Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday I spoke about my concerns about the downtown day shelter and I directed my questions to the Minister of Health. Certainly, the issue to me is I’ve always been a big supporter of the downtown day shelter concept. That hasn’t changed even today. I still am a believer.
The RFP process and fresh start is really what I’m after. Yesterday the Minister is quoted, in short, they have a few issues, and they’re referring to the contractor, which are the contribution agreement, year-end report and proposal. So we need to get these things cleared up.
Is the downtown day shelter contractor meeting all of their obligations? If not, which ones have they not been meeting? Has the Department of Health been holding back money, and for how long? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The provider of the day shelter, I think the initial intent was exactly what they think indicates as a shelter, a place for some people to get out of the weather and go and have a warm place to go to. Within that, as they were operating the shelter, they made themselves, the John Howard Society themselves made recommendations to provide some training to staff. They thought that the operation of the shelter would require some training of their own staff on various things like First Aid and so on. Also, trying to provide some referrals. So individuals that are using the day shelter may be referred to counselling and so on. These were recommendations that the society themselves made. So I think their request is to provide some additional funding to be able to do that.
So far the money has been flowing over the three fiscal years at a consistent amount. So they felt that they were not able to provide those with the current funding, and I’m assuming, since the funding hasn’t increased, that they’re still not able to provide those, but they are providing what was required of them initially. Thank you.
Thank you. I was listening to the Minister’s answer very attentively and what I hear is an organization bid for the proposal. It sounds like they underbid it, didn’t know what they were bidding on, and now they want more money to run it in a new fashion. The question was not answered in any way specific to the Minister’s quote, which was he said there was contribution agreement problems, year-end report problems and proposal problems.
What are those problems? Are we holding money back because they have not fulfilled their obligations? Let’s be clear on the record. What obligations have they not fulfilled and why? Thank you.
Thank you. No money is held back. So, money will continue to flow in that way. Obligations I speak of are exactly what I said, the report so that we have an opportunity to review it. The contribution agreement, which is actually a contribution agreement between ourselves and YKHSS so that we can have the money flow through them and then they will then get a proposal from the society, which they haven’t received. So there could be an idea that the society will be adding more to what they want to do and that may form the proposal. At this time we don’t have that information, but we’re not stopping the money because of it. Thank you.
It’s critical to point out that the concerns I am raising are important, but they’re not only mine; they’re issues raised to me by the public and many people. Let’s be very, very clear. Is the Minister going to go out to an RFP to ensure that the downtown day shelter gets a fresh start or some new leadership that is qualified to run that shelter rather than making it up in a hodgepodge way? Because the people who are really hurting are those who need it, and they need the help. Thank you.
We do want to go to an RFP. The issue was that the request as we were dealing with the Health and Social Services Authority, the request for them to recommend that we go through an RFP process. So they would perhaps look at other providers. It was very late in the fiscal year and we didn’t think we could achieve the proper requests for proposals at that late juncture. So we decided to continue with the cash flow, and then during the process, as we’re continuing to operate, then go for an RFP. So in future years if it’s deemed that the facility should remain open, then it will be done under the guidelines of a proposal. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to be absolutely crystal clear. My problem isn’t with the employees. My problem isn’t with the people who use the thing. I think they need the help and I think they deserve respect and dignity by giving them help. My issue comes down to the management style of the way that that place is running. So how can this Minister guarantee that this place will be running better and not more of the same? Thank you.
Thank you. It would be very difficult to guarantee that something like a shelter will be running better in the future. What we can do is we can guarantee that some of the things that the society indicated would be an important part of running a shelter, such as I indicated earlier, training staff on things like First Aid. There is also crisis intervention; there is also communication skills of the people working in there, how they communicate with the users of the facility. So if we’re able to achieve those, then it should run better. That will largely depend on the people that are using the facility how well the facility runs. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
