February 10, 2012 - Mr. Speaker, for the past number of years the Yellowknife Homelessness Coalition has been working on Betty House, which is an initiative to build and operate a transitional house for women and children that are homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless.  Betty House will help these women and children to stabilize, to move forward, and to make positive life choices.

Today I am pleased to inform Members of the Assembly that the NWT Housing Corporation on behalf of the GNWT has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Yellowknife and the YWCA, as representatives of the Yellowknife Homelessness Coalition, to provide a contribution of approximately $2.3 million towards the construction of Betty House.

The Yellowknife Homelessness Coalition includes representatives from a variety of non-government organizations, all levels of government, and other community organizations. This group has done considerable planning and fund-raising for this project and I want to acknowledge and thank members of the Coalition for their continued hard work on this and on other work they do related to homelessness.

I understand that Mayor Gordon Van Tighem from the City of Yellowknife, Ms. Lyda Fuller from the YWCA who are expected to operate this facility on behalf of the Homelessness Coalition, and Ms. Dayle Hernblad, the Homeless Coordinator for the City of Yellowknife have joined us in the Assembly today and, I want to recognize their contribution to this project.

During the engagement on the Shelter Policy Review, we heard on many occasions the importance of advancing initiatives related to homelessness and transition housing. I am told that the GNWT contribution of about $2.3 million will have a significant impact in ensuring the completion of Betty House and we believe that this initiative is a vital part of our overall priority of strengthening our approach to homelessness.

Homelessness is a problem in many NWT communities and through working with our partners in other levels of government and community organizations we can continue to address this issue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.