Michael Nadli

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. One of the highlights of my summer was participating in summer assemblies, enjoying good food, the company of friends, and cultural activities. This summer, I attended the Dehcho First Nations Annual Assembly in Fort Providence, and the 47th Annual Dene Nation Assembly on the Hay River Reserve.

As always, the assemblies provide an opportunity for Dene people to come together and talk about the issues that affect us. A common theme running through the discussions this year was Treaties 8 and 11 of 1899 and 1921 respectively, and how they are being interpreted in modern land...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have a general question, and I was cheered by the Minister's statement, and I applaud the Minister in terms of making efforts to support seniors to live in their own homes as long as possible. In that effort, he has stated that there has been some work done with the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. We have always encouraged departments not to work in silos, to cooperate with other departments. In this case, in this instance, it seems that efforts had been made in that area.

Elders live in their own homes and, of course, those homes are occupied on...

Thank you. Maybe as a prelude to those discussions, I think it is great, the park facilities that we have as we enter the northern side of the NWT coming from Alberta, especially the road traffic. We have some great infrastructure based out of Enterprise.

One of the particular interests of communities could be maybe expanding in terms of interpreter interaction with local people and tourists to see if maybe they could showcase the local history of communities. I wanted to see if perhaps that could be expanded. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I just wanted to build upon the Minister's comments in terms of highlighting the increased tourism industry in the NWT and also in terms of airline traffic that brings people up North, but to try to build up on the Minister's comment as he puts it "the rubber traffic" and to see if there's ways that our communities can maybe tap into an opportunity.

I'm trying to understand if there's some immediate or maybe a semblance of a plan for all these parks that we have, particularly those in the Enterprise area, Kakisa, and Fort Providence, to see if there's some long...

Mr. Speaker, how are our elders who have had to leave their homes for long-term care provided with additional support in ways that respect their culture and unique needs? For example, receiving services in their language if they're unilingual, being able to eat traditional foods, and being able to regularly visit with their families.

Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke on the need for senior care facilities in communities. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Can the Minister identify how many residents of Northwest Territories longterm care facilities are living in a community other than their home community? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is highly probable that that could serve as a classic example in terms of best practices of two departments working cooperatively in partnership. The other question that I have was: was there a formal understanding or arrangements between the two departments about perhaps scoping out just the partnership arrangement in terms of how it is that we are going to enable seniors to live in their own homes, and on land that is occupied, too? What I am drawing upon is that some elders unfortunately fall within the threshold of having to deal with some dilemmas, and one of them...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Those are all the questions that I have.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Minister's offer in terms of maybe me engaging his officials, but the understanding that I have in terms of protocol is that, as MLAs here, we are allowed the leisure of working with Ministers. I just wanted to build upon an opportunity to see if perhaps the Minister would have an idea of how we could plan to work with communities, especially the small communities that I represent. I am trying to bring opportunities for tourism to be broadened, to be enhanced in small communities.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently the Minister tabled the Continuing Care Services Action Plan. Is that plan, the continuing care services, a regional or community action plan? Mahsi.