Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As was identified in that foundational review, it is problematic, and the future plan is to hopefully build a new residence. Officials have raised this issue with the Government of Canada, I raised this issue with Minister Vandal directly. As part of the transformation of Aurora College, we need a suitable residence and that's not a suitable residence for the worldclass institution that we are creating. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, would the legacy of the Breynat Hall, being a former residential school, would the Minister consider building a new single student residence for the future polytechnic university? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So as part of the work to transform Aurora College into a polytechnic university, we are undertaking a facilities plan which is going to look at the existing facilities across the territory of the college as well as the needs for the three campuses as well as each community four community learning centres. That work will begin shortly. The final product will be a short meeting and longterm plan for the infrastructure and that residence has clearly been identified as one we need a new one of. You know, and I'm not breaking any news here. I've stated this before that there are a few infrastructure requirements for the new polytechnic and a new residence in Fort Smith would be one of those. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Final supplementary. Member for Thebacha.
Mr. Speaker, I don't know if I should ask the next question but I'll do it anyways. Mr. Speaker, considering that Breynat Hall is one of the few residential school buildings still standing in Canada, would the Minister seriously consider replacement of this infrastructure as a priority for technical assessment and evaluation with 100 percent federal funding? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We'd love 100 percent federal funding. We do have to pay for this somehow. You know, that's the big question obviously. We want a new residence. We understand that it's not suitable for what we want to do with the polytechnic. And so how we're going to pay for it is the question yet to be determined. So I can stand here and I can say we need a new one. I can't say that I have it in the budget yet, but we have already begun approaching the federal government and we will continue to do so aggressively until we get something on the ground. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was hoping to go after my colleague so I could capitalize on the Minister saying yes to everything. So my question is for the Minister of Housing. Will the Minister commit to working with private landlords, such as Northview, to provide 24hour security in buildings where there are chronic issues with client damage and nuisance; in particular, at Norseman Manor and Simpson House? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The buildings that the Member is questioning are leased buildings in Yellowknife. We don't own them. They aren't Housing Corporation assets. But it doesn't stop us from having that conversation with the landlords as well in regards to providing security or how are we going to work with the clientele in those buildings and also the tenant damage that the Member had also spoken about in her statement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm glad to hear the Minister acknowledge that while they're not the owners, there is a responsibility of the Housing Corp. These are our clients that are being put into these buildings that are creating a lot of this damage. It's not fair to expect that Northview and other landlords will pay for it always. Will the Minister commit to facilitating monthly meetings between the Housing Corporation, the local housing authorities, and private landlords in order to work together to address the problems as they arise before they become chronic? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is an encouragement I have throughout the Northwest Territories of the LHOs working with the Housing Corporation as well to try to alleviate the situations that we currently experience. I just also wanted to highlight as well that annually the Housing Corporation does receive $400,000 annually in tenant damage, so this is a way that we can work with the local housing authorities to come up with solutions and working more effectively with our tenants and clients as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to mix it up on the Minister a bit and move to my last question so I hope she's listening, because it relies to her response there. I'm glad to hear the Minister say that. Will the Minister commit to the creation of a maintenance or repair unit to help support private landlords in the upkeep, repairs, and damage that's caused by the housing clients in the buildings. Often this service is contracted out by the private landlords and it's costing them a lot of money plus there's often time delays. I'm wondering if perhaps rather than us being charged by the landlords for the damage our tenants do, that perhaps we could actually be proactive and create a unit that gives employment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Tenant damage is something the Housing Corporation has worked with the tenants as well where we're charging back the damages that were occurred that did happen by the client and looking at those recoveries. But this is a time to do things differently. We do have a lease an agreement between ourselves and the landlords here in Yellowknife, and I'm opening I'm open to having those conversations and to look at how we could further more work with our agreements in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm really glad to hear that. It's my understanding that maintenance units within the private landlords have been cut a lot recently so if there is some way to think outside the box where we can both take on some of that responsibility and work together, that would be great. My last question is will the Minister commit to providing special needs housing clients with suitable accommodations? I have had constituents who cannot walk properly who are in buildings with stairs and no ramps. So I'm asking for the Minister to commit that she start to look at the types of accommodations for our disabled clients and helping them to be in suitable units. