Thank you. I will go back to a Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I am just noticing that I am running out of time here, and I did have some more questions. I will turn to a new subject.
Can the department provide an update as to whether dedicated staff to lead efforts to support NGOs have been hired and trained? Has the department seen any improvements related to the non-governmental organization stabilization fund? Do any challenges remain that they're still trying to address? Thank you. Thank you.
I will go to deputy minister MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. EIA has one position dedicated to the NGO sector support. I would stress, though, that that role is primarily focused on hearing from the sector at large and then coordinating across within departments and agencies to ensure that they're remaining cognizant of NGO issues.
So going back to the Member's previous line of questioning around how we get departments to work more closely together, a new interdepartmental table, where this position from EIA sits and chairs that table, looks at issues related to NGOs and looking at how we can better support NGOs as key partners and make sure that we're not losing track of them as a priority. So hopefully that answers the Member's question. Thank you.
Thank you. No further questions, please turn to page 130 -- oh, Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So I first wanted to start with some of the targets in the business plan on page 27. And so I know a lot of work has been done in the area of integrated teams addressing homelessness, and we don't speak about it enough in the House. But the target was to create four integrated teams focusing on homelessness by March 2027. And it looks like the progress has been that there was supposed to be a launch of the teams by January 2026, which seems ahead of schedule. But I wonder if the Premier can explain, have we launched these teams, what has been accomplished, and what are these integrated teams focused on homelessness; what does that look like? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, there are interesting numbers in the business plan because we are, it is January -- or sorry, February 2026, and we're where we said we would be in March of 2027 almost. So three of the teams are established, the fourth in Behchoko we expect to be established by March. And the fifth one is the ISD Yellowknife site, which has been a longstanding site. Maybe I can go to the deputy minister for more detail, though. Thanks.
Thank you. Go to deputy minister MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So in each of these service integration communities, we're establishing a service integration team. So EIA will have a coordinator who will not supervise other staff in other departments but really bring them together around joint case management. And like I said earlier, look for barriers that inhibit their ability to work on behalf of clients and to adopt a client-centered approach to providing services. And again, this is really focused only on homelessness at this stage. But to date, as the Premier mentioned, we've been in the process of staffing the coordinators and then bringing them for training and then launching them back into their communities to make sure that they're able to start the work. So we are progressing very nicely in this regard, and we're happy with how things are going so far. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Can the Premier or staff perhaps explain in more detail or more plain language what is the work that these teams are going to focus on, like where people will see them out there, what sort of concrete difference we'll see in our communities once these teams are out there working. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.
Thank you. So case management is what the teams are working on. So when in -- and this has been happening informally in some places around the territory. I know Hay River's on and off had integrated service delivery -- or sorry, integrated case management, unofficially. What we're doing now is making it official, and there's a structure around it. So when there's a client who is facing barriers, the team gets together, they can talk about that client, and they can then -- in the old days, they would work to address that client's needs. Now they can continue to address that client's needs, but we can also address the barriers at a different level. So if there are barriers identified by this team, instead of just saying well, it's too bad there's a barrier, it now gets escalated. And there's a way to escalate all the way up to the deputy minister and the Ministers to ensure that we're aware of that. And if it's a barrier that we can remove, if we're getting in our own way, then we can get out of our own way. So that's a bit of the difference. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Madam Chair. That does sound like a step forward, and I know it continues to build on the work that's been happening for a number of years now.
I also wanted to look at the target on the bottom of that page. So the goal has been to develop functional zero -- I think functionally zero homelessness in a number of communities including Yellowknife, Inuvik, Hay River, Fort Simpson, Behchoko. And now in terms of progress to date, it talks about initial conversations that have been held last year. So what next? Like that's not a tangible sort of outcome yet. And again, we're just talking about discussions and meetings underway. So what's the next step and where is this all going to lead to? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to deputy minister MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I think when it comes to functional zero, what we're really striving for with partners within communities is to make sure that if anybody is experiencing homelessness, that that experience is brief, it's temporary, and it's not sustained. And so what that looks like is making sure that within that community there is a sufficient capacity of housing alternatives to be able to absorb the population that needs housing.
And that could come across from shelters, transitional housing facilities, et cetera. In terms of concrete next steps, this one has been a bit of a slow moving one, largely because we cannot unilaterally impose a functional zero target on the community. It's really a conversation with community partners.
And that can include NGOs, it can include municipal governments, it can include Indigenous governments. So we're trying to facilitate those conversations. And I think initially one of our main focuses has been and will continue to be on data collection and making sure that we're all collecting data and sharing that -- able to share that data in a way so that we can understand the needs of the population in a given community.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So I know a barrier that's come up often in the past to data collection, as the deputy minister mentioned, was privacy concerns, and so there's been a lot of challenges around both different departments within the GNWT working together, working with RCMP, but also working with different NGOs, who are all trying to serve the same client, the same person who needs services.
