Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I'd like to talk about a subject that I've touched on many times in this House, homecare in the NWT.

Our current situation in the communities, Mr. Speaker, is that seniors, once unable to continue living independently, are moved into long-term care facilities. It is my opinion and the opinion of many people that the vast majority of elders do not want to be in long-term care. Long-term care is costing the GNWT about $140,000 per year, per patient. So if an elderly couple was to be forced into long-term care, it would cost the GNWT $280,000 per year...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am glad to have the opportunity to just ask a couple more questions, a little bit of a change. I want to thank the Minister for the responses. I appreciate that. However, I would like to ask about the caregiver program. The Minister just mentioned the caregiver program. The caregiver program could be a huge part of aging in place. I would like to ask the Minister if there has been some sort of program developed for caregivers. Thank you.

I'm aware that homecare can be applied in houses that are owned by the NWT Housing Corporation for seniors' housing, but the main target group, as I see it, would be the homeowners. I would like to ask the Minister if there is any plan to budget any actual money? Maybe it would be a better way to ask: is any money actually put in place to allow seniors to age in place in their home in their communities?

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services on my Member's statement. I would like to ask the Minister if there have been any instances where a senior or seniors, a senior couple, have had their homes retrofitted to a barrier-free state and are now embroiled in full homecare for that unit. Thank you.

Maybe a simpler task would be to look at the history of Taltson River and how it related to the people that were living off the land. Would the Minister be prepared to have his department look at the history of what happened on the Taltson River prior to the construction of the Taltson River dam?

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I made a Member's statement about homecare and was going to ask the Minister of Health questions on homecare, but the Minister of ITI trumped my Member's statement with the Taltson statement, so I have questions for him. I would like to ask the Minister of ITI if, during any Indigenous engagement, he would present the idea retrospective environmental assessment from their original project at Taltson. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is really an initiative or a mandate that requires good timing. The mandate says taking action so that seniors can age in place, so, according to the mandate that we set out four years ago, we should actually have seniors aging in place in their homes right now, but we do not, and we are just crossing the last budget. I am asking if the money is going to be used from homecare now in order to hire new staff so that we can expand homecare, so we can allow seniors to age in place, so we can meet that mandate. That is an important mandate. I think the...

Mr. Speaker, this is, I guess, a question to the Minister of Health, because my assumption is that, when homecare is involved, even though the Housing Corporation may be responsible for retrofitting the unit, it would fall under Health and Social Services, but I'm not 100 percent sure. I would like to ask the Minister if he is aware if the Housing Corporation and his department have any plans to create barrier-free units out of home ownership units for seniors so they can age in place?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if he would be prepared to share the findings of the Indigenous engagement for the money that was issued from the federal government for that purpose. I would like to ask the Minister if he would commit today to share those findings with the Legislative Assembly. Thank you.