Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services is not the only department working on this and we are not going to be able to solve the problem, but we can be part of the solution, working with communities, working with other departments.In Yellowknife, there are a couple of things that were identified at the housing forum, the homelessness forum, that was held a couple weeks ago. Some areas for critical work that we're working on is addressing the shelter hour gap here in Yellowknife, that's one of the issues that was identified. We anticipate this might require some additional funding, which we'll be coming back to have discussions with committee.

We also want to be able to make sure that the program that the city is proposing involves properly, as I've already indicated, and that we're working closely with the city. We also need to explore options for harm reductions programs to support clients in Yellowknife, including things like a wet shelter or a managed drinking program, and work with other partners to see how this might fit into the roadmap for action. Once we've done that work and we've applied it in Yellowknife where we have real demand, it is something that we certainly can look at exploring in other communities and regions throughout the Northwest Territories, but we do have to start somewhere. I can also say that the Housing Corp. is currently working to provide some shelters in communities outside of Yellowknife; they're looking at Aklavik, Fort Simpson, and Behchoko right now. Work is happening, Mr. Speaker. More work is required. It's going to take the will of both sides of this House to get this done and it's going to take some creativity and partnerships with cities, communities, hamlets, as well as other governments.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is aware, the Deline Final Self-Government Agreement will be coming into effect on September 1, 2016. That will become the first self-government agreement to be negotiated in the Northwest Territories on a community basis. In fact, earlier this week the Deline Got'ine Government held its first election and have elected Raymond Tutcho as its first chief.

The GNWT is working collaboratively with Deline and with the Government of Canada to prepare for the September 1, 2016 effective date of the Deline Final Self-Government Agreement, the tri-party Deline self-government implementation working group is responsible for overseeing the completion of the tri-party work that will need to be completed prior to effective date. The GNWT has been assisting Deline and preparing for the effective date by providing income support in areas which it has expertise, such as elections, government operations, and land administration.

MACA and Aboriginal Affairs have also formed a bilateral working group with the Deline self-government transition team. This bilateral work is intended to provide support and assistance to Deline in preparing for self-government and to keep one another apprised of progress on their respective pre-effective date activities. In addition, HR and Public Works and Services have been providing support in the area of human resource planning, policy reviewing, and information technology. The Departments of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations and Lands and the Deline self-government transition team have formed a bilateral lands implementation working group to ensure that all matters related to the transfer of Commissioner's lands to the Deline Got'ine Government are completed before the effective date. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Is this working group going to be looking after the remaining Sahtu communities for their self-government initiatives?

I would say that, overall, self-government negotiations in the Sahtu Settlement Area are going very well with several significant milestones having been reached at several tables recently.

If things are underway and going smoothly, can I get a copy of the negotiating schedule, Mr. Speaker?

In Tulita, the negotiators for the parties recently completed a draft self-government agreement-in-principle, which is currently undergoing internal review. I expect to have the honour of signing the Tulita self-government agreement-in-principle in the coming weeks. The Deline Got'ine of Colville Lake self-government negotiation process and schedule sgreement was signed in 2014 and negotiations on agreement-in-principle are well underway. Fort Good Hope self-government agreement negotiations, they've reached an agreement on a process and schedule agreement and expect it to be signed very soon. We are ready to begin negotiations with Fort Good Hope and Canada as soon as possible, and Norman Wells negotiations are working towards completing a full draft of an AIP, and I'll make this information available to the Member.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question is that I look forward to working with the Minister to conclude the schedule so we can have target dates before us here to ensure that these dates are met, and any supports that we can provide from this Assembly to ensure that there's an open and transparent negotiating table in the process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I didn't hear a question, more of a comment. However, I'll allow the Honourable Premier if he wishes to answer.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased to report that in Colville Lake, with the Deline Got'ine, we are in a pilot project for fast-tracking self-government negotiations, and I expect that we'll all benefit from that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my statement today dealt with the issue of migration and how there will always be some need for emergency shelters in Yellowknife, but probably and hopefully not to the extent that they are available now. My question for the Minister responsible for Homelessness is: what planning is she doing with the shelters to reduce their bed nights over time? Thank you.

Masi. Minister responsible for Homelessness.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's actually a few things that we're doing to reduce the shelter bed nights, the amount of people that are staying in the shelters within the Yellowknife community. For one, we are working with the City of Yellowknife with their Housing First Project. We're also working with the shelters to implement a Housing First project within their own so that they can move some of the people that are in their units into more of an independent living structure. Finally, we are working within the communities as well to implement emergency shelters within the community-- three identified this year, so that they will have options and they don't have to migrate to Yellowknife simply because they have no place to live. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister for that answer. A dimension of my question is whether the Minister can foresee a time when funding for emergency shelters will decline because Housing First has taken effect in Yellowknife.

That's actually a very difficult question because I recognize that the term of the government is only four years, which doesn't give us a lot of time and really hard to evaluate during that period of time. I am hoping that the next Legislative Assembly will carry forward the work and to move forward within the Housing First model and to get people more independently housed. There will always be a need for emergency shelters though, and that's just the reality of shelters throughout the world, and especially within the Northwest Territories because this community of Yellowknife is a very transient community with our mines, et cetera. We're a magnet community. That was acknowledged by the Member in her opening statement, so there will always be a need for emergency shelters within our community but, hopefully, as she stated, that will go down as long as we are more proactive in trying to move people, give them the skills and the assets so that they can live independently. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for that. So, Mr. Speaker, to give a specific example here, the Housing First project in Yellowknife plans to house 20 people in the next three years. Does that mean there will be a decline in the shelter capacity of 20 people?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to be able to say yes, that there would be a decline by 20 people. However, in the short period of time that I have been a Minister, I have noticed that there's been an increase within homeless people within the community. I am not as optimistic, and I would have to say that probably this is going to be a long-standing issue that we will have to dedicate a lot of time within the next, not only the four years, but for a longer period. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you to the Minister for that. One approach that has taken in Calgary is to make it as a goal that people who live in emergency shelters won't spend more than five days there, that they have a rapid rehousing program, so can the Minister envision setting a goal of that kind where there is a commitment that people will stay in emergency shelters for short periods of time so that they aren't stuck on the housing continuum the way they are now?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I would really love to be able to say that there would be a goal within a short period that says that people would not stay in emergency shelters for five years. However, like we had stated, we are working in partnership with the City of Yellowknife. Within three years, they plan to have 20 people housed, within the shelter format, we're looking to have 30 people, that's only 50 people. Even after those people are housed, we will still have a huge population of people that are homeless, so I think that the goal of five days within a shelter is still a ways off. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.