Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke in my statement about a report on homelessness in Yellowknife, which was written by Mr. Nick Falvo. There were a number of recommendations in that report. I have some questions for the Minister responsible for homelessness with regard to some of the recommendations in that report. I appreciate that the Minister may not have had a chance to read the report, but I think he can respond to my questions relative to the recommendations as I outlined them in my statement.
The very first recommendation of the report is to establish a homelessness secretariat. I’d like to ask the Minister what plans this government has to coordinate our homeless programs, which are not now coordinated in one place. For instance, coordinate with the Anti-Poverty Strategy, coordinate within government, and coordinate with our service providers. It will provide more effective programs to both more communities and be more efficient. I’d like to ask the Minister what plans there are to coordinate our homelessness programs. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for homelessness, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A two-part answer, I would suggest. There’s homelessness within Yellowknife, where you have a lot of agencies and a lot of resources, and then there’s the homelessness services outside of Yellowknife, which are coordinated and managed by the government and the various departments within government. There is a Homelessness Coalition in Yellowknife that we’re part of and has a primary responsibility. We also look internally, monitoring and organizing those services. One of the things that existed in the 15th Assembly that may be worth considering again was that there was a social Ministers, envelope Ministers committee that met on an ongoing basis to deal with such issues that transcended a number of departments, be it homelessness or housing or other such broad issues. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Minister for giving me a bit of a précis of information I already know and telling me what we already do. I know that, and I would like to know what we are going to do to try to coordinate homelessness, because it’s not currently coordinated.
The oversight and the management of homelessness programs for this government are spread across many departments; at least three. They are handled by different people in each department and everybody is doing little bits and pieces here and there. So I would like to ask the Minister if this government will consider the establishment of a homelessness secretariat, as recommended in the report. Thank you.
I was under the assumption you never asked a question you didn’t know the answer to. I’m trying to fill the Member in on issues that I know she’s asked questions about, she’s very conversant on.
In regard to the idea of a secretariat and the issue of homelessness, that will be, I believe, contained in the broader transition document within the seven days left that we have as sitting days and to the 4th when we are dissolved. There are no plans to move on any kind of setting up of any kind of secretariat. Thank you.
One of the other recommendations in the report was to establish a task force to look into the use of drugs and alcohol and the use of it by our citizens, particularly our homeless. I see that task force as looking into far more than just homeless people, but I would imagine both the housed and the homeless would be looked at in terms of alcohol abuse.
I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not he is willing to discuss this recommendation with his staff. I appreciate no decisions will be made between now and the election, but I’d like to know whether or not he can do some preliminary analysis of the value of such a task force. Thank you.
I meet regularly with the Health and Social Services staff, the deputy and senior officials, so I will commit to have that item placed on the agenda so we can, in fact, have that discussion. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for that commitment. I appreciate that it will be at least considered.
One of the other recommendations was that shelter standards should be established. The family violence shelters have them, and I’d like to know from the Minister why should emergency shelters not have standards and what plans are there within the government to look at developing standards for our emergency shelters similar to our family violence shelters. Thank you.
As we continue to evolve as a government on the program delivery side and mature as a jurisdiction, clearly, standards become more and more pressing in a number of program areas, including the ones mentioned by the Member. That will be pursued as you move forward. There’s a new strategic plan coming out of Health and Social Services, and as the 17th Assembly is set up, elected, and picks their government, those items I’m sure will be on their list of to do things. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
