Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. We all know that this is a tragic situation and a very challenging one at the same time. I'm certainly committed, as I stated on Friday, to working with the coroner's office and with, you know, the Department of Justice to ensure that we do everything we can to find a path to get Alma home. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you go through this process, will the Minister will look at also the cost under the Coroner's Act to bring baby Alma home? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not familiar specifically with the Coroner's Act but happy to investigate what the possibilities may be there in that regard. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Justice. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Final supplementary.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to working closely with myself and the Indigenous governments to develop new legislation to ensure that Indigenous communities dealing with this residential school graves never have to go through the experience like I did in my riding? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is a huge question, and I am certainly committed to working with the Member, with the Indigenous government and governments across the Northwest Territories. I've spoken with the Member. I've had the opportunity to have a conversation with the chief in Fort Resolution, and I am planning to attend the community next week for a face-to-face meeting. So certainly, I think, this is the beginning steps to our collaborative approach to how we all engage together to find a mutual and respectful solution to this at the end of the day. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe my questions are for the Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, although he has recently passed the responsibility for homelessness on to the Minister of housing, so I'll leave it up to them as to who responds exactly.

But on May 6th, recently the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs convened a meeting of the Yellowknife community partnership committee to discuss challenges associated with homelessness and integrated service delivery, and there were about 40 participants there from -- everywhere from local Indigenous governments and NGOs, GNWT departments, the city of Yellowknife, the RCMP, and lots of representatives from the business community. I noticed that some of the key takeaways included the need to compile realtime individual level data for understanding trends like shelter use and rough sleeping and the need for respectful and meaningful engagement with people who have lived experience with homelessness.

So my first question is given these key learnings and takeaways from the meeting, will this impact or change the approach that's taken by the GNWT this year to encampments that are already starting to appear within our city? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for raising this. We are working -- and trying to work more closely with the NGOs in Yellowknife who are providing critical services. As we move towards integrating more services across government, NGOs are very valuable partners, invaluable partners even. We want to ensure that they are properly supported, that we are hearing from them, that we're working together, and that we're sharing information. And so what we are planning to do is ensure that we have enough shelter space, first of all. We want to ensure that there is enough space for everyone who needs a place to stay, they will have a place to stay. That being said, not everyone wants to stay in a shelter and so we want to ensure that while people have the ability to do what they need to do to get by, that we are not allowing other parts of -- that we're mitigating the negative impacts of encampments. And there could be impacts with, you know, businesses, with -- you know, even with non-profits who need to work, and there might be an encampment nearby and that's causing them issues. So we want to ensure that we mitigate those efforts, but we want to ensure that we're also working with the vulnerable population who's living in these encampments. We want to ensure they're in a place that is safe, that is not disrupting other, you know, nearby neighbours. We all have to get along, and we want to ensure that we're working to minimize any type of conflict that might occur. That being said, we want to -- we don't want to normalize encampments. We can't just have encampments popping up anywhere in the city year after year. And so while this is not new to Yellowknife anymore, we've experienced this before, we are still determining how we're going to get where we need to go so that everyone is satisfied with the outcome. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that answer. I noticed that there is -- there was a goal that came out of this meeting around the need to compile individual name by name data around those who may be sleeping rough or staying in shelters. I wonder if -- are the challenges around that task due mainly to barriers around coordination and technical and computer systems, or are there significant barriers related to Privacy Act legislation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, all of those things. So, you know, the population of individuals who are unhoused, you know, they come and go. They don't have fixed addresses obviously, and so just knowing where people are at any given time can be difficult. And so that's, you know, the most fundamental issue that we have. There is things like the Health Information Act which is one of our two pieces of privacy legislation here in the territory, and that puts a lot of boundaries around who information can be shared with, who can hold on to that information, and that can make it difficult when we are working with -- you know, working in the government system, you know, working with individuals who might be on the streets. And so that legislation is up for review, and I've had discussions with the Minister of health about that and the need to ensure that our own legislation doesn't get in our way. So that review will take place later this year.

There's also the issue of having computer systems and databases that can talk to each other. And so we have offered NGOs certain software that we're using so that we can all speak in the same language essentially and all share information to better support vulnerable population. However, I understand that the federal government provides, you know, some funds to NGOs as well, and they require them to use a particular software that's different than our software. So, you know, that's an issue that we're going to have to figure out how to overcome as well. So a lot of challenges, but I think that we're actually in a pretty good place here. In my time as an MLA, I've never seen this type of focus on supporting the NGOs sector or homelessness. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also noted the extraordinary involvement of the Yellowknife business community in these meetings, and I've certainly spoken with many business owners myself who are highly motivated to contribute to solutions, including equipping staff to better assist or deal with those experiencing homelessness. So can the Minister explain are there initiatives underway where the GNWT's assisting business owners to take tangible action in the short-term? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we certainly engaged with the business community. For that level of detail, I'm going to have to get back to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll follow up with the Premier with a similar line of questioning. He brought it up. So knowing that there's an encampment downtown, I brought it to the attention of several Ministers, not directly to the Premier, but I have no doubt he is well aware of it. You know, and I'm concerned that if the government starts providing food, water, toilet, security, etcetera, it becomes entrenched.

So, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to know what the Premier is doing or instructing through his government through various departments about removing the current encampment that's downtown to a more appropriate place. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so I think one thing that the House needs to be aware of is that there's no legal authority to actually -- for us to remove an encampment. We can't go down there with a bulldozer and knock it down. We have to work with the individuals who are staying there. And so that is the plan, is to work with those individuals, find a -- help them find somewhere to stay -- whether that's a shelter, whether that's a different location -- that's not as disruptive to business and the general public downtown. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to find out what "work with" means because the residents of that area, be it the neighbours with children, families, investments, businesses, same situation, investments, Mr. Speaker, they want to understand why are they being held hostage over people who have taken over a government parking lot that's usually used for vehicles to park in while these people are stealing power and being set up quite nicely? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I know the Member referred to these people who are stealing power and holding people hostage. I get if you are living next to an encampment and there's late night partying, that would be very disruptive and if that goes on continuously, that, you know -- that would aggravate anyone and rightly so, and I understand that. But the fact is that these are people who need a place to stay. I can't imagine that this was their, you know, destination in life, being in an encampment, in an alley, but that's the situation. So we are working with them, having conversations, working with their legal representation, and doing our best to find locations that might be more suitable. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe there's a law or an area you can cite called mischief and hence why don't we send the authorities down and work with them and say we'll deal with this problem under the mischief. It's the catchall of statements and charges, Mr. Speaker. Because we have families -- and just to be clear, when I say held hostage, I held hostage by the noise, the intensity, the irregularity, and the frustration that they can't sleep, they can't live healthily. That's what I mean about being held hostage, not physically bound, just to be clear.