Giving a voice to youth is a priority for Nunavut’s new suicide prevention minister

Warning: This story discusses suicide.

Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster has spent two decades working in health care in Nunavut, and much of her career focused on pushing for more action on suicide prevention.

Now as the minister responsible for that portfolio, she’s particularly concerned about the rates of suicide among young Nunavummiut, and she has new powers to try to spur some change.

“My focus now is to learn exactly what steps we’re taking to engage youth so that they don’t come to the point of attempting suicide, and that if they do have suicidal ideation… we’re supporting them,” she said. 

Brewster was voted into the position on Nov. 20 shortly after the territorial government election. The suicide prevention portfolio was created in 2015 when the Nunavut government first declared suicide a crisis in the territory. Installing a suicide prevention minister was a recommendation from a coroner’s inquest looking into the exceptionally high number of people who died by suicide in 2013.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Canada’s national Inuit organization, estimates suicide rates across Inuit Nunangat to be five to 25 times higher than those in the rest of Canada. In June, the Nunavut government again declared suicide a crisis in the territory.

Nunavut’s new suicide prevention minister says youth mental health is a priority

Nunavummiut aged up to 19 make up roughly 40 per cent of the territory’s population. The Nunavut representative for children and youth’s 2024-2025 report reveals some troubling figures about the territory’s youngest population.

Of the 134 critical injuries reported by the director of Child and Family Services, 80 were due to suicide attempts and suicidal ideation. There was a 433 per cent increase in the number of reported injuries related to suicide attempts between 2019-2020 and 2023-2024.

The report notes that data collected from the Child and Family Services Department between 2019 and 2024 may be inaccurate and that the numbers could have been even higher.

Jane Bates, Nunavut’s representative for children and youth, said the suicide crisis emphasizes the need for the new territorial government to prioritize the needs of young people, and she’s hopeful that will happen. 

“I cannot stress enough that this mandate… really young people’s survival depends on this,” she said. 

Bates said it’s difficult to truly understand why the rates of suicide are so high among young Nunavummiut. 

There are many risk factors to suicide, including poverty, housing and intergenerational trauma, though Bates doesn’t believe there’s been a comprehensive study linking them all together. 

“I don’t think that kind of detailed study of these young people’s lives leading up to those suicides has been kind of completed,” she said. 

Bates believes “the best experts” to answer some of those questions are young people, though she doesn’t believe there are enough platforms for young people to have their say. 

“This is a government that represents the public, which includes young people. So I really feel strongly that we need to find those places where young people can speak up and let us know what’s happening for them,” she said. 

Brewster said she wants to push forward the creation of a Nunavut Youth Council. That’s one of several commitments outlined in a 2024-2029 suicide prevention action plan for Nunavut.