Julie Green

The plan is now four years old. We have committed to reviewing it. We have committed to costing out the remainder of the five recommendations, and we have said that we will provide that information by June of 2021.

I have articulated my commitment, and that is my commitment. Thank you.

The issue here with long-term care is economies of scale. There are 12 elders in Sachs Harbour who are 60-plus, 43 in Ulukhaktok, 31 in Paulatuk, and 139 in Tuktoyaktuk. That's a very small population from which to build a long-term care centre that benefits from the economies of scales. I think the minimum size is 16 beds. I don't think that it's feasible to do long-term care in those facilities because of the size of them. However, we have heard from Mr. Colin Okheena from Ulukhaktok, and he has requested that we meet with him and his community corporation to talk about elders facilities in...

I am not going to offer an opinion. Thank you.

I welcome the opportunity to clarify the fact that paramedics are licensed in the NWT, and no changes are required to the act.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents: "Projected Demand for Long-Term Care Beds in the NWT, NWT Bureau of Statistics, August 2020;" and "Department of Health and Social Services Response to Long-Term Care Bed Projections." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories knows how important it is to enable seniors to age in place with dignity as loved and valued members of our communities. That is why the 19th Legislative Assembly has identified this as one of the 22 priorities in the Mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories. We are taking a whole-of-government approach to create the conditions in which seniors will be able to stay at home as they age.

Mr. Speaker, one way that the Department of Health and Social Services is working to achieve this mandate priority is by...

Midwives, in particular, have always engaged their clients using a variety of methods, and in the current communications environment, that includes phone, text, FaceTime, and video conferencing. This particular engagement is being considered in the expansion of midwifery services in the Yellowknife area, which I referenced earlier, and so how to meet current needs is certainly on our radar. We do not expect everybody to pack up the baby and come into the office.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Member for introducing a new term for me, the fourth trimester. For a moment there I thought that pregnancy might have been extended for an entire year, but I understand now that this is the first three months of baby's life. Of course, as the Member said in her statement, it's common for new parents, especially first-time parents, to be anxious about how to care for their baby, their family, and themselves, and certainly, it is not a time where we want people to feel alone and unsupported. We realize that COVID-19 has, in fact, had that kind...

Hay River and Fort Smith have midwifery services at this point, and the idea of hiring one additional midwife for each of these locations is to stabilize the program. The next community on the list for midwives is Yellowknife, and as I already said, that would require the hiring of four midwives. There are some conversations going on about how the program could be expanded beyond that. Today, this very day, there is consultation going on with Fort Resolution community members and healthcare workers to find out whether they are interested in having midwives, whether they would prefer to have a...