Thank you, Mr. Blake. Next on my list is Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My questions surround the topic of emergency shelters. I’m hoping the Minister of Justice is also listening to these questions. The Member for Yellowknife Centre brought up in general comments yesterday the issue of the Yellowknife downtown emergency shelter. He went into great lengths to talk about the concerns that the citizens around the shelter area have with respect to how things are being run. The fact that there is still consumption of alcohol happening, delinquency, no solutions being offered. If they are, they are being remiss in doing so.

The Member used a term that these people are lacking hope. They needed hope. I’ve been reminding myself that it’s more than just hope; they need a purpose to move on. Many Members were involved with the follow-up not that long ago with the shelter administration. We did get an update. There are about 283, on average, patrons to this shelter that frequent it quite often. Again, I’m talking from multiple angles here, Madam Chair. As a previous business owner in the downtown core of Yellowknife, my first inclination when this project came on was one of relief, only to find out that this became a funnelling effect for some of the lost souls to congregate in the downtown core, which basically culminated to more violence, more theft for the shop owners and a lot more disruption for the downtown merchants and in respect, as well, for the patrons and residents of the downtown core.

I know the Minister didn’t have a chance to respond to the Member’s comments, but given the fact that this involves Yellowknife, involves many constituents of mine, involves many constituents of many Members here on both sides of the House, can the Minister take a moment now that he’s had time to think about a response, what is the department looking at doing for program review to enhance the quality of life for these patrons who are in need of intervention, substance abuse intervention, counselling, redirection, job deployment and rehabilitation? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Our intention is to start discussions with YK Health and Social Services Authority, for them to work with the organization that is currently the shelter, the John Howard Society, and to bring those issues to the forefront and that they’re to discuss those issues. Direction will be given to YK Health and Social Services.

I do appreciate the Minister bringing awareness to the situation. My question would then follow that the results of these findings, would this be considered the first phase of a number of different types of emergency shelters that could be provided to other areas of concern? I know I have the Member here from the Sahtu who has issues in the Norman Wells area. I know there are issues up in the Inuvik area. I know there are issues in Hay River. Will the Minister look at committing a so-called protocol or set a policy for day shelter use in terms of what programs can be developed? Is this the first stage, Madam Chair, that this department can be counted on to make the necessary improvements so we can redirect these lost souls?

We haven’t thought in depth about the situation outside of what is

happening with the day shelter in Yellowknife. Like I indicated, we want to provide direction to YK Health and Social Services to work with them. The objective would be for them to come up with an evaluation that indicates what the problem is and what the solutions are. That kind of thing would most likely be applied to other communities where the situation is similar.

However, what I will commit to doing with that information is to discuss that at the social envelope Ministers meeting which is chaired by our Minister of Justice. We feel that it’s going to include more than just Health and Social Services. It most likely will include other social departments. I think this type of initiative would most likely be dealt with at the social envelope Ministers’ level. Thank you.

At such time as we do get a result to this question – and I know I’m speaking to the Minister of Social Services and that’s why I wanted the Minister of Justice to be within earshot – at such time as we can have programs in place, that we can actually have these protocols in place to create programs for these people who need purpose. The issue of violence, the issue of safety, the issue of theft is widespread in the downtown corridor. Merchants are screaming for our attention. I guess with this could also be brought to the social envelope Ministers is to have more policing in place with more recommendations from RCMP and in conjunction with the municipality to create more foot traffic, foot patrol and drive patrol to protect the citizens and the businesses of the downtown corridor while we’re working on improvements to this program.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Next on my list I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to ask the Minister, he talked about the success rate of a program in Yukon. I want to ask the Minister if he knows the success rate of Nats’ejee K’eh.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We recognize the capacity. We know the number, the capacity. The last government, we believe, was 48 percent. We know the number of people that complete the program. The completion of program is 38 percent. I’m not talking about 38 percent of the individuals that enter. I’m talking about the 38 percent of the full capacity, is how many the

percentage of people that finish the full 28-day program.

We don’t know what the five-year success rate is at this time. We do recognize that this is the standard from individuals in the field that they were rated at a five-year success rate and we don’t have that number. We would have to track the clientele for the last five years in order to be able to come up with that success rate. I don’t know how difficult of a task that would be, but we could attempt that if we go back and get the individual names from Nats’ejee K’eh. There’s going to be some doing with access to information and so on, but we’ll try to get that information just by using numbers.

