Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I recently became aware of a growing problem in our health care system in my community here in Yellowknife, and in the NWT in general, and it’s important enough that I need to bring it to the attention of this House and the public.

I have constituents in my riding who are a family with a disabled adult child, one who needs supervision 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The parents are aging -- something we all do, unfortunately -- and they realize that at some point they will not long be able to care for their child at home.

In an effort to be proactive, to plan for the...

I’m referencing page 10-5, third item down, description: conduct preliminary consultations and develop preliminary design and design guidelines for new visitors centre.

Thanks to the Minister for those comments. I guess I would just like to know if the new visitors centre, if we are going to replace the current Sixtieth Parallel Visitor Information Centre, and if so, when would we be anticipating to start construction. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I will have to figure out what document we’re talking about there.

My concern with the capital needs assessment for the capital planning process is that it only looks at existing buildings, and my concern is with the need to fill in this gap for assisted living as there is no indication in this document for any accommodation of persons who need assisted living with supervision.

I agree with the Minister that institutions should be the last place that people go, but certainly there should be some planning, in my mind, for homes, whether they be homes that are owned...

I wasn’t necessarily asking for institution. I’d like to know if the Minister is referencing the capital needs assessment, the 20-year capital needs assessment. It’s a summary of all departmental needs. If that’s the document the Minister is referring to, yes, I have that, but I had understood her to be referencing a facilities needs study just for Health and Social Services. Could I get a clarification on which document she’s referencing? Thank you.

Thanks for that clarification. I have a general question regarding facilities and capital expenditures and so on. I presume this is the right place to make it.

Mr. Chairman, if you want me to wait until the summary comes up, I can, but I wanted to ask a question about the 20-year facilities needs study that the Minister mentioned earlier today and that has been mentioned in other conversations prior to today. I’d like to know if that study is complete. If so, when can Members get a copy of it? If it’s not complete, when is it expected to be done?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker I need to ask the Minister, if there is a plan in the works, then that plan presumably has some detail in it. I’d like to know what the detail is in that plan relative to beds. When can the Minister tell me that there will be more beds for assisted living adult children needing assisted living in Yellowknife? When can I expect to see more beds? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I have to say that I don’t believe those were my words, but that may have been how they were interpreted.

I do commend the government for the work that has been done to provide assisted living facilities, but there is an evident need, particularly in the city of Yellowknife where about 50 percent of our population lives. We do have an expanding population of adult disabled children who need supervision and need assisted living. I’d like to ask the Minister what the department’s plans are for the future. How will the department accommodate those adult disabled children...

The Department of Health and Social Services, working with the NWT Housing Corporation, can develop the necessary assisted living facilities for these vulnerable residents of our NWT society before it is too late.

I will have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services at the appropriate time. Thank you.

Now I’m really confused. Are we finished constructing a new centre? If so, why are we conducting preliminary consultations and preliminary design guidelines for a new visitors centre? Thank you.