City committee mulls proposal to drastically increase Yellowknife street outreach funding

A city committee on Monday discussed the prospect of setting aside $2 million for an expanded street outreach program — an increase that would be five times what the city currently contributes to the program, and would result in a significant tax increase.

"The current street outreach program provides an invaluable service to our community," said Coun. Ryan Fequet who brought the motion forward on Tuesday. 

The outreach program falls under the Yellowknife Women's Society, an organization that recently called for a change after they said an evacuation left vulnerable people without support. 

"To expand the hours and level of service is one tangible action that we can take … and the Yellowknife Women's Society's recent stories highlight this need," Fequet said. 

The street outreach program itself is meant to help the homeless and vulnerable population within the city. A van is driven around the city and a team works together to help provide snacks, water and transportation for vulnerable people to go to places like shelters, homes and healthcare providers. Fequet said while he understood other sources of funding might be possible for the program, he wanted to ensure that funding was set aside for it. 

The street program's municipal funding is currently $400,000 and the $2 million would be five times that amount. 

Adding the $2 million would result in a tax increase of more than 16 per cent, according to mayor Rebecca Alty.

Several councillors said they wanted to wait until they heard from experts and the public before putting a placeholder number in the budget. 

"I have been 100 per cent supportive of doing something meaningful, I just want to know from the experts what that meaningful is," said Coun. Ben Hendriksen. 

Councillors are expected to hear from non-governmental organizations on Oct. 23 on what the program will consist of and what the estimated costs of the program will be. Fequet said that the NGOs are gathering information and medical expertise and working to put together the information to present to council. 

Coun. Steve Payne said he also wasn't in support of adding the $2 million yet and wanted to see what support there could be from the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT).

"Right now I'm not in support of adding this $2 million. I'd like to see what commitments we have from the GNWT. I'd like to see what the recommendations are from the NGOs," he said.  

"So right now it seems like an awful lot of money going from $400,000 to $2,000,000 taxpayers money." 

Alty also did not support the motion and said she would rather have a consultant review and provide an operating model for the outreach program and then have a funding proposal presented to the territorial and federal government. 

Katy Pollock, the chair of the board of directors of the Yellowknife Women's Society, said right now the organization is looking to expand the scope and type of services the outreach program could offer. 

She said the organization is looking at other cities's outreach models to see what they can take from those models, incorporate into their own, and come up with suggestions to present to council. 

She said there are no concrete suggestions yet, but they will be finalized closer to when the organization will present them to council. 

As for right now Pollock said she's glad to hear a discussion about more support for the program and Yellowknife residents. 

"I'm happy to hear they're talking about it," she said.