Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Finance Minister said in her 2021 budget address, "Creativity, innovation, and collaboration are key to our success." Fort Good Hope has successfully brought these three pillars together through the K'asho Got'ine Housing Society, a non-profit created to fill the rising need for community-based housing providers that deliver innovative social policy parallel to safe housing infrastructure. The society recognizes the long-term value of supporting housing models that address the needs of residents and has successfully combined housing, social policy, and workforce development through its new home construction, integrated home repair, and apprenticeship programs.
During our last week in this House, I spoke about FASD, integrated case management, housing authorities, and family violence to drive home the need for client-focused wraparound services. Too many people are falling through the cracks with the government's current siloed approach, at the cost of residents' mental health, ability to thrive, and the government's bottom line.
The GNWT currently spends over $700 million annually on social programs through Justice, health, housing, and Education, Culture and Employment, and each of these departments is responsible for addressing different aspects of a person's challenges. This siloed service delivery increases program duplication and the frequency and duration that an individual cycles through public systems of care, Mr. Speaker. This causes cyclical and costly use of resources and decreases the window of opportunity an individual will permanently or successfully exit the system of crisis services.
Mr. Speaker, the annual cost of care for one incarcerated inmate is more than the average annual salary for one GNWT employee, or equal to the annual operations and maintenance of five public housing units, but how many people could integrated service delivery support outside our correctional facilities and how would supporting housing networks reduce recidivism and improve the quality of life of Northerners?
Integrated service delivery meets Northerners where they are at and brings together the social program departments and their front-line staff to coordinate plans of care and support residents based on their actual individual needs. I want to commend Fort Good Hope for leading the way with creativity, innovation and collaboration, and congratulate them on the significant successes they have achieved. I look forward to discussing the future of integrated service delivery for the GNWT with the Minister of Justice today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.