Thank you, Madam Chair. I would entertain the coinvestment application to be honest. Like, we've seen so much uptake throughout the Northwest Territories and we do support those applications with a 25 percent as well. But I'd be willing to work with Paulatuk and Ulukhaktok if they were wanting to put forward a submission to build maybe possibly one of our duplexes, or whatever that we've designed so far throughout the Northwest Territories, to address seniors housing. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Nunakput.
Ok. Going to be a fourplex design for elders facilities so we could take our loved ones back home to the community and watch them ourselves and having local people being able to like, it's a level two I don't know, Madam Chair, in regards to being able to wash them. You know, wash them and take care of them, feed them, and work with the community corporation to provide jobs through the community to take care of our own. And are they interested, are they able to do this and entertain? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I'll let the Minister answer briefly, and I'll move on to the next person. Thanks.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll follow up with the Member and also with the leadership as well too because we do need that partnership in the community. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, so this is the section that I was referenced to earlier when I was asking about the $2 million for the Inuvik shelter that was originally found in executive on page 380. And I'm just wondering if the Minister can point me to where that $2 million is now housed within finance and infrastructure? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We're just trying to look for emergency services. Yes, I'll have vicepresident Jim Martin respond. Thank you.
Thank you. Vicepresident Martin.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the base budget to support the Inuvik shelter operations is located on page 384 under the emergency shelters line item. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, that line item has not grown. So in 20222023, it was $2,997,000 and then again in this year it is holding steady at the same amount. And so I do not see an increase of the $2 million that was originally in executive earmarked for the Inuvik shelter. And so I'm wondering why there's no increase if the Inuvik shelter is now coming out of that emergency shelter's pot found under homelessness initiatives? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll have vicepresident Jim Martin respond. Thank you.
Vicepresident Martin.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So within the $2.997 million for 20232024, we currently have allocated approximately $560,000 for the Inuvik shelter operations. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm wondering why when the government operates it, it has a $2 million budget but when a third party NGO operates it, it has a budget of $560,000? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This comes with a lot more different expenses. And like I said, this is for me, this is a oneoff. I don't want to see housing coming back and administering and taking over shelters. This was an emergency that had happened in Inuvik, and we just did not have any NGOs, nobody to step up and take over the responsibility.
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So just so that I can get this straight, no NGO could afford to operate a shelter at the budget they were given by the housing corporation, so everybody walked away from the table. So housing corporation stepped in and said we are going to operate this shelter because we need a shelter in Inuvik, and the cost of doing that properly is $2 million. So now the government has come back and said it is too expensive to operate a shelter in Inuvik, we're going to get a third party to do it, and we're going to give them a quarter of what we spent in order to operate the shelter properly, is that right? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I hear the Member's frustration. But this did not only have to do with funding. This had to do with the training. This had to do with the staffing. This had to do with what was actually being dealt with at the ground level. Safety was a major issue. We did end up having a fire in Inuvik as well too. We did end up losing one of our warming shelters. It's not only the NGOs looking at them not operating this shelter in Inuvik. We had this put out for an RFP, and we had no submissions. We had no interest. And what were we to be doing in Inuvik, and we needed to step in. We had a couple of deaths that had happened during that time as well too with people freezing. This was an emergency, and housing had to step in. And it didn't only have to do with just the funding that was there but we would like to see this go back as a back to the NGOs. And we do have two interested parties right now, which we're very lucky to have them. But the Indigenous groups weren't interested in taking this over as well too. We had an emergency in Inuvik. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I agree that there is an emergency in Inuvik when people are at risk of dying because they're freezing to death or people are not able to flee instances of family violence and find shelters to go to. So I agree with the Minister that it was an emergency. Where I don't agree with the Minister is that they are acknowledging that it is more expensive than they had originally anticipated to run a shelter so they're stepping out. When committee travelled to Inuvik, we heard firsthand from people that it is not realistic to expect an NGO in small communities to find thirdparty funding in order to operate a shelter. And the original contract that went out had an expectation that NGOs went and sourced their own funding to make it work. And so I find this very frustrating and very unrealistic. But I'm on a time crunch, and so I think I've made my point there. I want to know what other shelters are funded by that emergency shelters budget, please.
Madam Chair, I'll have Jim Martin respond. Thank you.
