Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know there is a committee of social envelope Ministers. The committee that looks after the fund for small communities is currently working on their terms of reference and looking at moving forward to deal with the broader scope to address some of the issues that the Member has raised.
Another issue we have is that with a lot of these individuals the government pays for them to travel home from the larger centres. They’ll pay someone who is homeless in Yellowknife to get back to their home community. Under your existing policy you have to be a resident for three months, but the government is the one that moves these people back to their home community in which they were homeless to begin with. So once they get back to the community, there’s no way that these individuals can be provided housing because of the residency clause.
Have you looked at the residency clause for individuals? You or Social Services or whatnot may have paid for those individuals to go back to their home communities and not realized that these individuals won’t be able to access housing once they get there because of the policies that we have for residence.
I’d just like to know: have we looked at the residency policy when it comes to people who may have left the community for less than a year or are being encouraged to go back to their home community through this reintegration of homeless people in the larger urban centres back to their home communities where there presently is a program for that? Is that something that the Minister is dealing with in the homelessness issue, or has contemplated or looked at it?
What are you doing with regard to waiving that residency clause for those individuals and residents who are from those communities? It’s very frustrating to know that these individuals are born and raised in these communities. They’re on the band list. They’re basically identified as that being their home communities. They’re registered under the land claim groups as that being their home community. But then these individuals go away for a short period of time, and when they get back to their home communities, they’re very frustrated by having to hear that they’re not a resident, yet that’s where they were born and raised and spent almost all their lives in that community. I think it degrades aboriginal people who have signed land claims and have settled in those land claim areas and had their rights applied to those geographical areas. I think as a government we have to live up to the land claim obligations, also realizing that these are land claim beneficiaries of those geographical areas.
I think what we’re doing is discriminating against individuals because they’re leaving those communities by stapling with them their residency clause. For these individuals, for them, home is where you find it, but more importantly, they ain’t gonna be buried anywhere else than in that home community.
So as a government have we ever looked at ensuring that the policies and procedures of the government are considered in light of the residency clause? People are being told: “Well, you go back to your home community. We’ll pay your way there.” But once you get there, you’re doubly jeopardized by having a residency clause thrown in your face. Has the department seriously looked at this matter in light of the concerns and issues that have been raised through your department?
Before we move on, noting the clock, I’ll let you respond to the question, Mr. Miltenberger, and then we’ll rise and report progress.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Clearly, if there is a repatriation circumstance and there’s a case planning function that involves other departments or other agencies, be it Health and Social Services or whoever it may be, we want to work as well with the community where the person’s being repatriated to.
As we work with the mandate for this new homelessness committee, that ability to make sure that we have a consistent approach that is not going to trip ourselves up as we move them from one community to another is one of the things that is going to be looked at. Thank you.