The Minister is correct; he’s given me some numbers for Nats’ejee K’eh on the capacity and finishing and he’s very correct on the success rate. We can probably do it very bush league type and I can tell you how many people in the Sahtu went to Nats’ejee K’eh and how many stayed sober after six months, eight months, 12 months. I think what the Minister, I’m not too sure if I really want to know that, because that takes a lot of effort and energy and we want to do something that’s different, like prevention. Like you talked about before, how we can best use those resources, time, and effort. I’m not going to ask the Minister for that information. I just wanted to know if he had those stats. For me it’s an indication that we just have to know that we need to do some work in that area. There’s no use going too hard on that.

I guess what I want to know is where we go from here, the different programs that we have and different perspectives on how we want to deal with addictions in our communities. We certainly had some uptake to different programs and styles, how we go about doing it. For myself I think one area that needs to be looked at, and the Minister can take this as a suggestion, that the place where people can go for hard drugs is now in our communities. It’s really hard for our younger people who are getting into it and sometimes it’s very difficult to get out of because that’s a powerful thing. It’s nobody’s fault, but we need to look at someplace where, somewhere in Yellowknife or the North, that we can have a place like that.

I just want to offer that suggestion to the Minister. I wanted to see how it’s going with the child and family committees in our region. I know there was a strong push for that at the last Assembly. They had some discussions on that Child and Family Services Act.

I guess two things. The treatment itself and the success rate, and the different requirements that now regions are asking for and someplace where the younger people can go. I think Yellowknife is a good spot for the hard drugs. I know right now they’re going to Grande Prairie and things like that, but we have some places here that we could look

at. That’s going to be our challenge here: who goes first. That’s why we have to have that discussion. I’m hoping the Minister is looking in those areas that I just brought up. Those are my comments.

Our Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan talks about filling the gaps, and those are some of the gaps that we are hoping to fill. We recognize that we do not have a good treatment facility within the Territories on hard drugs. That we might be able to provide treatment for alcohol at Nats’ejee K’eh, but I think the hard drugs is certainly a gap that we need to fill, and the Member is correct that the issue is starting to spread into the smaller communities as well. We’re going to be using the community counselling as much as possible. We need to get stats, if need be, and then to work with community counsellors to be able to bring the stats down and provide a service to the communities.

That’s all for me.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Next I have Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a question here related to the description of programs with regard to special living requirements to assist people to live in their homes. There’s been some discussion about providing home assistance for elders. I wanted to ask a question with regard to this budget, and the need to provide assistance for independent living for older adults, not elders, but challenged adults. We have quite a number in the city of Yellowknife at the moment who are living at home with their parents or other caregiver, and who will soon need to be in not an institution, but a house with some supervision, sometimes 24/7, sometimes maybe 10 or 12 hours a day, but we have very little facilities to accommodate these people. I’d like to know whether or not this budget, apart from existing programs and facilities, includes any funding to expand the independent assisted living services that we have for challenged individuals.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No, there is no increase in that budget.

I’m sorry to hear that answer from the Minister. I’m not sure whether or not the department is aware, but I would hope the department is aware, that there is a significant cohort of individuals who will soon need to be housed on their own in independent living, and we do not have the infrastructure in this city, in this community to handle it. We don’t provide many other supports for individuals who need that kind of assistance. I’d like to ask the Minister, if there’s nothing in this budget, what kind of a plan does the department have to assist individuals to go from a

home situation to an independent living situation. Not an institution; I don’t want us to build more institutions, but we do need to acquire houses, and we do need to acquire staff, to provide supervision in those houses for these individuals who want to live on their own but need some assistance. What plan does the department have to expand our current provision of programs and services for these individuals?

We do not have a plan to expand that budget item beyond what is there. In fact, it’s slightly lower this year than last year.

That is again unfortunate news. Not what I wanted to hear. I would urge the department to do some inquiry, particularly within the city of Yellowknife, and determine the number of people who will soon be requiring and needing independent assisted living. It’s an area where the services are generally provided by non-government organizations, but the funding generally comes from GNWT, and I think we’re going to find within the next five years that there’s going to be a huge need for housing these particular individuals and I would ask the Minister if he would commit to look into the situation, get some numbers and report back to the Standing Committee on Social Programs or at least to me as a Member for Yellowknife.

The department is prepared to go to the authorities. The community health programs in this area of residential care of elderly persons with disabilities is something that’s driven through the authorities and working with the non-government organizations. We can go to the authorities and indicate to them or ask them if they do see forced growth in this area and ask them to come forward with forced-growth submissions to address the issue that the Member speaks of.

I appreciate that commitment from the Minister, but the funding ultimately comes from the GNWT. The authorities don’t have the ability to raise funds. To the Minister: If you get forced growth submissions, will you entertain them seriously and what sort of justification do you need in order to fund the authorities to the fullest? It’s fine to say you’re going to ask the authorities, but when they put in the request, are you going to recognize the need and are you going to fund that need?