Mental Health Services in Saskatchewan are pitiful. I have been waiting for a new psychiatrist since 2010. It took me finally finding a new family doctor (all of the referals my previous family doctor in another city gave me came to naught) to finally get some additional support.

I'm in Regina. Imagine how hard it is in La Loche. Not to mention that to access a lot of the resources in this province you have to have the means to leave your community, which is something not everyone in La Loche has.

Health Care is a provincial responsiblity. Hear that Mr. Premier? This is YOUR crisis and you have had over a decade to fix it.

La Loche"s loss is an open manifestation of the larger issue of what First Nation communities have endured over many years of indifference and neglect from Federal and Provincial levels of government. No more quick fixes--- till the next time. A national plan for improving living conditions from housing, water to mental health care is needed, and not just for La Loche.

Canada has not made a good enough effort to make villages and towns in remote areas of Canada livable and affordable and the results are most desperate and most obvious in first nations communities. Canada needs a policy much like Diefenbaker envisioned (Roads to the North) and a system of providing the necessities of life at prices equivalent to prices in the more accessible southern communities. We need the north to be inhabited, therefore there need to be opportunities for employment and affordable necessities of life in the north. We cannot let the north be inhabited by people whose living conditions and problems make them choose death over life.

As someone who has worked on reserves, the best way to fix this problem would be to discuss the integration of first nations into society, and get them off of reserves. I would not wish living on a reserve to anyone. Burnt houses, packs of wild dogs roving around, very little law and order. Terribe conditions. Make it beneficial and affordable to come into the cities where culture and language could still be practise if they choose.

I get very tired of hearing how 'provincial and federal governments have neglected' First Nations. The issue is one of isolation and this is a problem in isolated communities anywhere in Canada. No amount of money will change that problem. As was the case with the cod fishery disaster, rural communities in Newfoundland had to move in order to both find work and join a viable community. It's about time we faced this dilemma head on.

I recall listening to a priest who had worked for years with gang members in an economically challenged area of Los Angeles - he said, "Nothing stops a bullet like a job." I would say we all need to accept that money should be poured into education of youth in any challenged Canadian community - with an end-goal of good employment prospects. That can lead to work somewhere - maybe on or off the reserve. Let's face it, you can look anywhere in the world where youth are lacking engagement or a reasonable future and the result will be the same: trouble and tragedy.

6 years ago my 18 year old nephew died by suicide on a reserve. He left a 1 year old son behind. Attending the funeral I was appalled by the conditions there. I wondered why my brother would keep his family in such a horrible place. The problem is us on the outside who have yet to accept them. They only see that leaving they are subjected to ridicule and our society lacks the love they have in their own surroundings. Some how we have to give them back the pride and self esteem those residential schools took away.

Most of these young people only get to see the world through the web and tv - I would think, with few exceptions, the 'outside' is vastly more interesting and exciting to them than daily life in any northern town or reserve.

Preparing the youth to leave is the hard part. they need to speak an 'official' language well, need education that isn't 'no child left behind' but actually teaches them skills, and they need supportive parents and systems to help them find further education, work and opportunity.

I would like to know the numbers of young people who died this year from suicide in La Loche and across northern Saskatchewan and grieve for them along with the victims of the current crisis. We have a lot of grieving to do. I hope it turns into supportive action.

Nothing, that has not already been done or tried, did any Government to anything when this happened in Southern AB, not, they have to change within, I grew up in Northern AB life then is the same as it is today. They do not want to change, from generation to generation the lifestyle persists.

If people are in places that are remote, no jobs, no future, they need to come out of there. The Indian Act and the culture of despair it has fostered is wrong. The Indian Act was brought in in 1868. It is 2016. Let's move forward.

La loch has some serious problems. This incident is just one of them. For example my niece and husband who live there won't let any guests walk the streets. In daylight they will drive them where they need to go even a block away.

This community needs help. First Nation's have a rich cultural tradition that needs to be brought to the children so that they can find pride in where they come from!! If I had that bloodline I would feel honoured. If my children were First Nation I want them all to have Status Cards to keep who they are real through time. History is too important to ignore!!

The issues concerning the aboriginal community are important and should be dealt with. At the same time, please don't forget that one of the people killed was not aboriginal, was from Ontario and had gone to LaLoche to teach there. Communities like this need to be made safe for people like him too.

Demolishing the school is nonsense! What if there's another shooting in a couple years

Implore the Federal Government immediately invest infrastructure funding in First nations Communities across Canada. Invest in safe water services. Invest in gymnasium and covered ice rink facilities to provide healthy activities for youth and to help instill some hope for their future. Partner with universities and colleges and sports associations to implement practicums for students to work in First Nations Communities as part of degree programs and to encourage mentorship. The issues in La Roche are only the "tip of the iceberg". Partnering and investing in First Nations Communities could be an enormous economic opportunity as the people in these communities are a valuable asset to the rest of Canada. Assisting First Nations Communities with legitimate investment in their future is most certainly the right thing to do in a country like Canada that claims to be one of the best places in the world to live in... unless you happen to live in a remote first nations community.

I have been at a number of norther reserves in the Yukon Territory and northern Alberta. The single most appalling aspects of my observations of those locales was two-fold: First, the stratification that occurred in a good many of the reserves I visited whereby the Chief and a small circle of cronies benefited visibly from Federal money, while much of the rest of the people lived in abject poverty. The second was a palpable lack of purpose that wove its way through the body of the rez like a cancer. A collection of bored people with little to occupy them but for the alters built around the TV in most private homes, and a series of well-meaning but ultimately temporary government and local initiatives that provided an even more temporary boost in local morale. Where there is no vision, the people perish. In my view the entire reservation system is both expensive and divisive. Isolating a segment of our population is counter-productive. At the same time some responsibility must fall on the internal leadership. Where strong, directional leadership exists on reserves, hopelessness and suicide are greatly reduced,as is their evil step-sisters, drug use and alcohol abuse. In addition, First Nations leadership should face reality.There is no returning to "the old ways" in a modern global society, neither was there anything noble in the condition when it existed as a norm in this country. First Nations should deeply consider that perhaps the first and best course of action for the benefit of their own people and all Canadians, is to bring the best of who they are and add it to the Canadian Mosaic as so many different cultures do so now in this land.

Ask the good people of La Loche. That would be a start.

I when stated that all they do it sit in their rooms inside playing with their technology and they are not used to working out side........

well that's a parenting problem not a government problem. Kids only get away with what their parents allow them to get away with. If most people are living in poverty how are they even paying for this luxury.

Like I stated the youth sitting around on phones ect is a parenting issue not a government issue.

Parents start doing YOUR JOB!!! Parents need to take responsibility of the way THEIR children are turning out. Its your job to raise well rounded, well behaved, PRODUCTIVE members of society, not anyone else's job.