Vicepresident Martin.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So other shelters funded under the emergency shelters program would include the Salvation Army, the Hay River shelter, the Fort Simpson shelter, contribution to the YWCA, also a contribution to the Yellowknife Women's Society. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, that is even for all of those places, and I understand that this is not the only funding pot because I believe Salvation Army also receives money from elsewhere. But if you take out Salvation Army, which we really shouldn't because it is still an emergency shelter, but if you take that out and you have the five remaining shelters in communities, or even if you take out YWCA, one of them, you have about $600,000 for each shelter to work with. It's not enough money to operate shelters notwithstanding the point either that that means we've got Inuvik, Yellowknife, Fort Simpson. We have 33 communities, and we have a housing crisis. We have overcrowding. We have 900 people on the waitlist. From those 900 people on the waitlist, we have another 487 people who have arrears that wouldn't qualify to put their name on a waitlist. We have an issue here where we do not have the housing that the Northwest Territories require. We do not have the housing to keep people alive. And so turning around and putting in $3 million to keep people alive is not realistic. And we hear almost every week from the MLA from Hay River South about how this is not saving lives and it is not doing its job. So I'm going to leave that there because the next question I have is any of the funding from homelessness initiatives earmarked for youth because our youth are also screaming out for housing solutions to keep them safe when they're living in places that are not safe. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And this issue was brought up to me as well too in looking at housing homeless youth. The thing that we we don't have a shelter I don't know if we support the current shelter that is here in Yellowknife, but they weren't of age to sign a tenancy agreement contract. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So that brings me to other questions of somebody needs to be able to sign a tenancy agreement contract in order to access emergency shelter funding? That doesn't really add up for me.
One of the things I want to point out here to housing corporation, and I hope they'll take very seriously, is we have a tremendous amount of youth in this territory who are suffering from homelessness. We have a shelter here in Yellowknife, thankfully, and I wish there was one in every community that could directly serve our youth that are suffering, but the one in Yellowknife here has ten rooms for longterm stays, 20 beds for nighttonight stays, and every single night they end up having to turn youth away. That's devastating.
We have heard firsthand that the young girls who use those shelters actually have to sit down and talk to each other and decide who's going to have a safe place to stay that night and who's going to go find alternate solutions. So we need to make sure that youth shelters are seeing this funding as well and that this line item is increased to actually be representative of the work that shelters are doing. And if we're not going to create houses upstream, then we need to make sure that we have emergency shelters to keep people alive downstream. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I agree with the Member as well too, and I just you know, through the homelessness strategy, we will be seeing changes throughout this government and looking at the collaboration and the approach. There's additional information and comments that are made towards that strategy but I hear where the Member's coming from. Thank you. I'll take it as a comment.
I will now move to Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I too want to address the homelessness initiatives and especially homeless shelters. Fort Smith doesn't have a homeless shelter at this point. There was a proposal that went forward. It was a pilot project for five tiny homes. A solution, not an ongoing expense to the homelessness initiative. And yet it never came to fruit because I don't know who decided it wasn't a good project, but I think that the Indigenous group that actually had the homeless shelter pilot project knows what they're doing. They have a proven record.
And the former Minister of housing could attest to that. And the amount of monies that are, you know, like even and now we're having the tiny homes done in Fort Good Hope or somewhere in the Minister's riding. So it wasn't good enough for my riding but it's okay for some other riding. I don't agree with the way things are done sometimes, and I'm very vocal on how things are done. And to have that Wilfred Laurier Foundation, or whatever I read in some documents somewhere, involved in this homelessness whatever emergency or the tiny homes is also not okay. I want the Minister to clarify exactly what that is. And just a short answer would be great so I have time for other questions. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Fort Good Hope has a K'asho Got'ine Housing Society. They have the direct relations with CMHC. They receive their own federal funding. They've funded their own community housing plan. This is a community that has taken housing to a whole new level. They've owned it, and they're the ones who are administering their tiny home project. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
So we also have $30 million that was put over by the federal monies to address some of the issues with housing. Is some of that money you know, the money is really important to the people of the Northwest Territories and to the Indigenous governments. I'm wondering if that $30 million will if the Minister would consider that the $30 million go per capita to each Indigenous government so that they could run their own makework program to repair all the houses in the communities and regional centres? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And we've already have issues maintaining our own public housing units. This will be going towards our own repairs for public housing. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
Madam Chair, just before Christmas there was an issue with a mother and a daughter that were told they had to leave their housing unit, and it was all boarded up. This is just a couple weeks before Christmas. And now they're couch surfing on mats and I was going I might table the whole thing before session ends. And then the place is all boarded up. The Indigenous government has agreed to go in and try and to correct the situation because they're members of one of the Indigenous groups back in Fort Smith.
We created that situation. And then we come back and say oh, we're going to fix this up and we're going to do that, but when people are at the 11th hour, no matter how what kind of condition the house was in or and the mother, who is almost 90 years old, gave and she's also a senior, the one that was kicked out of the house with the daughter and they're couch surfing. But it's okay. It's okay to throw people out and become homeless. And that's not the policy that we as Ordinary MLAs want to see, and I want to know how that's going to be corrected. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Receiving the $30 million for the next two years, this is something that we did not expect. We do have a lot of our units throughout the Northwest Territories that are either abandoned or very poorly maintained. And this is an opportunity where we're able to address issues such as these. We don't have the budget to be repairing every single unit throughout the territory. The $30 million over two years is what's going to help us get to that point of repairing our units. Thank you, Madam Chair.