But, you know, barriers to sharing this data, has that been overcome through this work, the privacy concerns or other barriers to sharing data? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister for Executive and Indigenous Affairs.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So not all of those concerns have been overcome, but we are addressing them. So there is an interdepartmental working group that is getting together to ensure that, like I said, we're not getting in our own way and we're not negatively impacting our ability to deliver programs to clients. So one example is that there's the development of joint intake forms. So instead of having a bunch of different forms for a bunch of different departments that one client needs to fill out and provide all the same information, there's a joint intake form.
But I know the deputy minister has more information, so I will pass it over. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Deputy Minister MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think one of the mechanisms that we've used to try to mitigate some of the effects of siloing and information sharing barriers is an interdepartmental MOU that includes a significant number of departments, particularly those on the social side of government and agencies as well. So that allows for appropriate information sharing under the right circumstances, and that's the tool that's allowed us to develop some of these frontline intake tools that the Premier mentioned.
Beyond that, I think a bigger issue is beyond government and data collection, we've been working with some of the NGOs for whom we provide funding to facilitate a free case management system that they can utilize which would allow us to access data and track and understand the needs of our shared clients much more effectively, which has been a very significant challenge for us to understand, for example, the number of individuals who are living in encampments and whether there's sufficient housing supports available to meet their needs. So that's an area that we're continuing to work on with our partners, but obviously it's not something that we're pressing on our partners. We're looking to make sure that we're supportive in that approach. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So just finally I wanted to express my support and gratitude for the new line item there around supportive housing. There's about $2.29 million in a new line item to support permanent supportive housing for residents experiencing homelessness with particularly high acuity needs. And so just -- I know that it really helps to have stable funding you can count on for -- to operate something like that as opposed to cobbling together, you know, year-by-year funding, especially when we're talking about housing. Can the Minister just explain briefly, if he knows, how many people are being supported through that supportive housing, if there is a certain target or if that is sort of to vary up and down? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Deputy Minister MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am not entirely sure which specific line item the Member referenced there, but I can say that we are investing in funding for the Spruce Bough program, and so I am sure the Member is aware of the number of residents in that program. And, of course, the temporary transitional housing facility by the Folk on the Rocks is another new area of investment.
And so we're looking at -- I think now we're somewhere in the neighbourhood of a dozen or so people in the facility, but we still have capacity in there, and I think looking to increase the number of occupants. So thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Now I will go to the Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In the business plan, on page 33 under public safety, it speaks to the integrated team locations and identifying barriers to service that -- a service access that address the root causes of crime. So the measures being data collection related to the root causes of crime collected at those locations and services to support reintegration and crime prevention at integrated team locations and that they will work to identify barriers around integration and crime prevention efforts at integrated team locations.
Both of these pieces are in progress or under development. And I guess I am just curious what is the -- I guess the push to understand these barriers, not necessarily at the ISD level, but what, I guess, is the hoped-for outcome of these two projects? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So we received funding from public safety Canada, and I believe it was originally with Justice, and so part of that agreement was related to collecting this type of data. But the deputy minister has further detail. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll go to deputy minister MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And yes, just to maybe echo the Premier's comments there, it was public safety Canada bilateral agreement which would show up in the mains under wraparound services. So when that funding and responsibility for what was then integrated case management came over to EIA, those reporting requirements under that bilateral agreement were transferred to us. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Great Slave.
Great. So this actually dovetails really nicely to my next question which is based on the main estimate, page 137. I am noticing that that line item for the wraparound services has dropped quite a lot on this particular key activity. Can the Minister please speak to the substantiation on that. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.
Thank you. I will hand it over to our director of corporate affairs.
Thank you. I will go to director Do.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Can you please restate the page that you're referencing? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Yeah, no problem at all. I am on page 137, grants, contributions and transfers of governance and service integration. The line item is wraparound services from 2025-2026 to 2026-2027. The number has decreased quite sharply. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go back to Director Do.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That is an estimate, and it's for potentially services, culturally appropriate services. It's not fixed. The overall funding for public safety is according to the work plan, and you see a little bit of a decrease of between the two years because of the change in the work plan; however, what we've been able to do is to secure carryover funding from year to year if it's been unused. So what you see in the mains is the original amount for 2025-2026 mains for overall for public safety was $824,000, and then for 2026-2027 is $681,000 overall, but we are anticipating that we'll be allowed to carry over any unused funds from current year to continue into next year to help with the work plan. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And yeah, I guess I am just -- I realize this is a nitpicky thing, and I realize that the wraparound services funding is greater than this particular line item. I guess I am just trying to understand why this particular part, I guess, as the director said, the work plan has reduced. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Member for -- Deputy Minister MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And thanks, Member, for that question. The work plan is -- it's a notional work plan that comes with the bilateral agreement. So for each year, there are a certain number of activities that are projected to occur, and over the first two to three years of the work plan, certain activities are intended to be more intensive. So once those periods have peaked, the budget drops, unless we have to ask for changes or carry forward or things of that nature. In this case, what you're looking at is an anticipated drop in travel activity associated with wraparound services or what we call service integration now. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am glad we could get there. That's what I was hoping to find out. Thank you. I don't think I have anything further on this key activity. Thank you, Madam Chair.
