Sandy Lee

Mr. Speaker, the Member knows that we have a capital planning process. We just approved our capital budget last fall. In that was money for planning for Stanton Territorial Health Authority. In our meeting this morning in the committee, the Member was advised that the work that we are going to be doing -- and the CEO and the public administrator of the authority have advised the committee as well -- for Stanton has to be in line with the work that we are doing in our regional health centres. What we are going to be delivering in Hay River, Fort Smith, Norman Wells and Inuvik will have much to...

Without knowing the details and facts of the situation, it’s difficult for me to comment, but I think it should be noted that when we say a program is one of last resort it does not equal to saying that anybody who applies for it will get it. They would have to meet the guidelines and policies of those programs. Without knowing the facts, I could not give full answers to exactly what happened in this situation. If the Member wants to bring the details to me, I’d be happy to look into that.

Thank you. The breaking news is it has begun. So I don’t know why he keeps asking when is this going to start. That was the entire discussion this morning. He has a nasty habit of not changing his view in the face of good and current information. So the breaking news: planning has begun. There is money in the budget for planning for Stanton. I believe it’s about $900,000. The PA and the CEO and an entire health care team are working on how to make that facility work. So we will do that work, and when it’s ready it would go to peer review and follow the regular planning process. We believe it...

I’d be happy to speak to my colleague, the Minister of Justice, on that issue, understanding, of course, funding of extra RCMP is a project between the GNWT and the federal government for the funding of the officers. I just wanted to mention on prevention, for example -- and this is definitely in the area of prevention that the Member appreciates -- we have enhanced the community-based outreach advocacy and prevention in three regions with our shelters in the Tlicho, Deh Cho and Sahtu to raise the awareness in the community. We have also supported protocol development to assess risks and as a...

Mr. Speaker, yes, I can commit to do that. We just have to report on their meeting. As the Member stated, they would like to see some stability in the funding. As the Member knows, we have increased the funding under the enhanced community services over the last number of years. This year we are funding $482,000 instead of $460,000 last year. We are going forward for a request for a little bit more for next year. We have also increased funding under stabilized existing shelters by $11,000 this year; actually, $119,000 this year. We have funded $450,000 this year compared to $340,000 last year...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The decision to change services, not shut down the Joe Greenland Centre -- just for the record, provided by the Joe Greenland Centre -- was a GNWT decision. It is a complex decision as the Joe Greenland Centre was built in 1977, more than 30 years ago when it was customary to admit seniors into care with low-level needs. Today, Mr. Speaker, seniors with low-level needs can and are able to remain at home or in elders housing and receive the care they need from home support workers. In addition, the Joe Greenland Centre does not provide care to the level necessary to meet...

As the Member knows, even multi-year agreements are subject to funding approvals. I’m sure the NGOs feel more comfortable in having multi-year contracts, but as I stated in the House, we’re not saying no to multi-year agreements. We believe that there is merit in that. Right now we are reviewing our budgets or our agreements and we will talk to the NWT Seniors’ Society in due course. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re not penalizing any NGO. Mr. Speaker, as part of the department’s budget review, we’ve implemented that all agreements would be for one year to allow for evaluation of how we are spending our funds and on the outcomes. That said, as I stated earlier, I think Member Hawkins asked this same question. We’re not saying no to multi-year agreements. We are reviewing our agreements as we go forward and we will make the decision at the end of this fiscal year.

As the Member knows, my department is under huge fiscal pressure and we are reviewing all the agreements. As I...

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...