Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I'll direct my questions to the Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, the Premier, but I know that homelessness is an issue that spans across departments so I'll leave him to redirect if necessary, and this kind of illustrates part of the conundrum we're in with the issues spanning across different mandates and departments here.
So the Salvation Army believes that we need a bigger and purposebuilt shelter facility operating 24/7 in Yellowknife in order to meet the growing needs to be more cost efficient and offer wraparound services. So will the proposed Yellowknife wellness and recovery centre be designed to meet those kinds of needs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's no conundrum here. We all work together. And the Minister of Health and Social Services can answer all of the Member's questions, so I would like to redirect it to her. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the wellness and recovery centre is intended to replace the temporary day shelter and the sobering centre, and the capacity is approximately about 85 people during the day with an overnight capacity of 31 designated sleeping spaces, which currently we only have 22, so that increases that. But the facility is also built to be flexible and the ability to provide approximately 35 additional sleeping spaces if necessary. Thank you.
Okay, thank you for that. Can the Minister explain whether the sleeping spaces are specifically designated for those in the sobering centre or they're for anyone who's needing an emergency shelter whether, you know, they're intoxicated or not? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time the plan for the wellness and recovery centre is to provide services to those who are intoxicated because as the some of the other shelters aren't able to accommodate them, so that is what the wellness and recovery centre will accommodate. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister explain what she might be able to do now to help nonprofits who are operating emergency shelters be able to cope and address the growing crisis that we're facing here in Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are currently working to streamline the funding sources to reduce reporting burdens and increase training opportunities to strengthen the overall capacity. And through the implementation of the integrated service delivery, we aim to increase efficiencies and wraparound supports for our most vulnerable residents to ensure that they are getting the services, supports they need in a timely manner and ensuring that NGOs are part of this process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So can the Minister tell us when will we be able to see more transitional housing units planned for Yellowknife to help those who are currently on the street struggling with addictions and trauma? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, currently, we have one transitional housing program for addiction recovery planned for Yellowknife. It will have the capacity of five individuals at a time. This is a new program. And so we will be monitoring it closely to better understand the need before we consider any possibly expansions. You know, we have one going in in Yellowknife, we have one going in in Inuvik, we have two in the queue that have put forward their proposals. So, you know, there are many other communities that are also requesting these types of facilities. So what we want to make sure over this next year is that once we get the two operating, that we do a fulsome review that if there's things that we need to change in the way that we're working together with the NGOs to support them or, you know, we need to make sure that before we expand it out even farther. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
