Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to follow up on my Member's statement today, and I want to begin by saying when I was first elected to city council back in the 2000, the fall of 2000 that is, I was given a book. It was called Dogs, Ditches and Dumps, and what it did is kind of describe the mandate of a city councillor and the jobs you need to do. So since that time, I've elected to become an MLA and I've noticed that the council mandate is not in congress anymore with what it was really intended. In other words, they're picking up programs that really rightly should go on to the GNWT such as the health and social services programs that they shouldn't be doing. Morally doing it, but they shouldn't be doing it.
Mr. Speaker, my question for the Minister of Health and Social Services is, is she aware of the women's centre outreach street outreach program, and if so, what is she aware of what it does? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Two questions. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm aware in Yellowknife that there are many programs outreach programs. I mean, there's the shelters. You know, I mean, health and social services is actually operating the homeless shelter and the day shelter or the, sorry, the overnight shelter and the day shelter in Yellowknife. We do fund a lot of different programs within the city. The one that the Member is speaking specifically about, you know, I don't have that information offhand right now but I can look into what the actual program is and get back to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the answer from the Minister. Mr. Speaker, the program that sorry, my apologies. The pilot program, I believe has been running for about seven years, and she was a member of the social development committee so I'm sure she's familiar with the types of issues.
Would the Minister be willing to meet with city council before the end of this fiscal year to discuss funding and supporting the program through health and social services through some type of contribution agreement to the city of Yellowknife? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I am willing to do is I'm willing to meet with the city of Yellowknife. I already have received an invite to meet request to meet with them on some of the programs that they have and discussions. Becoming a new Minister, there's a you know, there was a lot of things going and then session. So my office is aware, and we are we don't have a scheduled date yet, but I'm hoping that it will be before the end of this fiscal year. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe this program serves many in our community that are vulnerable. It's a no judgement program. Whether they're there because they choose to be there or their demons get them there, whatever it is, it's a good program, rather than leaving them on the street.
Mr. Speaker, my last question or my previous question wasn't about just the city of Yellowknife. Does the Minister sorry, in the Minister's ability as Minister I mean, she certainly would be welcomed to fund the Yellowknife Women's Society directly and set aside. So would the Minister make sure that any discussion with the city does involve full partnership with the women's society? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned I would be meeting with them and I would be, you know, hearing what the what are the concerns and what are the programs that they are providing and how these programs are being funded. A lot of the funding within health and social services is third party funding. And so when we get funding for certain things in the community and throughout the territory, some of those funding sunset. I can't say it's specifically to any of the funding that's going specifically to the women's you know, for the program that he's the Member's identified, but, you know, if the city of Yellowknife wants to bring that to the table and the Yellowknife Women's Society wants to talk about programs, I am willing to talk to, you know, any member or any community, any NGO, that has programs that are currently or if there's programs that they you know, that there's funding or where we could work with them with funding. Thank you.
Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister. Mr. Speaker, to be clear and on the record, does the Department of Health and Social Services support the street outreach program and if so, would they make sure that that's absolutely committed today rather than leaving people vulnerable on the streets? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, you know, I'm not going to be committing anything on the floor of this House today without any information and a time to speak with the different NGOs and so therefore I've committed to meeting and speaking with the NGO and the city, and I'll leave it at that, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