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is I would like to explore this idea as well to see how many special needs units we may need with tenants that do have limited mobility. I will have the conversation with my department, and I will get back to the Member on the numbers that we may require throughout the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister responsible for Income Assistance and the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, many elders and seniors in our territory live in poverty and we have a high cost of living here in the Northwest Territories. The income assistance policy requires seniors to add their names to the public housing waitlist however seniors, who need additional financial support and who own their own homes, cannot add their names to the public housing waitlist. Many remote communities struggle with housing resale and the Housing Corporation is currently encouraging homeownership as they do not have the public housing stock to accommodate the housing needs of all NWT residents that are currently on their waitlist. As such, will the Minister reduce barriers for seniors by removing the income assistance requirements that requires seniors to add their names to the public housing waitlist? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So if a senior owns their home and there's no mortgage on that home, they don't need to add their name to the public housing waitlist. If they have a mortgage, income assistance can support them with some mortgage payments. However, income assistance doesn't generally pay down debts. So, yeah, I just want to make clear if you own your own home free and clear with no mortgage, you do not need to have your name on the public housing waitlist. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral Questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, aging in place depends on family support. And without family support and multigenerational living we would need far more than the original projection of 435 long term care beds. The income assistance policy currently states that rent can be paid by an adult child on behalf of a parent if the dwelling is in a separate living quarter approved by a secondary suite in accordance with the local municipality.
Quite simply, Mr. Speaker, this is not a realty for life in the North. So will the Minister support multigenerational housing by removing policy barriers that stand in the way of seniors using income assistance to age in place with the support of family? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's a very specific question. I believe it's she's quoting page 76 of the policy manual, if my memory serves me correctly. But the Member makes some good points, and I'm endeavoring to find out why exactly that requirement is there. Perhaps there are other laws or fire code issues related to it. So I want to find that out, and then I can get back to the Member. Because if there are some easy wins, I'm always happy to do those. But I want to note that we are also working on a seniors specific income assistance stream, recognizing that there are differences between individuals who are out of the workforce, perhaps for a short amount of time, and those who have aged out of the workforce, that they have difference needs and there's no need to treat them identically in the same program. So things like this are exactly what we want to look at for those types of programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for both of the questions I just asked, both of those items are very clearly and the Minister is right on page 67 to 69 of the policy manual handbook for income assistance. And, for example, with my question with the waitlist, those items are listed in the policy manual. And so when we talk about inconsistencies with policies for seniors, this is where the inconsistencies come from. If people are applying the manual book, and they're applying it differently or on a casebycase basis, you're ending up with a different rule for one senior than you are for another. So if it's not a rule, take it out of the manual.
My other frustration here today is that a lot of what I'm bringing up here are longstanding income assistance policy issues that have been brought up by multiple Assemblies and by multiple people and even people that have been commissioned by the GNWT to create reports. One of them is the ICM report. And so I think that waiting for the end of a review to see these changes happen, just isn't good enough and we need to see change quickly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
My question for the Minister is how does the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment intend to work with the Minister of Health and Social Services on the elder strategy so that we can bring these policy inconsistencies together? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Integrated service delivery is an approach I talk about often. It is the approach we are moving towards where we design programs for the residents, not for government, and that means not thinking what our department can do but what the person needs and then using a wholeof-government approach. And with that in mind, I can confirm that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment along with the Department of Housing and Health and Social Services are part of a interdepartmental working group. I believe they met earlier this well, I guess in May now, and are going to continue to meet and we're focusing on these types of programs, what can we do for seniors to help them age in place, how can we adapt our programs, what gaps are there in programs. So this work is happening at the officials levels, and I am constantly pushing it at the Cabinet level as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I promise to be much quicker. Given that housing Northerners seems to be a little bit of a hot potato between the Department of or the Housing Corporation, and Department of ECE, and Health and Social Services, will the Minister commit to working with Health and Social Services and the Housing Corporation to come up with a multigenerational housing model that suits our desire to have residents age in place in their home communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that's the plan. That's the reality. There are intergenerational housing arrangements right now, and as a government we need to ensure that we're serving the people in those arrangements. Again, there's working groups. I work with my Cabinet colleagues on a higher level, and this is the work we want to do. This is the work we have to do. We have to look at the realities on the ground and then design our policy and programs to meet those realities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for Homelessness. Mr. Speaker, it was the last government that committed to the homelessness strategy, and it was quoted by the previous Minister that we needed a whole-of-government approach to help our homelessness. So what I want to know today is when will we see this homelessness strategy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Homelessness.