Mr. Speaker, people dealing with mental health and addictions need safe places. There are no shelters in the Tlicho region for those struggling with mental health and addictions.
Can the Minister of Health and Social Services commit to establishing a shelter in Tlicho communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as you know, one of the mandate commitments of this 19th Assembly is the need to strengthen addictions aftercare programming. And so with that in mind, we recognize that having a safe place to live is essential to achieving and maintaining sobriety, whatever the root cause of the addiction is. So from that point, we put out a call for proposals to Indigenous governments to ask them if they would be interested in creating a transitional housing model in their communities, with our money, and create a model for service for this kind of programming. And that call went out in December. We did not receive a proposal from the Tlicho but we did receive four other proposals, and we are working with each of those Indigenous government organizations to develop the transitional housing options as a pilot project with my hope that eventually when we find a model that works, it will be scaled up to the rest of the NWT. Thank you.
Okay, can the Minister of Health and Social Services commit to reviewing the need for a sobering shelter in the Tlicho communities? Thank you.
Thank you. The transitional housing program pilot project which I just mentioned may, in fact, fill that role otherwise there is only one sobering centre in the NWT. It's in Yellowknife where the majority of the vulnerable population who require the service are located. So at this time, that is the major service for immediate sobering. The transitional housing program is for people who are maybe a step or two further down that road. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Health and Social Services commit to working with the local organizations Tlicho Government Friendship Centre, Tlicho Community Services Agency, and other agency in other regions as well, and the Minister of Housing, to find solutions to address the need for shelter space in communities? Thank you.
Yes, thank you. As I mentioned, and I'm happy to add some more detail, we advertised generally for Indigenous and community organizations to provide transitional housing. We heard back from the Hay River Committee for Persons with Disabilities, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the K'asho Got'ine Housing Society in Fort Good Hope, and the Salvation Army here in Yellowknife. So at this point, the department is working with each of these organizations to fund them to create a pilot project which would provide safe housing for people who are recovering from their addictions. Thank you.
During the COVID19 pandemic, the GNWT identified a list of public housing units that could be available for isolating individuals.
Can the Minister of Health and Social Services commit to reviewing this list with the Minister of Housing to determine where vacant units in the Tlicho regions and other regions may be repurposed to provide safe shelter for community residents? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can certainly have that conversation with the Minister of Health I mean, the Minister of Housing. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
