Masi. Minister of NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The key component to addressing housing within the NWT at this point for the NWT Housing Corporation is to utilize the community survey that we will be sending out to identify the needs within each community and developing our plan based on each community’s identified priorities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for her reply. Mr. Speaker, is the department’s work on improving housing still being guided by its April 2012 strategic framework document?
At this point, the strategic plan is actually expired, so we’re looking to do the new plan and then of course the surveys will be utilized to develop our new plan.
Mr. Speaker, what is the department doing to work with communities to make sure land is accessible for developing more housing?
The NWT Housing Corporation land section works a year in advance to identify the land needs for the following year’s projects. One of the strategies we also use is the buildings that need to be demolished. We consider that when we’re looking at new buildings, and so often we’ll take out a unit to put in a new unit within that, on that land.
Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for her reply. Lastly, Mr. Speaker, what is the department doing to reduce dependence on public housing and to promote independent home ownership, particularly in the non-market communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We do have a program currently, called the PATH program that is providing assistance to territorial homeownership programs, that people can actually purchase homes within the communities. There’s different rates depending on the community. We do an assessment of the building, based on the community and then the… I mean, sometimes actually the units are actually given just for the land costs. We’re revisiting that as well because we do recognize that very soon the operating and maintenance money, CMHC funding, will be expiring. We need to come up with a plan. We’re kind of looking at ideas around more home ownership programs and just seeing if we can work within the different communities to help them to give them the infrastructure so that they can take more ownership upon their own.
Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe in Housing First, and I believe for Housing First to work, our government needs to play a very important part in the provision of central, clinical, medical services to support the clients. My question today is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Concerns have been raised that the department may not be providing these services to clients and support the model. Can the Minister confirm of the status of the provision of these services? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Housing First Program includes providing participating clients with what has been termed wraparound services. Discussions have been had between the Department of Health and Social Services and the City of Yellowknife, where the City of Yellowknife has clarified that the intent of their Housing First proposal is to have 24/7 supervision and support of clients on site. That does not mean or does not include on-site clinical services 24/7. The Department of Health and Social Services has committed both publicly and in meetings with the city to ensure that all required clinical supports be made available to all Housing First clients through the city's proposed Housing First program. These may include medical treatment, mental health services, addictions counselling, or addictions treatment. All of these are insured services, Mr. Speaker, and are core programs and they're available to all residents of the Northwest Territories. As far as costing, if demand for the services by the Housing First clients results in financial pressures for the system, this will be addressed through the business planning process. But at this time, we're not anticipating any additional costs because the city's planning to ramp up their Housing First from a low intake in the beginning to I think it's up to 20 by the end of the program. We'll have time to figure out what those costs will be. If there is a desire to provide some additional on-site clinical services, this is something that we may also have to have some additional conversation about incremental funding on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for the answer. How will the department be reviewing the provision of these services to ensure that they're provided in a timely manner and are effectively supporting the program?
