Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Firstly, and I want to make it absolutely clear, there is shelter support downtown whereas in people don't mind having the day shelter on its way. Mr. Speaker, it's a project the community does acknowledge and certainly embraces in its own way. Mr. Speaker, however, the issue has come down to, and continues to be, the size of the shelter. Are we building a premium shelter, the shelter to solve all problems? It's not just big, it's bloated. It's going to solve every problem in the North. That's the fear of the community, Mr. Speaker.
Again, I want to make it absolutely clear, because I don't want the Minister and the government and even those who are half listening out there and only hearing what they want to hear, no, there is no issue with the principles of having a shelter. It's the size, the monolithic structure we're going to build downtown assuming we're going to solve everything with the one shelter, Mr. Speaker.
So the community is concerned, Mr. Speaker, because with we've seen what's happened with the last downtown shelter just around the corner. The moment it was established, it had impacts on neighbours. It had caused further problems, and businesses felt the decline. People felt uncomfortable walking near it. It wasn't supported in the right way.
Mr. Speaker, I worry this is a case of déjà vu all again. Now we're going to go even two or three times bigger. And speaking of two or three times bigger, the last budget was $800,000 and now it's over $3 million. I mean, that's run by government shelters -- or government employees. So the question is, is how big is this shelter going to be?
Part of the issue I'm trying to raise here, Mr. Speaker, is not just the impacts on the community of Yellowknife Centre or Yellowknife at all, it's the fact that we're facing and confronting a couple of issues. The first one is regions have asked support for their shelters, and we're not giving them that chance. If there wasn't a better opportunity to support reconciliation by getting people into their communities back to the communities where they'll be more healthy, and support those communities and regions with funding to help address their particular issues, I don't know what better an excuse or opportunity there would be, Mr. Speaker. And currently, if we send them back -- not that we can just send people back -- but there's nowhere for them to go, so it's a multiprong problem, Mr. Speaker. But to build one shelter to solve them all will never solve our problems, Mr. Speaker. Ultimately, at the end of the day, I need to emphasize the merits and the need, and the principles of the shelter is not the issue. Ultimately, it comes down to the size and the weight dumping it down in the middle of downtown and ignoring the fact of the upcoming impacts it will have on this community, including the lack of supports for our regions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Members' statements.
