Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to this report in 120 days. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it's not very often we actually comment on the last motion of our reports, given that it's just a timing thing. But I wanted to speak to this because committee tabled in the fall sitting a suicide prevention motion, and that was our first of a series of actions in response to the coroner's report. This report is our second action in response to the coroner's report. And what we were doing is the tools that were at our fingertips that we felt could hopefully have immediate responses and have a positive impact on supporting Northerners and preventing suicide and suicidal ideation harm in the Northwest Territories. And some of the recommendations within this report are things that we would like to see done before the 120 days. 120 days actually takes us to the very last sitting of the 19th Legislative Assembly, which is in August. And one of the things that we've called for, for example, is a youth led youth conference in the Northwest Territories. So while we've requested a response within 120 days, I hope that we can start to see some action from this far before that. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Agreed.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Thank you, committee. Do you agree that you've concluded consideration of Committee Report 5019(2)?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We've concluded consideration of Committee Report 5019(2), Strengthening Community Supports, Lifting Youth voices: Recommendations on Suicide Prevention.
Committee, we've agreed to consider Committee Report 4719 (2), Homelessness Prevention Supporting Pathways to Housing NWT Residents. I will go to the chair of Standing Committee on Social Development for any opening comments. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the committee's report was read into the record on March 7th, 2023. The Standing Committee on Social Development focused our study on homelessness prevention. Homelessness prevention targets policies, practices, and interventions that prevent a person from experiencing homelessness or reducing the risk of homelessness reoccurring. The Northwest Territories is facing an unprecedented housing crisis directly connected to a rising number of people experiencing homelessness throughout the territory, and in this territory the consequences of homelessness are deadly serious and life threatening. That's why this work needed to happen, Madam Chair. Despite this work being personally challenging for both the committee and those who had the courage to share their experiences with us to make this report stronger.
I would like to thank every person who shared their lived experience with this committee. From May to December of 2022, more than 165 people came forward to give their perspectives. People engaged in community meetings, private meetings, incamera presentations, written submissions, and an anonymous survey, Madam Chair.
Committee took two approaches to this report a homelessness prevention approach and a trauma informed approach. The recommendations put forward by this committee are intended to support pathways out of homelessness and toward being safely housed, as well as recommendations to prevent or reduce the experience of homelessness in the future.
Madam Chair, each person in the NWT deserves the dignity of a home. Through a culturally safe coordinated allofterritory approach, it is possible to prevent homelessness. A collective response requires all to step forward and work toward housing all community members. Individual Members may have comments. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. I will now open the floor to general comments on Committee Report 4719(2). Member for Thebacha.
This Homelessness Prevention Supporting Pathways to Housing NWT Residents is extremely important to my riding. We don't have a homeless shelter and, you know, we made every attempt to address the individual needs of people that are homeless and not one not one of those cases came out positive. It goes on deaf ears. Yeah, how many point systems could you take to make a change, you know. It's not about that at all. It's about making sure that people are not sleeping on mattresses. You know, there's an elder that was kicked out just before Christmas with a daughter and sleeping on mattresses and couch surfing. And the house is still all boarded up and locked up. Then you have the other elder who was in a tornado and he has to pay the highest rate ever because now and he has he has medical problems. And now recently I have two students who are trying to do make a better life and were in addictions and they're young; they're young people. They already have three children, and they have one on the way, and they're on a waiting list because now they're rated on a point system. You know, homelessness is extremely important issue within the Northwest Territories and, you know, I'm speaking only on behalf of the like, the people of Fort Smith because I don't know what happens everywhere else, but I'm sure it's everywhere. And I don't see a lot of change. I've been here now well, we're in our final year, last six months, and positive change has not happened. And I'm very concerned about the way the files were dealt with. You know, we have to go through this, we've got to go through that, we got you know, and then you never hear. In fact, I had to run down the hall today a couple times just to get an answer. And it's a negative answer again, you know, so you know, Madam Chair, homelessness, no matter who it is, whether it be a youth, a single parent, family members, a whole family, it's a major, major issue. And if you don't how could you fix anything in society if you don't have a home or some place you call that is your own. And with that, you know, I just I think about all these things, and we have to do better.
You know, you can do 20 strategies. I don't care how many strategies anybody does but common sense sometimes prevails. You know, common sense and making a decision and showing leadership. Sometimes I don't see that. And as, you know, a former chief and, you know, I've been in politics now, this'll be my 18th year, and saw many things. It concerns me that these issues we're talking about now are unbelievable.
