Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa is calling on Premier Doug Ford to take action to help stop youth suicides in the North and provide immediate mental health supports.
Mamakwa says this year they have had multiple young people take their own lives in Fort Hope, Webequie, Wunnumin Lake, and Poplar Hill.
He stresses the mental health crisis that exists across the north is not letting up.
Mamakwa reports in his riding, there were 562 deaths by suicide in the past 35 years among Indigenous communities served by the Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority.
He notes the suicide rate among Indigenous people is three times higher than the rate in Canada and much higher in Kiiwetinoong.
The NDP critic for Indigenous and Treaty Relations stresses this is a crisis and the government has no right to use the excuse that Ontario has no jurisdiction for improving First Nations mental health services.
Mamakwa says the current resourcing for mental health supports is completely inadequate.
He adds the premier must stop ignoring the suicide epidemic.
