Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I should also say thank you to Mr. Miltenberger, too, for leaving the time on the clock.
The Minister of Health and Social Services sort of left I guess I’d say certainly me, and I can definitely feel confident with the public, with a big surprise answer with this, sort of, maybe yes, maybe no answer we’re going to fund the day shelter going forward. I’m asking for leadership on this particular file, because the day shelter has been heralded as a positive step forward on helping people in the homeless area that we need to help. What is holding the Minister back from making a clear commitment in this House, saying that his department will get behind this initiative, yet again, as a regular programming service we supply?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department will do an evaluation of this fiscal year, but it’s not going to wait until the very end of the fiscal year to do an evaluation. We’ll evaluate as we go along to see if some of those programs, like I had indicated earlier, a navigator service to see if there are individuals in there that can find employment or find education and so on. Once that evaluation is done, we still have time prior to the next budget review of main estimates and the finalization of budgets for the 2013-14 budget year which will happen, I guess, this coming January. That will be presented to the Legislative Assembly and the MLAs. We will then make a decision on whether or not we will be funding that project any further. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that is a different answer. I will have to say it is a little more clear than the last couple he supplied the House. You would think the department has been evaluating this year after year over the last three and a half years. You would think that they would have some grip of what is going on. He said January.
What type of consultation has the department done with the public to realize the value of this particular service in Yellowknife that has been helping homeless people with places to go during the day, warmth in the winter and certainly washrooms that was a much needed service in this community?
Mr. Speaker, initially when the shelter opened, it was just to give the people a warm place during the day so that they are not wandering around and up and down the main street. It was someplace where they could sit in a warm place, watch movies, watch TV and use facilities and so on that were available there. That was the intent of it.
As time went on there were more demands placed on the society that was running it, such as are there any programs available for those individuals? Is there something that could be done with them? Could you do in-house programs? Do you recommend them to counselling and so on?
As these things went, we can indicate, and everyone could see, that just having a shelter that only serves the purpose of providing a warm place for individuals to be was really not fulfilling the intent of a good social services program. Now we are starting to add on. So now that we are adding stuff on, we want to be able to evaluate that. We all know that we can provide a warm place for people to go. We all know that we can provide a place for people to watch movies. What we don’t know is what type of impact it is having on the surrounding area. So far, some of the impacts on the immediate surrounding area have been very negative, but the impact on the main street has been very positive. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, some of the negative impacts have strictly been drawn out by the operator of the particular shelter. That has been a fact. All I am asking for the Minister here today is, quite simply, does he define the concept of the downtown day shelter a success, from his position as Minister of Health and Social Services, as it has impacted our community of Yellowknife.
There is no question there, Mr. Hawkins. It is an opinion. I will let the Member stand up and reiterate his question. Thank you.
Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Speaker. Has the Department of Health and Social Services seen the establishment of the downtown day shelter a success story? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, probably more success than failure or we would have probably quit funding it after the three-year pilot. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister agree with me that the natural evolution of the downtown day shelter should envision programming and a safe environment that does not support substance abuse of any kind? Would his department support that type of philosophy? Thank you.
Yes, our department does support that type of philosophy. Thank you.
