The City of Yellowknife passed a proposal from staff during Monday night's regular council meeting intended to diversify and broaden representation on the .  

CAB serves as an advisory group for council on issues involving homelessness. 

Representatives will now include two people who have lived experience with homelessness, a person from the public at large, a representative from the , a veteran and another member who is a landlord or representative of a non-government housing sector. A second representative from an Indigenous organization will also be added. 

The increased membership proposal will bring the board membership to 16 from nine.

Council also supported an amendment from Coun. Robin Williams to add a member from the business community to the board. City staff indicated that there have been challenges in the past with maintaining a business representative on the board. 

"I would think that especially when it comes to homelessness, downtown is one of those things that's affected and downtown is the home of many of our businesses and our business community," Williams said, noting chambers of commerce would be an example of voices who could provide important input.

In April 2019, the city entered into a funding agreement with the federal government's that will provide the city with $6 million until March 31, 2024. The funding provides the city a little more than $1 million every year to disburse to various city programs that seek to alleviate homelessness.

The bulk of money will go to the city's , which is a contracted service for local non-government organizations to provide housing for adults, families and youth, Mayor Rebecca Alty said this week.

Part of the requirements in the federal and municipal agreement are that the city must designate specific types of representatives on the board, which councillors discussed during the Jan. 18 committee meeting. 

Call for applications

"We will be now be doing a call for applications this week and we will have to aim to fill all these new positions as well as vacancies that we already have," Mayor Rebecca Alty said.

The increased membership, beyond the requirements from the federal government, will help ensure that there are diverse voices involved in homelessness discussions, she said. This will aid in targetting funds properly to areas of homelessness where it's needed most, Alty added.

The increased membership is also aimed at solving "direct or perceived conflict of interest" issues between organizations.

"It is a committee that needs to be balanced because you want people on the ground with the local knowledge to be part of CAB for their wisdom but we need to be aware and balance that," Alty said.  "Sometimes they are also the same organizations that are applying for the (Reaching Home Initiative) funding."

Some councillors noted the importance of having people with lived experience on the board.

"I'm really happy with what has come forward," said board chair Stacie Smith, who said more input from Indigenous organizations is also a benefit. "Having added all of these other positions that are a little bit more specific to the the sectors that they're going to represent, I think will allow us to be a little bit more efficient in how we're going to dole out funding and make decisions."