‘A little bit behind us’: Alberta Minister for Mental Health and Addictions meets with Barrie mayor

Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall is travelling across the country to gain a better understanding of how other provinces and municipalities deal with homelessness.

As the City of Barrie continues to operate under a state of emergency regarding encampments, Mayor Alex Nuttall is continuing to advocate for compassionate intervention and is traveling around the country speaking with officials and ministers to get a better understanding of how other provinces and municipalities are addressing the nationwide crisis.

This week, the mayor was in Alberta, making stops in Calgary and Edmonton, hearing from city and provincial staff, including Calgary Mayor Jeremy Farkas and Provincial Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Rick Wilson.

Wilson said the meeting with the mayor went well.

Barrie explores new implementation strategies

“He wanted to learn from us to see what we’re doing to see if they can implement some of those same things in Barrie,” said Wilson. “So, it was a great meeting.”

Wilson acknowledged the crisis is not only a problem in Alberta and Ontario.

“This is a problem across North America, and we’ve been really pushing hard in Alberta to find solutions to it,” said Wilson. “We’ve been very lucky the premier (Danielle Smith) supports us on it, the municipalities, and even the opposition kind of supports what we’re doing, so you know you’re on the right track.”

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Alberta has a similar system to what is in place in Simcoe County, building what the province refers to as navigation centers like HART Hubs in Ontario.

Recovery Communities established in Alberta

Alberta has already taken steps ahead of Ontario as well, incorporating a program called recovery communities, with 11 already built and five of them located in Indigenous and First Nations communities.

Individuals in the program can stay for up to one year, and it includes recovery coaches.

“First, we have to get you through detox, and then work on the programming, and then move you along and get to the point where you get past your addiction,” said Wilson. “And what we’re finding is people actually, once they get through, they want to help others, and they become recovery coaches.”

• RELATED: Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall in Calgary discussing homelessness

The minister added another program Mayor Nuttall seemed invested in was how Alberta has therapeutic living communities, which are addiction treatment centers in prisons.

“We’ve got somebody in general population, and they’re willing to come into treatment. Community, they must sign off that they’re going to follow the rules, including no swearing, and you must keep your rooms clean and go to therapy,” said Wilson. “They start at seven in the morning until eight at night, seven days a week. This is like serious counseling that’s going on.”

Is Alberta progressing ahead of Barrie?

The minister acknowledges that Barrie and the province are behind Alberta when it comes to progress.

“They’re kind of a little bit behind us; they’re at the point where we were a few years ago with starting to get people off of the streets, get the encampments down, and start getting people to want to get into the treatment,” said Wilson. “We’re basically beyond that stage here.”

Wilson added the next step is to involve the premiers of each province to talk about the crisis.

“What we need to do is show people that we can actually help people and make a difference,” said Wilson.

Alberta has a research team that is dedicated to helping and researching ways the province can improve.

Something Wilson has told Nuttall he should consider.

“Have the scientific research to back up that we’re making a difference where the death rates are going down and opioid addictions are going down, and that was my advice to him: to make sure that you’ve got the research behind you and that it’s not just me, as an MLA or minister, saying this works,” said Wilson.

“We’ve got people on the ground that are seeing that it does work, and we can back up what we’re doing with actual scientific research.