NORTHERN BC – “Well there was definitely disappointment.”
That’s how Corrina Leween described her reaction when the Agricultural Land Commission rejected an application from Carrier Sekani Family Services to convert a piece of land of Tachick Lake to non-farm use. The plan was to build a 60-bed treatment facility to help cope with what its call “an urgent need.”
“The services to be offered in this facility will work to begin to address some of the alarming rates of harm being endured by Indigenous people in our home communities. The data is clear – Indigenous people are being affected by the opioid crisis at a higher rate, with recent statistics showing that First Nations are dying from overdose at a rate of more than 5 times higher than other BC residents” says Leween, who is both the Chief of the Cheslatta Carrier Nation and President of the Board for CSFS.
The location has been the Tachick Lake Resort since the 1960’s and was never used for agriculture. But, she says CSFS will carry on with it’s plans for a treatment facility.
“A lot of the preliminary work has already been completed. It’s a matter of tying it all together.”
But the clock is ticking. Leween says the owners of the resort have granted an extension to May to get the designation changed.
