Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about night shelters for homeless, and I'd like to I guess ask the Minister of Housing and the Minister responsible for Homelessness is that in Hay River, we had a shelter this last winter, but as of March 31st, it's no longer operational. And so I'd ask the Minister if her department has been in discussions with anyone in Hay River to deliver that service for this coming winter because, you know, we might be in spring but winter's going to be here fairly soon. So I just want to get ahead of the game here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Homelessness.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Housing Corporation provides the homelessness initiatives during the winter months. I'm not too sure of the date that the shelter would be open again in the fall. I will have to get back to the Member with that specific date. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The shelter was funded by Housing last winter. So I ask the Minister is there ongoing funding, is there funding that's earmarked for shelter for Hay River for this year, or is it or are you looking for a proposal to make it happen? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the beginning of this Assembly, there was a lot of, you know, concern about Hay River and looking at what we had experienced during COVID19 and recognizing the most vulnerable at the ground level. There was a lot of advocacy from Hay River to establish a homeless shelter. So with that, we ended up working with one of the nonprofit organizations and opened up a homeless shelter in Hay River. Just to answer the question, yes, we will be continuing those efforts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's a number of federal government units, I think that are becoming available or that are available in Hay River, and I ask the Minister if she's willing to look at those units and possibly securing one and you know, with four bedrooms at least, and making that available to a nonprofit group to provide shelter this winter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the efforts with the RCMP units that we are currently constructing and the agreement that we do have, the RCMP units are issued to be completed next year but we do have a delivery throughout the Northwest Territories, and there is questions about what are they going to be doing with the federal units that are available in the specific communities. So the Housing Corporation has been in contact with the federal government as well in looking at future programming that we can offer at the community level and recognizing that that we do have nonprofit organizations in Hay River. This is a key for us, for the Housing Corporation that we would be able to work in partnership with this organization and hopefully be able to establish specific programming that we would be able to work with those work with those individuals as well.
But not only that, I also wanted to recognize that we do have other outreach as well, too, in looking at food delivery that is in the community. Like, I'm not too sure about that specific, but we're trying to work in conjunction in the community of Hay River to making sure that we do acknowledge and work with the homeless population. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd ask the Minister, you know, to be proactive in this, and maybe her department is, and, you know, have somebody from, you know, her district office reach out to the Department of Health, people there, like, the Hay River health centre, and some of the other groups and the mayor, I guess, and, you know, it has to be a meeting that has to take place to talk about this issue, and, you know, and to come to some resolve here before winter. So, you know, everybody talks about it but nobody makes the first move, and, you know, I've been trying to put the bug in everybody's ear to make this happen. So I'm hoping that the department can maybe, you know, take a lead on it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, that bug is in my ear. And I have been working with departments as well too and I will keep the Member informed as we go forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
