontario and B.C.
Other ways to access programs
Edgewood told CBC News that N.W.T. residents can still access its treatment programs through "other available funding channels" like Jordan's Principle, employer benefits, or unions.
The Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission (WSCC) is another funding pathway. Edgewood offers a program for first responders seeking treatment for PTSD.
Seann May, a firefighter in Yellowknife, said he attended the program last year — nearly 20 years after he responded to a 2005 fire where the building collapsed and killed two firefighters.
May turned to alcohol to cope with the feelings brought on by that workplace fatality. May said at the worst points, his wife had packed her bags.
In 2019, he was diagnosed with PTSD.
May said he put in a claim to the WSCC in 2024, and got into treatment by going through counselling at the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre in Yellowknife.
He said the contract with Edgewood lapsing is a "big shame," because its counselling for addictions was "phenomenal."
He said the sessions he took through Edgewood gave him tools to regulate his emotions, helped him rebuild trust with his children and made him more focused at work.
May said once he got in, he "thought the world" of the program.
"I wake up happy every day, rather than doing the morning ritual, trying to drink coffee so I can hide my breath," he said.
"I feel like I can take my day on."