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The homelessness strategy is still going under review. We will have the document tabled in the fall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. So I'm hoping it will be early in the fall so we have time to review it before we're sitting. My next question for the Minister is, you know, bringing up my Member's statement, talking about the emergency shelters in the Northwest Territories, the Minister last week confirmed that there is a staff person dedicated to assisting the homeless shelters in Inuvik at this time. But from my discussions that I had, this is there's been some confusion. And I just wanted to confirm with the Minister, is there a specific person working with the homeless shelter at this time in Inuvik? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. According to the last update that I did receive, we did have a staff person in Inuvik, but I can follow up with the Member and just too making sure that we still have the support in her riding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm kind of disappointed because I asked this same question last week, and I got the same answer. And the homeless are still homeless, and the shelter is still closed. So I'll go on to my next question.
Is the Minister working with the Health and Social Services Minister in order to help clients that are currently or not currently in the emergency shelter but that are in Inuvik now, and is there some contact person that people can contact within their two different departments? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have to follow up with the Member as well because the Housing Corporation did have an agreement with a nonprofit organization in Inuvik. And that agreement is we need to find nonprofit organizations to run our programming in Inuvik. So I will follow up with the Member with further details. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will switch my question around. What's going to happen if we have no more nonforprofit organizations to run any of our homeless shelters because they have no support and they don't have enough money to run them. So will the Minister commit to working with our board that we have right now and come up with a solution? Because, like I said, it's still cold. It's snowing. You know, community has rallied together to get sleeping bags and blankets for some of the people because they're sleeping outside, Mr. Speaker. So I would like to know if this Minister is going to take this serious and do something in Inuvik. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have my staff follow up with the existing board, but the last update that I did receive is that the board had dissolved. And I'm not too sure what is happening with that board currently. But I will follow up with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Spruce Bough, formerly the Arnica, is currently operating with getting its funding from a number of sources. They're trying to navigate, being passed around through various CMHC funding proposals as well as getting income assistance from their clients as well as COVID emergency funding that has come from Health and Social Services. So I'm just trying to piece together all of the funding sources to make sure that this building and this transitional housing can continue beyond the life of this pandemic.
So my first question for the Minister of Health and Social Services is what funding is currently being provided by her department to the Spruce Bough?
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have a dollar amount but it is true that the funding that was extended to the Spruce Bough during the pandemic continues until September the 30th of this year, at which point we're hoping that the transition to stable and longterm funding from a variety of sources will be solidified. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I guess that September 30th date is the date I'm worried about, is that it requires, you know, the staff to know whether they continue to have jobs and the residents to continue to know whether they have homes. Can the Minister speak to what needs to happen to extend funding beyond September 30th? I really would like to walk out of this pandemic with some longterm funding for those people in transitional housing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Spruce Bough, the Yellowknife Women's Society does some great programming at the Spruce Bough. I've visited there myself and been part of their program in the common room where they support one another in their healing journey, and it's very impressive. And, of course, as the Minister I want this program to continue.
What I can say is that the department is working with the Yellowknife Women's Society with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and also with the NWT Housing Corporation, and there are several tasks that need to be done here. One is the Housing Corporation is working with the women's society and CMHC to facilitate the ownership of the building. That issue is not resolved. ECE is involved in preparing for the transition of eligible residents to income support that will pay for room and board and help the women's society run the building. And Health and Social Services is working on the potential continuation of the alcohol distribution or Managed Alcohol Program which has been operating at the Spruce Bough. So this is this is a multidepartmental approach. But I do believe that we all share the same goal, which is to ensure that the Spruce Bough continues to offer services well into the future. Thank you.
