Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t have the numbers on me right now, but some of them were ready before division. It’s not huge in numbers, but we have a few. So I will get back to the Member on the numbers. Thank you.

Yes, I will, Mr. Chairman.

My understanding is that the long-term care facility is an NWT Housing Corporation asset. I think the Member might be referring to the health centre which we have a lease arrangement with. That’s separate from this project. Any future arrangements that might come to play would be something that would be done by DPW.

Thank you. As the DM mentioned earlier, we have reviewed every health facility in the Territories in the last year. Many of our facilities are over 30 years old and I can advise the Member that Fort Resolution is one of the ones that needs major renovations. As well, Lutselk'e is one that needs to be looked at in short order. It will be part of the next cycle of planning studies going through the process in the next two or three fiscal years. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, all that work will have to be done when legislation is drafted, and in most circumstances in drafting legislation that governs professions, whether it be… I mean, we’ve had recent examples of social workers, but I remember NWT doing one for the architects and engineers. It’s a normal practice to look at what other jurisdictions are doing and to update the legislation and bring any new precedents that we should be considering.

So, in drafting new legislation, that will be done. Mr. Speaker, that would be a normal practice. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I could get that information, because every facility I go to there are many, many aboriginal people that work in these long-term care facilities in the Territories. I also need to add home care, because that’s what I’m talking about. Home care jobs are good jobs and they are jobs that our local people can take on. Home care has many aspects to that profession. I will provide that information to the Member.

Mr. Chairman, I will do my best to answer questions. I will get back to her on all the documents I gave her. We gave a bunch of documents to the committee. There might be some breakdown in communication. Whatever she needs, whatever I have, whatever I can give her, I will give her.

In terms of long-term care facilities needs study, the Member knows that the department just finished looking at long-term care needs of the Territories for the next 20 years. We talked about the need to review that every five years. That was part of our discussion in the Standing Committee on P and P and Social...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Legislation for the professions that the Member mentions are in the line-up. The legislation for various health care professions have been lacking for a number of years, so we have had to update the Medical Professions Act, the Pharmacists Act, we’re just going through the Social Worker Profession Act. There are a number of professions that are more numerous in numbers that we have had to update, and the ones that the Member is talking about are in the pipe, so to speak, in the legislative writing line-up. There is a long list of legislation that needs to be updated...

This capital plan is for this upcoming fiscal year. We have based it on the long-term care planning facilities needs study, but this is not a final sort of document that’s not to be changed forever. The long-term care needs have to be reviewed every five years. The populations will tell us where the needs are and it is possible that Aklavik and McPherson combined for the Gwich’in Nation, that they may be able to establish a long-term care facility that they could jointly share.

The important part is that this is a template that we can work on, and I think the department has done really good...

Just to answer the Member’s first question, as the Member knows, we did have a prior briefing on this and we did send some documents that the Member has asked for. I believe it was sent in an electronic version and I’m assuming those were made available. If not, I could make that available to the Member.

Secondly, I know what the Member is asking. I think she wants to see right in front of her how many beds in how many communities, in what communities, in what year for the next 20 years. I think what we need to discuss about long-term care. We know that the Department of Health along with...