Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last August, CBC North and True North Rotary partnered to host Yellowknife's Friendship Breakfast to break down barriers and misunderstandings for homeless people in our city; people who largely feel invisible.

My children and I ate breakfast with a man from Fort Resolution who told us about bush adventures, moving to Hay River, and about his first and only trip out of the Northwest Territories. He spoke wide-eyed and excited as he recounted his trip to Calgary, where he stood at the top of the Calgary Tower. His eyes grew weary as he explained to my children just how high the tower was and how he and his friends took a taxi for 45 minutes to get there. He then told my children about how addiction took control of his days and of his eventual move to the streets of Yellowknife. This concept was lost on my younger children, but my oldest son's eyes told me he felt the weight of the importance of where this conversation was going.

As a child growing up in Yellowknife, we did have a handful of people who lived on our streets. We knew them all by name, and the most infamous were "Charlie" and "Archie." By a 2018 count, roughly 338 people are now experiencing homelessness on Yellowknife streets. Ninety percent of these people are Indigenous, and only 16 percent come from Yellowknife.

Discussions found the top three NWT communities people migrate to Yellowknife from are Behchoko, Hay River, and Fort Smith. The most common reasons reported for becoming homeless were inability to pay rent, addiction and substance use, partner conflict, and job loss.

For months following the friendship breakfast, change from couch cushions and piggy banks instantly became a coffee or a soup for their friend and weekend drives were largely spent driving until we delivered it. In December, our luck ran out and we no longer spotted our friend on drives around town. Eventually, the kids stopped asking, but, this past weekend, we walked into a coffee shop and immediately I heard, "Well, there's my friend with the little, blue eyes." I turned to see a familiar face, and my boy's eyes lit up as he found his friend once again.

I am thankful to the efforts of CBC North and True North Rotary to break down barriers and forge relationships within our community. People need to feel love. People need to be seen. People need to be remembered. I am thankful we live in a community that gave my children the opportunity to learn that, along with a friend whose name they will never forget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.