Sandy Lee

The staffing and programming services are the jurisdiction of the Yellowknife Association of Concerned Citizens for Seniors, which is YACCS. I have every confidence that YACCS will use the money they get from the government and provide the best services for the seniors. There is no suggestion or conclusion that any of those services will be privatized.

I have already indicated that this has got to be something that I have to resolve by working with the city council.

I just noticed that we are building a beautiful park in downtown Yellowknife, by the city. Surely, if we put our good minds together, eight councillors in the City of Yellowknife and Yellowknife MLAs…. We have regular meetings, Mr. Speaker; the Member knows that. We’re working on the agenda. I have asked to put this item on the agenda. Obviously, I’m missing something here, because we’re pouring hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars into address homelessness issues and...

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories and Department of Health and Social Services is providing 100 per cent of the funding and 100 per cent of the O&M. We’re creating 28 beds at the territorial dementia centre at almost half a million dollars each for 28 units. We’re funding 100 per cent of O&M. It is an NGO organization; it is not a government organization. But we’re providing them with the capital funding and O&M to fund that. It’s up to YACCS as to how they use their money to provide the services that they do. At the same time, the YACCS board has instructed the staff to...

Those are the levels of detail that we have to work through. As the Members know, we have not had a chance to review our first full functioning business plan, where we could introduce new programs and revisit the old programs. That’s something we’ll be able to do in the month of November. I look forward to working on a new proposal and working with the Members.

Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate the Member’s concern. It is one of the issues I am working on: how to bring the control and the…. I do agree with the Member that the best solutions in healing and grieving and wellness are to be found in communities. I do agree with the Member that we need to revisit the way we are doing that. I’m willing to do that, and I’m willing to work on the proposal and present that to the Members and the Standing Committee on Social Programs.

The problem has never been with the local dentists. Obviously, the dentists would be happy if the government provided a service and facility to provide their services. That is not really the issue. The issue is putting the burden on…. I understand that this is a huge issue for parents with children who need to have dental surgery. What we need to remember is that health care costs are under pressure. We can’t do everything for everybody. And when we have limited dollars, we have do what we are required to do by our health insurance program. Dental surgery is not one of them. We as a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not able to commit to having this program be established at Stanton for the reasons that I’ve indicated earlier. It’s the Stanton authority that feels that given all the demands of the services that they have to provide…. They have to provide insured services first; they have to be able to provide surgeries and other procedures that Stanton has to deliver that other hospitals in the Territories cannot. So that is their first priority.

But I am willing to make a commitment to the Member that I will revisit this issue, including the one day every eight weeks that...

Yes, I’m willing to make a commitment to come up with a proposal. I have to work out the details with the department. I have not had a chance to do that. I will make the commitment to come up with a proposal to discuss with the community to see how that facility can be used better.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member’s question, as well as commitment, on this issue. As I have indicated already, we have been able to provide additional programming at the Great Elders Facility in terms of facilitating seniors to use that facility more in day programs. I know that the Member and the community are looking for an opportunity for the seniors to be able to stay there and be taken care of.

I want to give the Member a commitment that I am interested in working with the Member on that and working on a wider proposal to go to the Standing Committee on Social Programs to...

Mr. Speaker, once again, YACCS has one hundred per cent control over what services they provide. This government provides funding for that. It’s not within the purview of this Legislature as to what they do in terms of providing food services to the seniors. I can assure you that those seniors are going to have a beautiful facility, and it’s going to be beautiful programming.