Mr. Speaker, that's going to really involve what the RFP ends up coming back looking like that the city has currently issued. From there, we'll be able to have the conversation on how we're going to continue or enhance the services that we're providing, and as I said, some of this might involve some on-site outreach, which we're absolutely open to doing once we've quantified what it's going to look like. Until we know that, we don't really know what it's going to look like. We're looking forward to having those conversations with the city so that we can build a model here in cooperation with the city that works and is effective.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Minister willing to commit, at this point, to providing additional health resources or funding, as required, to support this program moving forward?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I indicated we don't believe, at this time, it's going to take some additional funding. We need to actually get into the program with the City of Yellowknife to figure out how it's going to roll out. As the demand ramps up, we might require some additional funding, at which point we are going to come back to the business planning process and have that discussion with committee. Mr. Speaker, the department was an active participant at the April homelessness community partnership forum and is participating in the two different working groups that were mentioned in this House previously. One of the working groups, under the leadership of the city, is sorting through recommendations from the forum to identify priorities, cost out the priorities and establish a roadmap moving forward. We're clearly a part of that, as is the Housing Corp., as is the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and we will certainly be working together. There are some areas for critical action and we would be happy to discuss those with committee as we move forward.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I for one appreciate that the department is being proactive and the government's being proactive in the support; it's music to my ears. We know that the department will be supporting the Housing First project. How will the department be addressing homelessness moving forward in other communities outside of Yellowknife, across the territories, and providing the same kind of support to clients who are without homes? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services is not the only department working on this and we are not going to be able to solve the problem, but we can be part of the solution, working with communities, working with other departments. In Yellowknife, there are a couple of things that were identified at the housing forum, the homelessness forum, that was held a couple weeks ago. Some areas for critical work that we're working on is addressing the shelter hour gap here in Yellowknife; that's one of the issues that was identified. We anticipate this might require some additional funding, which we'll be coming back to have discussions with committee. We also want to be able to make sure that the program that the city is proposing involves properly, as I've already indicated, and that we're working closely with the city. We also need to explore options for harm reduction programs to support clients in Yellowknife, including things like a wet shelter or a managed drinking program, and work with other partners to see how this might fit into the roadmap for action. Once we've done that work and we've applied it in Yellowknife where we have real demand, it is something that we certainly can look at exploring in other communities and regions throughout the Northwest Territories, but we do have to start somewhere. I can also say that the Housing Corp. is currently working to provide some shelters in communities outside of Yellowknife; they're looking at Aklavik, Fort Simpson, and Behchoko right now. Work is happening, Mr. Speaker. More work is required. It's going to take the will of both sides of this House to get this done and it's going to take some creativity and partnerships with cities, communities, hamlets, as well as other governments.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I ask the Minister responsible for self-government, Mr. Bob McLeod, on the preparation initiatives underway from the pre-implementation leading up to the Deline self-government in the next two and a half months. What undertaking is underway to assure this Assembly there's going to be a smooth transition? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is aware, the Deline Final Self-Government Agreement will be coming into effect on September 1, 2016. That will become the first self-government agreement to be negotiated in the Northwest Territories on a community basis. In fact, earlier this week the Deline Got'ine Government held its first election and have elected Raymond Tutcho as its first chief. The GNWT is working collaboratively with Deline and with the Government of Canada to prepare for the September 1, 2016 effective date of the Deline Final Self-Government Agreement, the tri-party Deline self-government implementation working group is responsible for overseeing the completion of the tri-party work that will need to be completed prior to effective date. The GNWT has been assisting Deline and preparing for the effective date by providing income support in areas which it has expertise, such as elections, government operations, and land administration. MACA and Aboriginal Affairs have also formed a bilateral working group with the Deline self-government transition team. This bilateral work is intended to provide support and assistance to Deline in preparing for self-government and to keep one another apprised of progress on their respective pre-effective date activities. In addition, HR and Public Works and Services have been providing support in the area of human resource planning, policy reviewing, and information technology. The Departments of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations and Lands and the Deline self-government transition team have formed a bilateral lands implementation working group to ensure that all matters related to the transfer of Commissioner's lands to the Deline Got'ine Government are completed before the effective date. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Is this working group going to be looking after the remaining Sahtu communities for their self-government initiatives?
I would say that, overall, self-government negotiations in the Sahtu Settlement Area are going very well with several significant milestones having been reached at several tables recently.
If things are underway and going smoothly, can I get a copy of the negotiating schedule, Mr. Speaker?
