NDP PONDERS FORCED TESTING

Parents may soon have the option of putting addicted children into mandatory
treatment although it may not be the result of a bill introduced by the
Saskatchewan Party.

Community Resources Minister Joanne Crofford said Monday her department was
looking at changes to Section 18 of the Child and Family Services Act that
could allow for mandatory testing.

Currently, the act allows for children under the age of 16 to be apprehended
and returned to the care of either their family or a foster home or become a
ward of the Minister. Crofford said she expects a report back very soon on
whether or not raising the age to 18 and including a provision allowing
mandatory testing for drug-addicted youth would help reduce the problem.

She added that for any changes to be made she'd also have to be convinced
there would be somewhere to house the patients.

"Right now our entire treatment model in the province has been voluntary, so
in order to have a compulsory treatment model where people are locked up, we
would in fact have to have secure custody facilities which we don't have
right now for people who are suffering from addictions," she said.

Saskatchewan Party MLA June Draude introduced a bill last week that would
allow for parents or guardians to put youth under the age of 18 into
mandatory testing if it was determined by a judge and treatment worker that
a problem did exist. She said she doesn't oppose the work being done by
Crofford's department but does want to see changes made quickly.

"Whatever the minister can do immediately to make the mandatory treatment
happen quickly so parents have some rights I'd be all in favour of," she
said. "I'm a little bit worried about this act because the parents I've
spoken to have come up against a roadblock a number of times so I thought
maybe putting something separate would make it easier. If the Minister
believes she can do it by changing this act so it makes it easy for a parent
to do it immediately and help their children, we'll support it."