The current suicide crisis among young in Attawapiskat gets federal and provincial help.
To me the place looks boring. And February in the northern hemisphere is known for being high in suicides. Dark, short days, cold outside, month on month takes its toll. Add remoteness and there's no escaping it.
Would your or I do any better if we were there?
So I'd like to fantasize. What would I do, if I was in Attawapiskat, to make the place less depressing, for myself and those around me?
Very Big Dollars
1. high speed rail to Toronto, via underground tunnel so as not to disturb nature
2. nuclear power plant, to light the place like Las Vegas through the winter
Big Dollars
3. some very well lit public buildings - library, indoor soccer field, and as Ontario is doing a youth centre
4. new industry (as diamond mining winds down) and its trickle down benefits such as trade careers and summer jobs for youth
Laminated lumber / mass timber panels - only need small / young growth trees. Attawapiskat had a sawmill decades ago. And new technology allows skyscrapers to be built from laminated lumber. Perhaps the Ontario funded youth centre could be built that way from local wood, and build a local industry in the process. And make housing cheaper to build.
5. build more housing,
6. use heat pumps to store heat underground in the summer, for use in the winter, as they did in Okotoks Drake Landing if that's technically feasible -enough sun in the long summer days and geology that allows for it
7. sunshine mirror array on towers that give an extra boost of sunlight hitting the town during short winter days with sun near horizon
Medium Dollars
5. Do they have free high speed internet? That might help.
6. Small improvements to cramped housing - any heating, ventilation, plumbing issues
Small Dollars
7. clean up any walls spray painted with graffiti
8. keep the town looking clean and tidy
9. lots of fun activities for youth _and_ adults. No need to sit around bored when there's so much fun.
Tiny Dollars
10. maybe just more lists like this one that say to the people in Attawapiskat 'hang in there, we're thinking of you...'