You know, I met you know, I saw a lot of different situations when I was at Salt River, and I see the broader situation now that I've come here and listened to some of my colleagues. You know, like like Jackie and like everybody around this table, and I'm sure even across the aisle.
You know, it's a sad situation when we're talking about this in this day and age and the country that we live in, Canada. You know, one of the best countries in the world they say, yet we're sending all this money off to other countries to make sure that they're okay but they don't look after our own. And that really concerns me. And, you know, I'm very concerned about the homelessness situation in the territories, and I will continue to advocate on behalf of the people that don't have a home within Fort Smith, the broader South Slave, and the NWT. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, if we have more housing in small communities, there would not be any homeless issue. And if housing policy it's a housing policy that created a lot of homelessness too as well. You know, there's, like if you go to our warming shelter in Behchoko, all many of those people are there because of the housing policy. So it's the housing policy if housing policy was fixed, you know, we wouldn't have this issue. But if we all we need is more housing. And another one too is that for young people, okay. There's no support for young people who are between the age 18 and 19. Like, once they turn 18, the federal government child tax cuts off. They're legally adult. And so they're not eligible for income assistance. So what do we do with those young people? And so only when they turn 19 they are eligible. And we have young people who age out of youth in care. I know quite a few of those young people. They're good young people. You know, they are trying their best. They want to get out of the system. They don't want to be part of that child welfare system. They're working really hard. But sometimes because there's no safe place for them to live, they have no choice. You know, like some of them, they get stuck in an unwanted relationship. And so it shouldn't be like that. And it just seems like we don't have no program and services in place for these young people. We need more housing for these young people.
Like, I have I have quite a few in my constituents that are couch surfing. And they apply for income support because they don't have a room. They were denied. The family that are looking after them were denied income assistance. Everything costs money. And here we're talking about carbon tax yesterday. You know, and the fuel costs money to heat the home, so. And groceries, the cost of living. But some of these people, they love those kids so they're helping them in kind. But they do need the assistance. And this is where we are failing some of our young people. It is really sad. You know, like, I mean because some of these young people, they are working really hard. They don't want to be part of the system. They want to beat the system so they are working hard to be in school every day so that they can move on with their life. So they can do something better, you know, later on. They want to graduate from high school. But we're holding them back because we don't have all these system in place for them. Some of them are stuck. And they're making choices that, you know, that they don't want to make. And a lot of them are in a relationship that they shouldn't be in, and they're putting themselves at risk, and that's why a lot of these so me of those people that are helping them, they are trying their best to help them. And I know the family that are doing that. They are helping these young girls and young boys, so they don't have to get stuck in the system so that, you know, get them to move on.
They like we all want best for our youth. So if we have more program and services, just like, you know if we have more program and services for them, some of these issues, you know, will be dealt with, and more houses, they have a safe place to live, to sleep at night. They don't have to worry about where they're going to be going for tonight. And it's not just in my region; it's in other regions, as well and especially in Yellowknife too, you know. So we hear all kind of horror stories about from young people of what is going on out there. So I think this is the recommendation that we are making it's it's good. And I will continue advocating for our young people and for many of your vulnerable in my community and in the NWT. Thank you.
Thank you. General comments? Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. No, just a highlight on what Ms. Jane Weyallon Armstrong was saying. We're having the same issues in my riding. A lot of, like, couch surfing, people struggling, and, again, it's the the weather's not forgiving. It's cold where I'm from in regards to shortage of houses, shortage of everything, people family taking care of family. You know, some units, 10 to 15 people, fivebedroom units. It's this is not a joke. We have to sort we have to try to fix this issue. You know, it's not only the government. But, you know, it's our own land claim group too. We have to work together to try to get units put in and safety the safety of young girls and safety of young men because they got nowhere to go. And people that you know, it, Madam Chair, as well as I do, any time you go to somebody's house they always make sure you eat, and we're blessed to be able to do that in our communities, that we try to take care of one another. But, you know what, people are getting stretched so thin, you know, and we need to help them. They need help. And we're here as 19 Members here in this House, like, could make so much difference for the betterment of the people that we represent. And I really think that I really hope they're listening on this and try to work with us on this to get it sorted out before we're done. Thank you, Madam Chair.
