Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the emergency shelters and that there are none in the Sahtu region. I know there are some here in the larger centres. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I want to ask the Minister if Health tracks the origins of people using emergency shelters. I would like to know how many of those people are from the Sahtu region from last year.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the organization that is responsible for the day shelter here in Yellowknife tracks where the individuals are from. I don’t, unfortunately, have the breakdown with me in the House today of where each of those individuals are from.
I would appreciate if the Minister could help me out here and maybe get the breakdowns, especially for the Sahtu region, on the emergency shelters. We are seeing an oil and gas boom in the Sahtu region and pressure on services and housing, and there are more alcohol problems. I want to ask the Minister why there are no emergency shelters in the Sahtu region.
Although I was not involved in the original decision to bring the shelters to the larger centres, I can assume that the shelters were based on people who were considered to be absolute homeless versus relatively homeless. What happens is, essentially people who are absolutely homeless are people who have absolutely no place to call their own and the relatively homeless people actually don’t have a place to call home but do have a place to live, such as people who sleep on couches, as the Member indicated. Why we don’t have shelters in all of the communities is largely due to the cost.
The Minister raises a good point. We’re at the point now where people in the Sahtu, specifically if I name the community of Deline, people are staying in warehouses there. I know of at least five people who are living in makeshift warehouses and people are living in tents in the middle of 40 and 50 below weather. I want to ask the Minister how much support will be available through Health and Social Services if an emergency shelter was started in the Sahtu.
If an emergency shelter was started in the Sahtu, then the O and M to operate that shelter would come back to the Assembly. There would be a determination of which department would support the shelter and then that decision would come back to the Assembly on how much support would be needed and what type of support would be issued to such a shelter.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will follow up tomorrow with questions to the Minister of Housing on this type of situation.
My last question to the Minister of Health and Social Services is: People who are categorized as disabled or with a disability, some of them are living in these shacks that I witnessed in Deline and probably other communities.
What provisions within the Department of Health and Social Services can these people receive for emergency shelter or some type of home that would assist them with their living conditions?
That is something I would take back to my department. I know there are no shelters or any type of homes targeted specifically for persons with disabilities. There is not, where such a category exists. There are categories of housing designed to accommodate persons with disabilities, but there are no programs targeted only for persons with disabilities.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
