Temporary on-the-land camp was a success, says N.W.T. official

When the N.W.T. government announced in November that it was setting up the On-The-Land Camp outside of Yellowknife, it was billed as a way to "alleviate pressure" on the city's shelter system. Many non-profits had warned there could be a severe shortage of beds this winter.

The 10-week camp — about a 45-minute drive out of town on the Ingraham Trail — came to an end last week, and Rob Tordiff says he believes it did what it was intended to do: provide additional shelter space for people who are homeless, and also offer cultural programming and counselling for people living with addictions.

"The feedback that we've had from camp participants has been very positive," said Tordiff, who's the assistant deputy minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.

Tordiff spoke to CBC's Trailbreaker host Hilary Bird about why the camp often had empty beds, why participants had to be sober to attend, and what happens now.  

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The camp had space for 30 individuals and you only had between six and 20 people at any given time at the camp. Why do you think you weren't able to fill those beds?

I think we need to remember that when we initially set out to establish the camp, we were anticipating a significant shortage of shelter space within the city. That was based on the feedback and information that we were receiving from our partners, shelter operators and other service providers in the city. So the idea of having the camp was to ensure that we had overflow so that city-based shelters weren't falling short of the demand.

What we found over the course of the winter as weather has become colder and we've been monitoring numbers, is that the anticipated numbers haven't come to fruition. We haven't seen the numbers of folks that we thought we would that are seeking shelter space.

I think another aspect is that we were asking people to go quite a ways out of the city, and live in sobriety, and that's not going to work for everyone. I think it'll work for a smaller subset within that population that find themselves homeless.

You came on the show back in November when the camp had opened and you said in the first week you had already received 42 applicants. The most you ever had at the camp was 20. Why did you have to turn so many people away?

Well again, the location of the camp and the nature of the camp was such that for people to be successful, they needed to be prepared to live in that environment, primarily free of alcohol and other substances.

We had a committee of folks that are involved with this population — shelter operators and other service providers that work with our staff — and we would review the applications, and with their information, their knowledge of the clients, I'd be able to make some determination of their probability of success. 

There were folks that did apply early on and may not have gone in on their first application that may have gone in later on during the camp operation as well. So the numbers weren't static.

I understand that people had to be sober for 72 hours before entering the camp. Why did you make that a prerequisite?

The primary reason, the very realistic expectation, is that when we're that far out of the city, it's that remote, it's very difficult to provide the types of services that would create a safe environment for people that are consuming. So in the interest of the safety of people that were at the camp, sobriety was a requirement.

What do you say to people who say that was maybe the wrong approach? Especially if you're having so many applicants who are being turned away, but you're offering these really important supports for people like group counselling. 

I think we have to remember what the primary purpose of the camp was. I mean, first and foremost, it was a shelter, and the fact of the matter was it was 69 or 70 kilometres out of town. So there are some logistical and safety issues that are associated when you're operating that type of facility. And you know, that necessitates those types of decisions that we had to make in terms of those people that could participate in the camp.

It would have been fantastic to have more people participate in the cultural programming and the counselling. But I think coming away from the camp, we have a lot of lessons that we've learned and a lot of observations that we've had and we've shared amongst our group of operators, and we'll meet again with our partners and make some determinations and apply those lessons learned to future programming and future activities.

Let's talk about the cost of the camp. It was roughly $650,000. Let's say you had 20 people, that equals about $30,000 a person for a 2½ month stay. Do you think that was good value for money?

Cost is always going to be a consideration when we're looking at setting up these sorts of operations in an emergent situation.

The location certainly contributed to the cost. The fact of the matter was at the time that we were establishing this camp, we had no other options. That was the one location that was available that could serve the population we were looking to serve in that time period. And then there's the logistics and the need to have on-site medical services because it's so remote. All of those things contribute to it. 

In the long run, we would prefer to be able to avoid reacting to emergent situations and be more proactive. And perhaps that will reduce some of the costs per participant. But the reality is that at that point in time, we didn't have that luxury of knowing numbers, we didn't have the luxury of more time to plan.

When we had John MacDonald, who was the deputy minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, on, he said that this on-the-land camp was sort of meant to give the government time to work on a more permanent solution. Can you tell us about more about what happens now?

Sure. Learning a little bit from the camp in terms of numbers and really reflecting on what was anticipated and what actually came to be, in terms of the numbers of folks in the city that are unhoused, we can begin to look at what the needs might be for that supportive housing, that transitional housing component. And we are looking at opportunities.

We're working with other government departments and agencies. We're working with our partners in the city as well, to establish, again, another temporary measure as we look at something more long-term and more permanent. 

So anticipate in the coming weeks we'll be able to speak a little bit more in terms of detail, and I think at that time we would be quite happy to share, in terms of numbers, in terms of what type of programming that we're looking at.

It really comes down to the logistics at this point in time. So it depends on how quickly we can secure a location, how quickly we can secure an operator — similar types of of issues that led to the creation of the camp. It's really identifying the resources and the logistics to pull these things together.