Tom Beaulieu

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. As a government, we know that the rates of substance abuse are far too high amongst our residents and we need to take action. Substance abuse contributes to crime rates and is a cost-driver in the health care system. It also takes a terrible toll on our communities and our families.

In my travels through the communities over the past few months, I have heard repeatedly that we need to find more efficient ways to help our people with addictions. There is no one approach that works for everyone. We need to develop and offer a range of options within our system to help...

It will form a part in the Mental Health Strategy. The idea of the program, once it’s been reviewed, piloted, evaluated, the idea is that the department plans to expand the program right across the territory. Thank you.

The department is doing a pharmacy strategy. I’m sure all the costs of medicine, pills, pharmaceuticals are within that strategy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think there’s been a lot of discussion and that in dealing with the Supplementary Health Program. One of the key areas that the MLAs asked be looked at was addressing the working poor that didn’t have coverage, any existing supplementary or any sort of health coverage at all. The department has done the work, is now working on trying to fill that gap, and it seems to be a gap there now of the working poor, and the department is bringing information together to try to fill that gap.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The long-term care facilities need to be located near larger centres where we have physicians and nursing care and so on. Right now it makes it very difficult to put long-term care in the smaller communities where that service is not available 24/7. That’s been the issue in the past. Because physicians are not available 24/7, it’s difficult to keep long-term care in the smaller centres like Aklavik. Thank you.

I will work with the NWT Seniors’ Society, which is made up of seniors from all the communities – I believe the president of the seniors’ societies in the various communities for the NWT Seniors’ Society – to see if we could redistribute the money that’s going to the seniors. If it’s possible to put little pots of money into the communities so they can do those functions, I will make note of and discuss that with the NWT Seniors’ president and the society. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this time the funding from the Department of Health and Social Services for seniors’ groups in the Northwest Territories is to the NWT Seniors’ Society which, in turn, works with the seniors’ societies at the community level.

I don’t have the timeline with me here. I will commit to providing that information back to the Member as soon as the department is able to give me the details on when that strategy will be in place.

This is a fairly large group of individuals. One of the key aspects of the work will be to cost out this type of benefit, and once the benefit is costed out, then this government would have to come back to the House in the business planning process to get the money together. It’s not going to be in this business plan, so I will commit to the Member that we can do the costing for the next business plan.

Yes, we have. In the difference between the year when last year when the Joe Greenland Centre had housed the eight people that were level 1 and 2 in the facility, we had 139 home care visits into the private home or into the units that are allocated in the Joe Greenland or around the community from the Housing Corporation, to just under 700 visits the year after that portion of the facility was changed to independent living. Thank you.