R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So some of these sort of cut across different departments. Maybe the Minister of Finance might be more appropriate to answer that. So what I'll do is I'll let -- I'll tell the Member I'll have to get back to him on that one. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And it might not sound like a big question, but that's a big question. We're talking about a culture change in had the government, really, and how we do business across government. But I'm happy to report that there are a number of initiatives underway. So I'll just start with something simple.

Sometimes streamlining just means defining roles so people actually know what their role is relative to other departments and enabling departments to work together with that understanding. And so one thing that we have started doing is creating project charters when there is an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not -- I haven't been a part of those conversations with the legal representatives. I haven't actually gone down to the encampment and spoken with the folks there. So I can't tell the Member or the House what their desire is to move at this point. Maybe they have no plans to move and even if we had a great spot for them, they wouldn't want to go. So I can't make any commitment about what a private citizen is going to do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been discussions. I'm not -- I'd have to get back to the Member to find out if, you know, a specific address was provided. But those conversations have begun. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the Member's correct, we did take a number of steps to ensure there were enough shelter beds, and so that was funding NGOs to increase the number of shelter beds. We had the on the land transitional housing program running for a couple months in the winter. We hoped to already have a transitional housing setup for this summer but it's been delayed a little bit. So between the shelter space increase and the transitional housing increase, we were hoping to be able to address any shortfall that we have in spaces, beds. That being said, people are going to do what they...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so that question really gets to integrated service delivery. And so we are advancing integrated service delivery across the territory. We're starting small. Once again. We don't want to try and do this all at once. We want to learn lessons on how we can better work together and better empower employees to make decisions that are in the best interests of residents and aren't administratively burdensome. So we're establishing regional locations in five communities to explore how to reduce the regulatory and policy burden on both the public service and the residents...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I'll answer one of the questions in there. So what's happening now is that the different entities who are involved in this are meeting. The Government of the Northwest Territories, the city of Yellowknife, the RCMP, a number of different organizations are all meeting. Everyone is coordinating, putting their mind towards this issue. We are looking at more suitable locations and then working with the folks at the encampment and their legal representatives to try and relocate to those suitable locations. And we're identifying any other barriers that might exist, any...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's no delay. The work is happening right now. Thank you.

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, of course, we are going to be providing a response, and this is wading into the Minister of MACA's territory, so I don't want to get too ahead of things. But the long-term work begins now. And so a lot of that long-term work - the planning, the relationships - that's already begun. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.