Wendy Bisaro

Thanks. I guess best practices across our country and the world are not necessarily what work in the North. I would suggest that we’d have an awful lot of people in small communities who are not going to get a heck of a lot of benefit out of this campaign and I would urge the department to reconsider.

My last question has to do with the Healthy Family Program. I think it should go on this page, not the next page because I note the next page is just for the Tlicho Government. Are we increasing the number of communities that will have a Healthy Family Program in the ’15-16 year? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a number of questions on this section. As the Minister mentioned yesterday, this department has changed considerably in the way it’s laid out, so if I bring up something on the wrong page, please, whoever, let me know and I’ll put it on the right page when we get there.

This section, if I read the text right, includes health services administration in Inuvik. I’d like to start by asking the Minister, when we talked about business plans there was a concern, and there’s been a concern for a number of years, but we talked about, basically, health card fraud and that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks for the explanation. How much money has been budgeted? How much money is being spent on this campaign between the two departments? Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. The Minister mentioned some construction that’s going on, and I know that the City of Yellowknife has earmarked about $70,000 for capital costs to assist with the building.

I’d like to know from the Minister if there is an opportunity to take some of that money that’s earmarked for capital and for construction and put that into programs.

Mr. Chair, if you want to go to somebody else first, that’s fine.

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that. It is unfortunate that we don’t have a specific person looking out for homeless people in our communities. In Yellowknife, though, we do have a day shelter.

I’d like to ask the Minister, in terms of the Day Shelter, what programs are available at the Day Shelter right now that can assist clients to improve their mental health?

Thanks to the Minister. These issues or these pillars that the department is working on, can I get some sense of when they might be completed, when committee might have a chance to look at them and give some feedback? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. It’s great to hear the commitment from the Minister because the responsibility for homelessness is not at a municipal level, it is at a territorial level. So I’m glad to hear the commitment and willingness is there to consider providing services.

To the Minister, Yellowknife is taking on this challenge. Yellowknife has a fairly large number of homeless people, but there are homeless people probably in every one of our communities.

What exists in communities outside of Yellowknife to treat homeless people who have a mental illness? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for that. I move we report progress.

---Carried

Thanks to the Minister for the clarification. I understand it better now and I have no further questions. Thank you.