CHAIRPERSON (Ms. Semmler): General comments? Seeing no further comments. Member for Kam Lake or sorry. Members, we're going to take a break before we start the motions.
SHORT RECESS
Committee, I'll call Committee of the Whole back to order. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that Housing Northwest Territories establish a youth housing fund by the 20232024 fiscal year with sustainable multiyear funding available to Indigenous governments and nongovernmental organizations to purchase, operate, and manage safe housing for children and youth in care. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. Just one moment. The motions are being distributed. You have no motions either?
All right, question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Health and Social Services create an Indigenous child and family services navigator position dedicated to youth who are aging out of care find stable housing and other supports. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs lead an allofgovernment approach to ensuring all children and youth have access to sports with increased funding, subsidies, and vouchers for sports equipment and registration fees. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, one of the things I wanted to point out here is this is not I know that we asked for an allofgovernment approach, but I also wanted to talk about the role that Education, Culture and Employment plays within this.
One thing that happens is that families who are on income assistance don't necessarily receive or so do not from ECE receive subsidies for children that they have for sports recreation, arts, any kind of extracurricular like that. This is a huge disadvantage to these children and youth whose families are using the income assistance program. What I know for sure is that what is referenced is that there are programs out there through Sport North that children can take advantage of. But I've helped families fill out that application form. It is a lot of information that's already available and in income assistance and it is a huge administrative burden for families. So I'm wondering if as part of this as well really would like the government to be able to look at how to streamline that process so that families that are on income assistance can also easily access funds to get their kids into sports programs as well. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree with what my colleague has said. And for me coming back to the young man and the youth I was speaking about before, you know, in trying to help him access funding for tournaments and such, often some of these things just don't fit into either what the Indigenous organization that he belongs to, what they need to have happen, whatever the government will provide for. And where I see sort of an example of this is if it's a tournament or one where it's not like an invite or a team that's going from the territory and the youth wants to go by themselves because there's going to be, you know, athletic scouts there, they've taken it upon themselves to get themselves invited to this tournament or to be involved with it and finding that they don't have access to funds for it, and these are the children especially the fact that or the youth, sorry that they are taking the initiative themselves and have a bright future, they have a goal they're working towards. So I think making it flexible for them to be able to determine that that's how they want to get that's where they want to get money for, then I think that would be a very, very good thing. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. No, just thinking about the motion here. I think some of the youth that I have in my communities are really, really, really athletic and really resilient little sports especially for hockey. I have some really good little hockey players in Paulatuk and Sachs and out shore communities. But for them to go play hockey into Inuvik, say, for their Gwich'in Cup or the IRC Cup, it's like probably maybe $1,400 return ticket. So stuff like that. Like, a charter going into the community could be up to about 12 to $15,000, and it's really hard for my youth to do stuff like that. So any opportunities that they do get, something like this would really help a lot of families and get a lot of youth out and get them get them wanting to work harder to strive better, I guess, and to excel in the sport in any sports, crosscountry skiing, biathlon, all that stuff. But I'm really happy this is being brought forward because our youth really need it in our communities, and it's not only in my riding, but I know all other small communities in the North something like this is really going to work. And if we did this, it's going to go a long way to help families that are not, I guess, privileged enough, like, people on income support and stuff like that and youth getting excited for something to get of the community. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I think this is really good. It's good for our young people, especially some young people who, you know, are into high performance sports. And I know there are some youth that go to Yellowknife and some of these parents, they need funding to transport to go to Yellowknife. It costs money to come to Yellowknife and wait for your child while the child plays sports. And it's not just that only, but hockey equipment, you know. I know quite a few years ago, there was lots of hockey players and now we don't have as many, and I know that hockey equipment they are expensive to maintain, to buy. And if we have more sports program in the communities, we know youth are going to be busy, and they're going to be you know, they're going to stay out of trouble because I can tell you that in my community, we were without sport sport's complex for about almost ten years, and there's a group of kids that grew up without having that facility in place, and many of these youth, the only sports activities that they had access to was at the school, you know, so there's a school volley ball. So all the kids sign up, volleyball, soccer, you know those were that what kept our young people busy. So you can feel, see the impact of those youth missing out that ten years, you know, when we when we were without sportsplex. So I think this is really good because so people, families, single parents, two income family because of the high cost of living and some of them are not able to buy this equipment. So it's going to help families. So I really do like this motion, and I do support it too as well. Thank you.