Victor Boudreau defends choosing Campbellton for youth facility

Health Minister Victor Boudreau is defending the provincial government's decision to place a provincial youth mental health facility in Campbellton,rather than in Moncton as recommended by a task force report on the need for such a facility.

Boudreausays the provincialgovernment hopes to create a "clustering effect" of excellence in mental health by putting the facility in close proximityto the Campbellton Hospital Centre, which is a psychiatric hospital.

And, said Boudreau, the government can't place all provincial services in the larger cities of Saint John, Moncton and Fredericton.

"If you base your decision solely on that, then every single program and service and institution andfacilitywould all be based inMoncton,Frederictonand Saint John and there would be nothing anywhere else," said Boudreau.

"If you use that approach,we might as well close down all facilities, all services we have in northern New Brunswickbecause one would always make that same argument."

The health minister said the provincial government has to ensure services are available across New Brunswick and not just in the three urban centres.

"Granted, yes, it's the bulk of the population and obviously we need to be cognizant of that, but it doesn't mean the rest of the province doesn't exist either," he said.

Ex-advocate concerned

Bernard Richard, the former child and youth advocatewho headed the task force that recommended Moncton as a location for the centre, called the choice of Campbellton"the worst public policy decision" he has seen in a long time.

Among Richard's criticisms wasthere are moreyoung peoplewith mental health needs in the more heavily populated southern cities,and by putting the centre in the northern location, young peoplewill be spending more time away from their families.

Boudreaudiscounts that concern.

Why is it so bad to expect that somebody would drive to Campbellton?- Victor Boudreau, health minister

"We ask people from the north to travel to Moncton, Fredericton, and Saint John all the time, for a wide range of services," said Boudreau.

"For this particular one, why is it so bad to expect that somebody would drive to Campbellton."

Richard and former Liberal health minister Michael Murphy also said they expect it will be more difficult to recruit medical professionals to work in Campbellton thanit would be to work in a larger centre.

"Recruitment in Campbellton, for that particular hospital, I'm told, has not been a challenge because they have state-of-the-art equipment," said Boudreau.

"It's a brand new facility. They dohave the resources that they need."

Cluster of expertise

The youth centre is to be a provincial facility that will fall under the administration of Vitalit Health Network.

Boudreau said the idea of placing the facility in Campbelltonsurfaced primarily from within the health authority as it sought to develop a cluster of excellence in mental health services in Campbellton.

"The idea ofhavingthem incloseproximity, there's feelings that there are some advantages there," said Boudreau.

"When you have thatclusteringeffect you are able to bring in expertise from different levels but within a common theme. There are some real opportunities in the long run," he said.

"I don't see why that's a bad thing."

Boudreausaid the work of Richard's task force was not in vain.

"Therewas a lot of very good work done in that report and a lot of good recommendations that have been followed," he said.

"This is but one piece of that report. So to say that the entire report was focused on the location,and the $100,000 is a wasteofmoney, I don't think is fair."