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.
R.J. Simpson on Question 730--20(1): Unhoused Encampments in yellowknife
In the Legislative Assembly on May 27th, 2025. See this statement in context.
Question 730--20(1): Unhoused Encampments in yellowknife
Oral Questions
May 27th, 2025
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