Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe in Housing First, and I believe for Housing First to work, our government needs to play a very important part in the provision of central, clinical, medical services to support the clients. My question today is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Concerns have been raised that the department may not be providing these services to clients and support the model. Can the Minister confirm of the status of the provision of these services? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Housing First Program includes providing participating clients with what has been termed wraparound services. Discussions have been had between the Department of Health and Social Services and the City of Yellowknife, where the City of Yellowknife has clarified that the intent of their Housing First proposal is to have 24/7 supervision and support of clients on site. That does not mean or does not include on-site clinical services 24/7. The Department of Health and Social Services has committed both publicly and in meetings with the city to ensure that all required clinical supports be made available to all Housing First clients through the city's proposed Housing First program. These may include medical treatment, mental health services, addictions counselling, or addictions treatment. All of these are insured services, Mr. Speaker, and are core programs and they're available to all residents of the Northwest Territories. As far as costing, if demand for the services by the Housing First clients results in financial pressures for the system, this will be addressed through the business planning process. But at this time, we're not anticipating any additional costs because the city's planning to ramp up their Housing First from a low intake in the beginning to I think it's up to 20 by the end of the program. We'll have time to figure out what those costs will be. If there is a desire to provide some additional on-site clinical services, this is something that we may also have to have some additional conversation about incremental funding on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for the answer. How will the department be reviewing the provision of these services to ensure that they're provided in a timely manner and are effectively supporting the program?
Mr. Speaker, that's going to really involve what the RFP ends up coming back looking like that the city has currently issued. From there, we'll be able to have the conversation on how we're going to continue or enhance the services that we're providing, and as I said, some of this might involve some on-site outreach, which we're absolutely open to doing once we've quantified what it's going to look like. Until we know that, we don't really know what it's going to look like. We're looking forward to having those conversations with the city so that we can build a model here in cooperation with the city that works and is effective.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Minister willing to commit, at this point, to providing additional health resources or funding, as required, to support this program moving forward?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I indicated we don't believe, at this time, it's going to take some additional funding. We need to actually get into the program with the City of Yellowknife to figure out how it's going to roll out. As the demand ramps up, we might require some additional funding, at which point we are going to come back to the business planning process and have that discussion with committee. Mr. Speaker, the department was an active participant at the April homelessness community partnership forum and is participating in the two different working groups that were mentioned in this House previously. One of the working groups, under the leadership of the city, is sorting through recommendations from the forum to identify priorities, cost out the priorities and establish a roadmap moving forward. We're clearly a part of that, as is the Housing Corp., as is the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and we will certainly be working together. There are some areas for critical action and we would be happy to discuss those with committee as we move forward.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I for one appreciate that the department is being proactive and the government's being proactive in the support; it's music to my ears. We know that the department will be supporting the Housing First project. How will the department be addressing homelessness moving forward in other communities outside of Yellowknife, across the territories, and providing the same kind of support to clients who are without homes? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services is not the only department working on this and we are not going to be able to solve the problem, but we can be part of the solution, working with communities, working with other departments. In Yellowknife, there are a couple of things that were identified at the housing forum, the homelessness forum, that was held a couple weeks ago. Some areas for critical work that we're working on is addressing the shelter hour gap here in Yellowknife; that's one of the issues that was identified. We anticipate this might require some additional funding, which we'll be coming back to have discussions with committee. We also want to be able to make sure that the program that the city is proposing involves properly, as I've already indicated, and that we're working closely with the city. We also need to explore options for harm reduction programs to support clients in Yellowknife, including things like a wet shelter or a managed drinking program, and work with other partners to see how this might fit into the roadmap for action. Once we've done that work and we've applied it in Yellowknife where we have real demand, it is something that we certainly can look at exploring in other communities and regions throughout the Northwest Territories, but we do have to start somewhere. I can also say that the Housing Corp. is currently working to provide some shelters in communities outside of Yellowknife; they're looking at Aklavik, Fort Simpson, and Behchoko right now. Work is happening, Mr. Speaker. More work is required. It's going to take the will of both sides of this House to get this done and it's going to take some creativity and partnerships with cities, communities, hamlets, as well as other governments.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
