Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Is committee agreed?

The planes fly both ways. Maybe we should be looking at building some facilities here in the Northwest Territories, and if we didn’t have enough people with specialized need that required that care, we could actually probably take some of the pressure off some of the provinces and have the people come this way.

I would like to ask the Minister if he ever gets any pushback or any concern raised by families. I mean, we’re raising this here in the House and we’re talking about it from the point of view of economics and economy and work. But from that personal human interest side of the folks that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to talk more about the $26.95 million that this government spends every year on southern and, may I say, Alberta institutions for placements for northern residents. The Minister indicated that there were 106 including adults and children. That works out to an average of $255,000 per placement.

I’d like to ask the Minister, first of all, when is the last time these placements where these referrals are being sent to, when was the last time those facilities were visited by somebody from our government, either standing committee or members of his staff? Thank...

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Next I have Mr. Bromley.

I’d like to also ask, in the facilities that we do have here in the Northwest Territories, could he tell us on any given day, like today, are there vacancies available in those facilities, or are we completely maxed out and couldn’t it be that referrals that are made to the South are actually, in fact, because there is no room in the facilities we have here? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Member is not requesting a response from the Minister at this time. If there is anything he has a desire to respond to in this, maybe he could add it after the next Member who is going to provide general comments. Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today, I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. In a budget document that we have just been considering during this session, there is an item under program detail called residential care, adults and children, and that number of $45.807 million is for children and adults who are receiving care for an extended period of time to meet their physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological needs, and it includes such things as long-term care facilities, group homes for adults and residential care both inside and...

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Any response, Mr. Lafferty?

Thank you. I’ll ask Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses to the table.

Minister Lafferty, for the record, could you please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. At this time I’d like to ask the Minister if he’d like to bring witnesses into the Chamber.