Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today’s Member’s statement that I’ll be conveying to the House is about the downtown day shelter here in Yellowknife.
In 2009 we had a pilot project here in Yellowknife and it was the establishment of the downtown day shelter. This couldn’t have happened without the great support of at the time the Health Minister, who helped lead this project in partnership with the City of Yellowknife and, very importantly, the generous support of BHP Billiton, and with all three partners that brought this project to life.
What is the downtown day shelter? Well, it’s a location – for some it’s the only location – where they can go where it’s warm during the day where these people – and I definitely mean people – can access washrooms, phones, get a warm cup of coffee and have a snack. In many cases this is the only place they can go where it’s warm, get a coffee, even access a washroom, and have a snack. This is a very important service, a valuable service, if I may say, to many people who often get ignored and have nowhere else to go.
I think what’s coming up here is a bit of a problem and this is part of the reason why I wanted to talk about it today. The downtown day shelter is a pilot project. It was a pilot project, as I pointed out, developed with the Department of Health in partnership with BHP and the City of Yellowknife. Unfortunately, as all pilot projects go, they always have an end date. That worries me as well as a number of people. The pilot project is scheduled to end in the new year, which brings me to my concern: What are the long-term plans for the downtown day shelter? It’s a valuable service, as I said, to provide somewhere for people to go who really have nowhere to go.
While we have the doors wide open, hearts open to help others, let’s make sure padlocks aren’t put on those doors and they’re put out to go who knows where.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
