NAIT is a polytechnic that has a bar on campus, and that might sound like a good thing — having once dreamed of a life in the trades, I can respect the desire for an adult beverage at the end of the day. Trades people have extraordinarily hard jobs. Between the hours and the physical labour, the mental and physical toll is incalculable. It has me wondering: how do these people push through so much, and so hard, for so long?
The statistics show a scary answer: addiction.
It’s a cold hard truth that addiction affects people in trades more than most other careers, and this often can start in post-secondary. This is exactly why education should be about more than just textbooks. Post-secondary institutions like NAIT have a duty to educate all their students, but especially the 10,000+ apprentices they train every year, on how to be responsible and mitigate the irresponsible or dangerous lifestyle that can come with a career in the trades. As someone whose partner is addicted to both alcohol and substances, I’ve noticed a significant gap in resources specific to students.
Addiction is a demon in disguise. It disguises itself as not only substance abuse, but alcoholism, which is a big concern for a lot of college-age people.
A 2025 survey by Statistics Canada showed that 99 per cent of those who had drank in the past 30 days “experienced at least one alcohol-related harm in that time due to their own drinking.”
At NAIT, students fresh out of high school can head to the campus bar as soon as they get to campus. The Nest is a great place to hang out and make friends, but the concern is when partying becomes the daily goal. Bars can create an atmosphere to lose control, which can open the door to experiment with other things in a more isolated environment. It’s a slippery slope to binge drinking and substance use. And peer pressure is a hell of a thing. Even if someone isn’t in the scene of binge drinking and substance abuse, it can be a quick pull to it if your friends are all drinking heavily and experimenting with drugs.
As a student, the struggles in my personal life have definitely affected my studies, and my grades last year are absolutely reflective of how distracting addiction can be for the addict, the friends and the family.
So how do we combat these fears? Mental health is starting to become a prevalent conversation in society and there are services for addiction help, like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.
But there’s a gap in resources specifically for students in active addiction, and an even bigger gap for families of addicts. NAIT does offer mental health resources, primarily in the way of recommendations for provincial and national resources. NAITSA also offers the Peer Support program, and their staff are trained on things like substance abuse.
I have reached out to many provincial and national resources, but I always felt it was pretty generic. Nothing geared to me as a person or a student — just me as a person within a group of people in similar situations. So, I appreciate how NAIT offers peer support for my personal struggles, but there should be something more specific.
The Government of Alberta recently released new funding to post-secondary institutions to assist in recovery for addicts. While NAIT isn’t specifically getting any funding, there are grants they can — and should — apply for.
And while this doesn’t specify any funding to support the supporters, getting addicts into recovery and refocused on their studies and their future is a great start and a good direction for the Government of Alberta.
As a student, the struggles in my personal life have definitely affected my studies, and my grades last year are absolutely reflective of how distracting addiction can be for the addict, the friends and the family. With this new funding to post-secondary, maybe there is help for the addict and the family on the horizon.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the Nugget’s April 2026 print issue. Read it online here.
Feature image by Roiel Carlos / The Nugget
