Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, since the Foundation for Change action plan was unveiled in 2009, it was made clear that it is a three-year action plan. It is one of the important foundation documents that we are using to change our system and to make our system work together as a system and work better. Mr. Speaker, since that, we have had regional dialogues in every region of the Northwest Territories. We have had them on the website. I have made numerous statements in the Assembly. Mr. Speaker, we have been doing a lot of work to disseminate the information within the system...

Mr. Speaker, the planning has started and the Member knows that. He has to update his thinking on the basis of information he gets. The $28 million or whatever million that was in Stanton, that was from the old capital planning process which this Assembly has rejected. In the old ways of doing that, X dollars would be put into a budget and then people design afterwards, but we changed that system in 2007-08, Mr. Speaker. Now we have to do a planning study and you have to go through a peer review. You have to have level B estimate before it will get on the books. There is in the budget for...

This pot of money for $125,000 was allocated to help those in most need. They sometimes don’t fall into other programs that are available in the government. I am aware of lots of specific situations where we have helped them. We have, in fact, spent every penny in that program over the last year. It does work to fill the gaps and fill the holes and to be a safety net for those who come forward. A Member has a situation of one case that didn’t work out perhaps, and I’m glad to hear that it was resolved, but by and large this program serves the purpose for which it was intended.

Mr. Speaker, at the request of the Standing Committee on Social Programs, we submitted about a 50-page draft document, a work plan status update about a week or 10 days ago. I am sure the Member could get a copy of that if he would like. I could provide him with that. That is also being posted on our website. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The time frame for those who apply for this funding varies and is dependent on the specific situation. I’ve seen a turnaround of 24 hours or days.

The Housing Corporation and the department will continue to support community programs for elders at the Joe Greenland Centre. We also plan to use the common area of the Joe Greenland Centre for an elders day program and continue access to the common area, kitchen, and specialized bathing equipment within the building which will be used by home care. The Beaufort-Delta Health Authority will continue to operate and there are also plans to use the common area and kitchen to provide a lunch program for elders every day, because we want to be in touch with the elders so that we have the constant...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is quite right in saying that we need to do more to support elders in our communities. For example, in Aklavik right now one home care worker is supporting 35 elders, as the Member stated on the radio this morning. We believe there are many more seniors in a community like Aklavik who could do a lot better with support from the government. What we propose to do is redesign the program so that we increase the level of home care in the community so that we can support as many as 100 elders in the community right now, just in Aklavik. We also want to be able to...

As I stated, we are reviewing all of our agreements and it will be based on the review. Thank you.

Because, Mr. Speaker, as I stated, we are reviewing our budget for 2010-11. We are reviewing all the agreements we have with some of the NGOs. We are evaluating to see how we are spending money and what the outcome measures are. We will be renewing the contracts with those organizations and we will sit down with them. Thank you.

The Member knows we were told when we were in Aklavik in January that there is one home care worker and he’s worked off his feet just driving elders around. He definitely needs more support and we are proposing to create two additional home care workers so that three home care workers can support the elders there. There is also a need for respite care program territorial-wide model and, as the Member knows, we are reviewing that. Part of that process, this is actually a very exciting roll-out for us that would depend on a lot of resources. Right now we need to be on the ground, and home care...