In Tulita, the negotiators for the parties recently completed a draft self-government agreement-in-principle, which is currently undergoing internal review. I expect to have the honour of signing the Tulita self-government agreement-in-principle in the coming weeks. The Deline Got'ine of Colville Lake self-government negotiation process and schedule agreement was signed in 2014 and negotiations on agreement-in-principle are well underway. Fort Good Hope self-government agreement negotiations, they've reached an agreement on a process and schedule agreement and expect it to be signed very soon. We are ready to begin negotiations with Fort Good Hope and Canada as soon as possible, and Norman Wells negotiations are working towards completing a full draft of an AIP, and I'll make this information available to the Member.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question is that I look forward to working with the Minister to conclude the schedule so we can have target dates before us here to ensure that these dates are met, and any supports that we can provide from this Assembly to ensure that there's an open and transparent negotiating table in the process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I didn't hear a question; more of a comment. However, I'll allow the Honourable Premier if he wishes to answer.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased to report that in Colville Lake, with the Deline Got'ine, we are in a pilot project for fast-tracking self-government negotiations, and I expect that we'll all benefit from that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my statement today dealt with the issue of migration and how there will always be some need for emergency shelters in Yellowknife, but probably and hopefully not to the extent that they are available now. My question for the Minister responsible for Homelessness is: what planning is she doing with the shelters to reduce their bed nights over time? Thank you.
Masi. Minister responsible for Homelessness.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's actually a few things that we're doing to reduce the shelter bed nights, the amount of people that are staying in the shelters within the Yellowknife community. For one, we are working with the City of Yellowknife with their Housing First project. We're also working with the shelters to implement a Housing First project within their own so that they can move some of the people that are in their units into more of an independent living structure. Finally, we are working within the communities as well to implement emergency shelters within the community, three identified this year, so that they will have options and they don't have to migrate to Yellowknife simply because they have no place to live. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for that answer. A dimension of my question is whether the Minister can foresee a time when funding for emergency shelters will decline because Housing First has taken effect in Yellowknife.
That's actually a very difficult question because I recognize that the term of the government is only four years, which doesn't give us a lot of time and really hard to evaluate during that period of time. I am hoping that the next Legislative Assembly will carry forward the work and to move forward within the Housing First model and to get people more independently housed. There will always be a need for emergency shelters though, and that's just the reality of shelters throughout the world, and especially within the Northwest Territories because this community of Yellowknife is a very transient community with our mines, et cetera. We're a magnet community. That was acknowledged by the Member in her opening statement, so there will always be a need for emergency shelters within our community but, hopefully, as she stated, that will go down as long as we are more proactive in trying to move people, give them the skills and the assets so that they can live independently. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for that. Mr. Speaker, to give a specific example here, the Housing First project in Yellowknife plans to house 20 people in the next three years. Does that mean there will be a decline in the shelter capacity of 20 people?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to be able to say yes, that there would be a decline by 20 people. However, in the short period of time that I have been a Minister, I have noticed that there's been an increase within homeless people within the community. I am not as optimistic, and I would have to say that probably this is going to be a long-standing issue that we will have to dedicate a lot of time within the next, not only the four years, but for a longer period. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you to the Minister for that. One approach that is taken in Calgary is to make it as a goal that people who live in emergency shelters won't spend more than five days there, that they have a rapid rehousing program. Can the Minister envision setting a goal of that kind where there is a commitment that people will stay in emergency shelters for short periods of time so that they aren't stuck on the housing continuum the way they are now?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I would really love to be able to say that there would be a goal within a short period that says that people would not stay in emergency shelters for five years. However, like we had stated, we are working in partnership with the City of Yellowknife. Within three years, they plan to have 20 people housed, within the shelter format, we're looking to have 30 people, that's only 50 people. Even after those people are housed, we will still have a huge population of people that are homeless, so I think that the goal of five days within a shelter is still a ways off. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, follow-up to my Member's statement, I have two questions for the Minister of Housing. I'll use Tsiigehtchic as the first example, because this is the first community that was approved to have a modular home sent to the community. Mr. Speaker, it's been 10 months our community has been waiting to have this unit that's supposed to be shipped to the community in the fall. Mr. Speaker, there has to be added costs, and I'm sure we wouldn't find that out until the fall, by the time we actually get the unit in Tsiigehtchic. I'd like to ask the Minister what savings are we having getting these modular homes shipped up to our remote communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of NWT Housing Corporation.
