The City of Yellowknife will receive just over $900,000 from a federal fund to expand the municipal Street Outreach program.
Street Outreach, operated by Home Base Yellowknife, currently provides safe rides, food and water to the city’s street-involved population.
Recent reviews of the program have recommended ramping up the services it provides – for example by including emergency first aid, case management, harm reduction and some public health services in a mobile unit.
While the city committed an extra $270,000 to Street Outreach late last year, that sum wasn’t nearly enough to embark on a meaningful expansion.
On Friday afternoon, the federal government said it was releasing $903,000 from its Emergency Treatment Fund – established in the 2024 federal budget – to help.
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“The program will provide proactive engagement, harm reduction supplies, and connect individuals to health, housing and social support services,” Ottawa stated in a news release, “while also collaborating with local businesses and residents to create safer, more inclusive community spaces.”
Mayor of Yellowknife Ben Hendriksen said the money would help the city to address “real and visible challenges in our community.”
“Every day we see people struggling with substance use,” said Hendriksen. “We also hear the concerns of their neighbours, business owners and service providers.
“This funding allows the city to do our part … helping teams meet people where they are. With this funding, we can keep providing on-the-ground support.”
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City manager Stephen Van Dine said the latest funding gives the municipality “that much more ability to plan going forward.”
Van Dine said no specifics were immediately available regarding how the funding would change the way Street Outreach looks on the ground.
He said the city would go back to the most recent review of the program and reassess its approach “with the security of having these dollars available.” (The money won’t be included in the city’s draft budget for 2026, which is due to be made public early next week, as the budget was prepared before this funding was confirmed.)
Sahtu harm reduction program funded
Multiple funding announcements related to the Emergency Treatment Fund were made across Canada this week. (A call for proposals for the next year of the fund closes on November 4.)
In the NWT announcement, made by territorial MP and Crown-Indigenous relations minister Rebecca Alty at Yellowknife City Hall, the Sahtu Secretariat was awarded $795,000 for a harm reduction program.
That project will “strengthen community resilience and capacity for responding to and preventing overdoses through culturally appropriate and evidence-informed activities,” Ottawa stated.
The money will be used to provide access to overdose prevention kits like Naloxone, training on how to recognize and treat an opioid overdose, and trauma-informed, therapeutic support for people experiencing substance use disorders.
“There’s an urgent need to work with our young people,” said Joseph Kochon, accepting the funding.
“Drugs are coming into the smaller communities … a lot of our young people have changed overnight.
“This funding may help us shine some more light and find some more solutions for people.”
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