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. When it comes to sports, you know, when I was younger, one of the things that I guess that really helped me out was, you know, playing hockey, I guess was the big thing. And it kept me busy. Plus the other thing it got me a job at the arena, so it helped me make money. But, you know, it kept me active. It kept me healthy. I didn't you know, it kept me away from cigarettes. It kept me away from alcohol. And when I see youth today, you know, everything is so fast paced. And sometimes I think they just don't know where to turn. They don't and everybody's so busy. Nobody has the time to really talk to them. And sports is one area where they can, you know, I think that they can you know, compete against themselves, compete against others, and get motivated. It provides them with a really healthy lifestyle. And, you know, we talk about health here, and we talk about the cost to health and all the issues, you know, and that's taking away, because you know, the other day I was thinking about myself is that I help people out, you know, when they got problems, when they can't get medical travel and that. And I was thinking, you know, I've never used medical travel for anything. And other ones that other people around here are probably the same thing. And so it provides that healthy lifestyle. You know, and and I see them, you know, taking that further. They end up being role models for other youth. They end up being role models, I think as they get older and for their children as well. So I think that, you know, any anything we can do to provide support and funding. And, you know, I want to go back to my favorite subject, which is the Hay River ski club. Like, they have quite a few, you know, members there, and you know, we're talking about, you know, skiing and biathlon, the snow shoeing and that. And the amount of work that is done there to support them, it's all volunteers, but the youth that I see there in the last three weekends I think in Hay River they've just been busy. It's always been ads on there. And the number of youth that go through it and that participate really benefit. It benefits youth. It benefits, I think, families and parents as well. So I think that, you know, anything we can do to support youth when it comes to sports is a big plus. You know, if we really want to make a change, I think that's a great way to start. And so, yeah, I'm for the motion, and thank you for that.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that Housing Northwest Territories establish a women's housing fund by the 20232024 fiscal year that provides sustainable multiyear funding to Indigenous governments and nonprofit organizations to purchase, operate, and manage housing for women and their children who are at risk of violence or have experienced violence. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it is a fact that we are the Northwest Territories is second only to Nunavut as far as being the territory or province with the highest rate of family violence in Canada. That is still very relevant in our entire territory. We also have a lot of communities that rely quite heavily on public housing across the territory. And our public housing still has a community residency policy where people need to live in a community for a designated period of time before they can even put their name on a waitlist to then wait for housing. And what this means is that somebody who is in another community potentially cannot put their name on another community's waitlist to flee family violence. I know that the Minister has said on the floor of this House before that they could go and talk to their local LHO and maybe check a box and be willing to have their name put on a waitlist in their own community. The problem with that is that we live in a very small north. We live in a small territory where we all know one another. And somebody might be expected then to disclose to a family member, an extended family member, or in an unsafe way that they're experiencing family violence, and that puts them in further harm. And so I think it's really important that we have safe places where women and children who are most predominantly impacted by family violence can go and be safe. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. One of the pieces that I just wanted to point out here that I think is super key is the sustainable multiyear piece, and that, again, comes back to everything that we just continuously hear from any of the organizations that receive government funding, that the uncertainty from year to year to year about getting funding actually causes more of a cost to them than it would if they just had it for a few years in a sense of a cost for the capacity to report or to reapply but also just even that uncertainty always adds additional costs to it because you don't know for sure. So you can't plan ahead and be more efficient with your time and your money. So that I thought was a very key piece.
And one of the things that as we travelled for this work, you know, we went into a few communities, and I've heard from others that, you know, it's just a matter of the physical space. And this has even come up around arts, everything. Oftentimes it comes down to is that people just need a space to do something. And in this instance, there seems to be people that are out there that are motivated; they know where they can get their funding to operate; they have ideas; they've got dedicated people that want to work on it and solve the problem but they just can't get a house. They can't get a place in a building. And, you know, I think the more that we as a government and my colleagues on the other side can just provide these spaces, it will it will follow. Build it and they can come I guess, for lack of a better way. I think if we can provide the spaces, the communities and the people themselves will ensure they're filled and will ensure that they're being run in the manner that they're intended to. So for me ultimately within the next while, I would love to see that there be a shelter for women and children in every single community in the Northwest Territories, whether that just be a small onebedroom home that they can go to that is considered to be a safe house. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Agreed.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
