Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
What are the ramifications of the sixmonth gap in the contractors for the sober centre? For example, will there be additional expense incurred by the GNWT? Is the department going to retain the dozens of employees from the centre to minimize the disruption to clients? Any information that we can get would be very helpful so I can reassure my constituents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member raising this issue so that I can provide some additional information.
The NWT Disabilities Council has been our partner in operating the day shelter and sobering centre for the last three years, since the centre opened in the fall of 2018. And they gave us notice on February the 24th that they did not want to take the sixmonth extension that we offered, and so they then went through the process of notifying their staff that they would be laid off.
The NTHSSA has already announced that they will be operating the day shelter and sobering centre from April the 1st onwards. There will be a change in a services where the downtown day shelter, the one that's on 50th Street, will be for sobering, particularly overnight, and that the other day shelter, the one that's located at the visitor centre site, will be for daytime use. So we don't expect any disruption in services there. There will be people to provide it. We're interested in providing opportunities to the disability council staff to work with us if they're interested in doing that. So our priority, of course, is to ensure that the homeless population has seamless services from us during the day and then over to the shelters at night, and that will continue. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I actually think that's going to help some of my constituents at Norseman who complain of people leaving the day shelter and then wandering into their apartment building at night. So I'm happy to hear that.
Next, can the Minister or tell me if her and her department are willing to engage with the past and present employees of the sobering centre to ensure that their experience and their knowledge is being captured and retained in order to inform future operations but also to help with the award of the RFP? I think these are the people that are the most situated to know what maybe didn't work in the last contract, and perhaps they could help to inform the department. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that the day shelter services were evaluated in 2019, and we learned a lot at that point and we were able to implement some of the changes before COVID arrived and turned everything upside down. The disabilities council was able to provide some innovative services, especially in the early going, where they provided a place for people to stay 24 hours a day, and that was very well received.
The employer here is the NWT Disabilities Council on contract with the NTHSSA, and I can certainly mention to the staff that it might be a good idea to connect with the staff generally. But we have to respect the fact that in this situation, the disability council is the employer so we can't just barge in there and start talking to people without their consent. But we are, of course, interested in the knowledge that the disability council and its staff have acquired in the last three years. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Minister herself said that being in 2019 was preCOVID, so I do think there is definitely some lessons to be learned and knowledge to be captured by following through on that, and I would ask that hopefully the Disabilities Council would work with the Minister and the department to provide some feedback.
My next question is it would only seem to me to be a retaliatory measure, why did the Minister ask the RCMP to investigate the whistleblowers? The Safety Act enshrines a worker's right to a safe workplace. How can this be honoured if workers are afraid to speak out for fear of RCMP investigations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I didn't review the information that was released, but I understand that it breached the privacy of the people about whom the information was collected and as a result of that breach of privacy, the matter was referred to the RCMP. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm concerned if or confused, actually. If the Minister is open to hearing feedback and response, then I'm quite surprised to hear that she never actually read what the whistleblowers had to say about the sobering centre. I did, and I actually spoke with them, and what was said to me was quite concerning.
So does the Minister commit to ensuring that her colleagues with WSCC have a more proactive inspection going forward with the new contractors such that we're not in this situation again in a year? Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the service provider going forward until the summer, when the new RFP will be awarded and a contractor in place, is the GNWT. So certainly Members are welcome to hold the GNWT to account for the operation, both of the temporary day shelter at the visitor centre site, and the one that's downtown. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
