At this time I have no further questions. Thank you, Mr. Minister.

Thank you. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Transportation, a follow-up on my Member’s statement about transportation projects planned for the Weledeh riding.

In my statement I mentioned the great partnerships that developed, the training and the development of an Aboriginal business and so on. I think we’ve got great progress there. I want to know, first of all, if the Minister concurs with that and is happy with the accomplishments that have been achieved about the investment of this government about the reconstruction of the Detah road.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, and, unfortunately, last week I was supposed to meet with Deton’Cho but I got weathered in in Norman Wells. I look forward to that meeting that will happen soon. I look forward to partnerships like that down the road. Thank you.

I appreciate that response. Many people are getting weathered in these days as the climate changes.

Quite a number of people missed the Commissioner’s supper last night because of three days not being able to get out of BHP. I will look forward to that meeting, Minister, with my constituency.

Many benefits have accrued, obviously, but we’re also talking about the Giant Mine bypass road this year. I am wondering if that is, indeed, planned to go ahead in the coming fiscal year.

Work continues on the realignment of Highway No. 4. With any luck that work will go ahead this year. Thank you.

My colleague from the Sahtu noted that had there been an all-weather road available, the Minister may have made it back earlier as well.

No, I appreciate that response. I would like to ask: Will the Minister look for opportunities to facilitate progress on the Detah road in association with the Giant bypass construction project? This has been something talked about in the past by the Minister of Transportation and there might be some opportunities. Will the Minister be looking for those?

As I mentioned in a previous reply, I think it’s important given our financial picture these days that we look at opportunities to partner with people to achieve our goals of supplying the transportation infrastructure that we need here in our territory. Certainly, I look forward to the discussions with the Member, and the committee and those proponents that are interested in doing work with the Government of the Northwest Territories. Working together, we’ll accomplish much more. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, thanks for the response from the Minister. I think the work done to date certainly does epitomize that and I appreciate his ongoing interest in proceeding in that cooperative basis.

Is there a possibility for involvement of the Deton’Cho Corporation as an example of the Giant Mine bypass road and other associated projects in the riding? Mahsi.

As we move forward, I believe there will be partnerships evolve and opportunities that present themselves. Certainly, I think that opportunity does exist. I’d like to say that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Premier and they relate to my statement about homelessness. I’m directing them to the Premier because the recommendations in the Falvo report reference more than one department and it is my belief that homelessness should be dealt with across many departments, not just one.

My first question to the Premier is: The Falvo report has five recommendations, four of them are to, well, not to the Executive, some are to Health and Social Services, there’s one to Housing Corp, there is certainly one to the government as a whole. I’d like to know from the Premier what plans he has. What plans does the government have to act on the recommendations in Nick Falvo’s report from May of 2011? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Honourable Premier, Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Homelessness is becoming an issue that is starting to be pervasive almost throughout the Northwest Territories. We just recently received the Falvo report. I believe it was only released about two weeks ago. This is an issue that we plan to address. It’s not something that there’s a silver bullet that we can resolve the problem overnight. As the Member stated, it involves a number of departments. We also have to involve the NGOs. The efforts that have been undertaken here in Yellowknife have resulted in Yellowknife becoming almost a leading player in how to deal with homelessness. I guess the way I see it is we would try to resolve these problems closer to the communities where the homeless people come from.

For the most part, in looking at the five recommendations, we are supportive of the

recommendations and we are going to move forward. We are looking at involving all the departments that are mentioned, to work together to deal with this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am really pleased to hear him say that this is a pervasive problem, that there’s no silver bullet that he’s going to involve NGOs. All of those things I agree with. I appreciate the commitment to taking some action. The report, I believe, was released in May of 2011 and maybe the Premier just got it, but it has been out for a little while and it was tabled in the House in August.

The first recommendation in the report is one that has been mentioned quite often by Members of this Assembly – by the previous Assembly, pardon me – and it will be mentioned many more times by this Assembly, I think. It urges the government to establish a homelessness secretariat. I would like to know from the Premier whether or not in their planning that they have done to date, whether the 17

th

Cabinet has considered consolidating

homeless programs into one place and establishing a homelessness secretariat. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I would like to express our appreciation for the work that has been done by Mr. Nick Falvo and the fact that his research is bringing attention to the issue.

As a government, we have been working on a Shelter Policy review. Our decision on whether to form a homelessness secretariat will be done in conjunction with the recommendations of the Shelter Policy review and our response to those recommendations. By all means, when we complete the Shelter Policy review and it recommends that we have a homelessness secretariat, we would certainly look at doing so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Before we go on, colleagues, I would like to remind the Members on the sidebar chatter to give the Minister and the Members respect in their questioning and their response. Moving on, the honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Premier for his response. I do have to say, though, and I appreciate the work that is being done under the Shelter Policy review. I am eagerly anticipating their results, which I hope are forthcoming soon, but the Shelter Policy review really is only being done by the Housing Corporation, and homelessness, I think the Premier knows, cuts across other areas of our government and our programs and services. I would hope that we don’t base our decision on a secretariat, only, on the Shelter Policy review.

Another recommendation within the Falvo report was to develop shelter standards. Mr. Falvo

specifically referenced the Salvation Army, who has men sleeping within five feet of each other and many of them with various and sundry health issues. I would like to know – and I realize this is perhaps better directed towards the Department of Health and Social Services – but, again, as the Premier have their Cabinet discussions, has there been consideration of developing standards for homelessness shelters across the Territories. Thank you.

I guess I look at the territorial facilities that have been established here in Yellowknife, facilities such as the Bailey House and so on, and also the Betty House that is in the planning stages, and our own homelessness policies that allow us to address the problem on a going forward basis.

As far as standards, I believe that all of those facilities meet those standards. I would be quite prepared to work to have our Health and Social Services and Housing Corporation look at the standards. I think the Salvation Army facility looks like a very fine facility. I guess they don’t want to leave anybody out in the cold, so I guess if having standards would mean we would leave people out in the cold, I don’t know if that is the intended purpose of having standards. But, certainly, we want to make sure that when we deal with addressing the homelessness situation, we don’t cut any corners. If we need standards, then, by all means, we will deal with that.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.