Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This winter is closing in on us very quickly and I want to revisit the subject of the Yellowknife downtown day shelter. This is a very important service and the people who are homeless out there need somewhere safe and warm to go. It may come to the Minister as news, as well as many Members of this House, but the fact is the shelter is not just about Yellowknife. Only a third of the people using the downtown day shelter call themselves Yellowknifers, then about half of the other people that attend the shelter identify themselves as from other communities, while the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister agree with me that the natural evolution of the downtown day shelter should envision programming and a safe environment that does not support substance abuse of any kind? Would his department support that type of philosophy? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, some of the negative impacts have strictly been drawn out by the operator of the particular shelter. That has been a fact. All I am asking for the Minister here today is, quite simply, does he define the concept of the downtown day shelter a success, from his position as Minister of Health and Social Services, as it has impacted our community of Yellowknife.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I should also say thank you to Mr. Miltenberger, too, for leaving the time on the clock.

The Minister of Health and Social Services sort of left I guess I’d say certainly me, and I can definitely feel confident with the public, with a big surprise answer with this, sort of, maybe yes, maybe no answer we’re going to fund the day shelter going forward. I’m asking for leadership on this particular file, because the day shelter has been heralded as a positive step forward on helping people in the homeless area that we need to help. What is holding the Minister back from...

Clearly, that is not the answer I am looking for per se, but at least finally we have an answer.

There is no plan to fund it beyond this coming end of fiscal year. If that is what the Minister is truly saying, then we should make sure we are clear.

I want to know today that the people going to this centre, that the businesses depending on this particular centre to provide homeless people opportunities and places to go, we need to be clear to the public that we are going to pull out from the process. Is the Minister saying clearly today that there is no funding in the upcoming budget for this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to use this occasion to refer back to my Member’s statement today when I talk about the downtown day centre. It is important that I continue to emphasize this. This is more like a territorial shelter that offers no programming as of yet, that I hope will happen, but it offers opportunity for people from around the North a place to go, who are homeless.

As I highlighted in my comments, there have been some stats taken that about a third of the daily users actually only identify themselves as Yellowknifers and it is the rest, actually, that sort of draws some...

Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Speaker. Has the Department of Health and Social Services seen the establishment of the downtown day shelter a success story? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, that is a different answer. I will have to say it is a little more clear than the last couple he supplied the House. You would think the department has been evaluating this year after year over the last three and a half years. You would think that they would have some grip of what is going on. He said January.

What type of consultation has the department done with the public to realize the value of this particular service in Yellowknife that has been helping homeless people with places to go during the day, warmth in the winter and certainly washrooms that was a much needed service...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think the Minister is clear on his answer one way or the other. It is a yes or no question. Are we going to fund it into the following fiscal year? Yes or no. Why do we keep talking about we are funding it to the end of this fiscal year? Why do you keep telling me that? We already know that. Everybody in the public knows. I want to know and the public wants to know, yes or no.

Is the government going to get behind this project and fund it starting in the next fiscal year that starts April 1, 2013? Yes or no. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to know a little more about this various group of people and when they’re expected to deliver a decision. I couldn’t quite hear the Minister’s last comment on his response, although I was listening very carefully. Is he expecting them to provide him a report that he can table here in the Legislative Assembly by the end of this particular year, and if that’s not the case, when will be the case that we’ll expect a report to be tabled with those types of recommendations, and who is this particular group that he can inform the public?