Declaring ‘suicide crisis’ is ‘possible,’ health minister says
Calling it a public health emergency would give Government of Nunavut special powers and enhanced access to resources
John Main, Nunavut’s minister of health and of suicide prevention, says declaring a suicide crisis in the territory is possible. However, the government needs more time to formulate a full response to a list or recommendations made at a recent coroner’s inquest. (File photo)
The Nunavut government is “giving serious consideration” to declaring a territory-wide suicide crisis, Health Minister John Main said on Monday.
One way a “suicide crisis” could be declared is as a public health emergency, Main said in a phone interview.
“If a public health emergency [is declared], then there is the ability to acquire or order specific resources to be allocated through the chief public health officer’s purview and through legislation,” he said.
Alternatively, the GN could “just declare a crisis, not through the Public Health Act, but just as a government make a declaration of a crisis.”
That option would be more about raising awareness of the issue and bringing focus to issues around suicide prevention, he said.
Main’s comments about declaring a suicide crisis come more than a week after such a declaration was among a string of recommendations made by jurors in a coroner’s inquest looking into the 2019 death of George Arlooktoo of Kimmirut.
Arlooktoo died after stabbing himself when police arrived at his home because they thought he was in a mental health crisis and because he had stabbed his partner.
Jurors made 32 separate recommendations, many of them aimed specifically at the Department of Health and the Government of Nunavut.
The recommendation to declare a crisis came about after a frustrated juror remarked that since Arlooktoo took his own life in 2019, there had been four more suicides in the hamlet whose population is about 425.
This is not the first time the GN was asked to declare a suicide crisis. In 2023, Iqaluit-Sinaa MLA Janet Brewster raised the issue in the Nunavut legislature.
Main acknowledged historical calls on the government to make a declaration. He said there is no reason to believe the GN won’t take a different approach than it has in the past and this time actually declare a crisis.
He said, however, it needs more time to formulate a response.
Declaring a crisis is “possible,” Main said.
“And so when we look at the recommendations, including the one regarding a crisis, there’s quite a lot to unpack there. And this is not something that we take lightly.”
Main noted there were a number of recommendations made directly to the GN or to the Department of Health, and they are working on a fulsome response to all of them, including the question of declaring a suicide crisis.
Main said he could not provide a specific timeframe for an official response to all of the inquest’s recommendations, but speculated it could take approximately a month.
“I don’t want to tie our hands in terms of committing to a real specific time, but we will be responding,” he said.
“Suicide prevention is one of the top priorities of my department.”
Step 1: Declare suicide in Nunavut to be a crisis.
Step 2: ???????
That’s the problem. Declaration is easy. But what do you intend to do to bring the crisis to an end? No one in the GN or in NYI seems to have an answer, other than to hire a consultant to do a study.
The recommendations and action plan with dates to complete are possibly written and given to the dept.
It is a matter of having the Minister to action this with the Premier. Why this step is not outlined is an accountability issue with the GN.
Nothing!!!!
Nothing will be done to prevent suicide.
We can talk about suicide all day long and make millions of recommendations but if a persons mentality is broken than they will succeed in doing what they want to do when they decide they want to do it.
Stop wasting the tax payers money!!
What we need to do is no longer put up with the abusers in our communities.
Also not a popular idea is that we also need to stop idolizing suicide victims.
I am sorry for the loss but when a wife beater dies why do we all pretend they were the best person that ever lived. This gives the idea that if someone ends there life because they don’t feel loved enough while alive they know they will be honored when they are not alive. And this makes suicide a real option. Which it shouldn’t be. If you did something bad and have shame, then admit your mistake and try fix it. Suicide should not let people off the hook. Kids see this and are susceptible.
If Nunavut government calls a suicide crisis, will it be to go deep into suicide links or more for political sleight-of-hand optics?
If Nunavut goes ahead with the call, then will Ontario do the same, seeing Nunavut’s 2021 figure of 33 compared to their Ontario 1,200 number? Or Quebec with 950.
Then will Nunavut government discuss their plan on what happens on March 17, 2027?
This is when MAID will be provided for all individuals 18 years and older, who have major depression disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or personality disorders?
Have SSRi usage prescriptions been increasing and will further increase as 2027 comes closer?
Ontario did indeed have 60.5 times the number of suicides Nunavut did in 2021. Ontario also had 386 times the population Nunavut did in 2021. Which means Nunavut’s suicide rate was 6.4 times higher than Ontario’s.
And this is why you don’t simply count cases to figure out if it’s worse than one place than another.
MAID the work and approval that went into the acronym alone is dazzling. MAID meshes perfectly with the current globalists plans which the Liberals have taken as its own. Life is a precious gift, with that recognized by society and personally we would be doing well in the healing process 😀.and ending suicides.
There are a lot of programs that have used suicide prevention as the reason behind what they do. Has anyone looked into seeing if there is any real impact? One way could be to look at all the people that have worked for or participated in the programs/activities and see if the number of suicides is less then regular.
Also are there any activities that seem to draw in more suicide victims? Or programs/organizations that even if they aren’t trying to be a suicide prevention organization that also have lower association with suicide rates?
It should be someone organize these things. Not the government. Someone voluntarily who wants to be the voice. Not the government
I say it again, this was a crisis 30 years ago, It is such a farce to hear we have to wait for a Corners report, we need some hardline politicians to put there foot down on any issues at hand.
A territorial emergency should and must be declared to allocate the proper resources to this epidemic. Nunavut has the highest suicide rate in all of Canada which is 10 times the national average per capita. It is beyond crisis, it is an emergency. Present and imminent danger exists that is not slowing down
The completion of a life ending action is an outcome.
Addressing the behaviours and circumstances etc. that lead to an individual feeling or making that final decision to end their life has little to do with enough access to prevention programs, kids books, service offerings or declarations…all nice ideas, but add no real value.
Perhaps the GN should consider deploying capital resources and human resources in a very direct and focused way to the root causes, that result in individuals feeling helpless, abandoned and believing that they have no other choice.
You (GN) don’t need another consultant telling us all and confirming for us all what time it is.