Caroline Cochrane

The actual amount of homeless people within Yellowknife is really a hard number to pin down, as I've stated before; however, the City of Yellowknife did do a point-in-time survey last year and they figure that 139 people were actually homeless within the city. I, of course, based on personal experience, would beg to differ. How many people are we going to help within the next time? When I was elected as Regular MLA and as Minister, my commitment was to listen, and I have listened to the MLAs within the Yellowknife region. A couple of our MLAs, Yellowknife MLAs, have been really adamant and...

Anything outside of Yellowknife, actually, meets the definition of “small communities.” There are some projects that we're doing. There are things already in place, the Northern Pathways to Housing; the Small Community Homelessness Fund which gives food, et cetera; transitional supportive housing; public housing, everybody's aware of; Homelessness Assistance Fund. Then the Small Community Homelessness Fund, like I say, provides mostly meals, foods, and you can get, in the south it's up to $10,000 and in the northern regions it's up to $15,000.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Homelessness is a serious issue within the whole Northwest Territories, and it’s a priority of the 18th Legislative Assembly and a personal issue for myself, a professional issue, so I am committed to addressing homelessness during my tenure here. The $600,000 specifically, though, is to work with the resident or the homeless shelters within the Yellowknife area because of the need, the amount of homeless people in the community. Once that is finished, then we would be looking to work within the other communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My awareness, right now in Hay River we're working with the Small Community Homelessness Fund in providing support to the Hay River Soup Kitchen, the Hay River committee for people with disabilities and the Family Support Centre. As I said, once we have been strategic in what we're doing in the capital area, then we'll be reaching out to the communities. One thing I should have said also is that we are building small units within other communities in the North, so we're not only focusing on Yellowknife. We are taking a holistic approach.

I can't say directly if there's any in Hay River. I will get back to the Member on that question. My background is in Yellowknife, so thirdparty housing providers are things like Rock Hill or the Bailey House or Lynn's Place places, that provide social housing to the communities and that we support them as well.

Yes, so the income thresholds will be reviewed in 2017. We do that every two years. As well, like I had said when I first started here, I am committed to being very community-focused and we are sending out a survey probably towards the end of this month that is asking each specific community what their needs are and what their priorities are. We will be developing a plan, a community-based plan, from that that identifies what the communities' issues are and what they see as needs within each separate community.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to take a moment to recognize Marie Buchanan. Marie is a constituent of Range Lake, but she is also a nurse practitioner and spent many years within the North travelling to different communities and is a real value to the Northwest Territories. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The deferred maintenance actually that is on the H.H. Williams Hospital is over actually $38 million at this point. Currently, we're spending $632,000 annually on utilities and about $400,000 on regular maintenance. It's a very expensive building to operate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's really kind of hard at this point to kind of determine how that will affect it. There's a few things that are impacting the cost of fuel at this stage. I mean, diesel is a little bit lower because of the fluctuating global markets, but there's also an interruption in the supply because of the Fort McMurray fires. It's a little bit too soon to determine what the fuel price changes we'll need to come into to what will affect the cost. If there is a cost differential we know that none of those changes will take place until after the summer season is finished. Thank...