Lesa Semmler

Thank you. I will pass that over to the director, Mr. Clarke McQueen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, non-medical escorts are recommended by the health practitioner and may be approved by the medical travel officer if their request for medical escorts meets the criteria in the respective policy. And so the Northwest Territories -- the Government of the Northwest Territories, we have a policy that lays out what a non-medical escort for when people are travelling for insured services and then there's also -- like, I mean, this is where we can get complicated and then if it was -- it doesn't meet the GNWT, there is an option to -- if they're Indigenous, we...

Thank you. So long-term care beds in Hay River currently are 23. There's 23 beds used, and there are 6 people on the waitlist. Deh Cho, 17, and 17 people in the beds and 2 people on the waitlist. In Fort Smith, there's 26 long-term care beds, and 26 people occupying those beds, and nobody on the waitlist. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to have to talk more with the Member as to what role that would be, and the way I'm interpreting it is it would be somebody that we would hire on to travel with people as escorts. But there are many family members that -- and people, residents, that would want their family too. So I guess we would have to review to see if that's what the Member is asking for, but I can commit to having further discussions to understand what that would mean. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you. At this time, you know, the plan is is to take the money from there where it currently is, which is the operations budget, in the operations budget and then we can move that to the new. But I can commit to making sure we have the numbers as best as we can to the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member. I just recently had an update that there is some work around that's going on with the phone system. As I mentioned in this House many times, is the phone system that's in Stanton doesn't allow for what people would normally get to call and be put in queue for the next, it rings, and then you have to wait for someone to answer and then leave a message if it's -- someone's on the phone. There is no other option. So what they're working on right now is a workaround and as soon as I have more details, that workaround is going to work in our...

Give that to the ADM. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as part of this, the whole review of the EMR and accessing services and being able to book appointments, I think all of those are -- we're trying to tie those in all together through this review. And I understand that there might be pieces that we will be able to do sooner than later. You know, the patient portals that people have requested, you know, that's something that we want to be able to use and, you know, so I think that's one of the biggest parts of our whole system, is that it's very piecemealed together, and I acknowledge that, and that's the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I just -- you know, I want to thank the Member for raising that. And what I wanted to highlight is that the 2015 report did not really -- you know, and I think this is the work that has changed is that the focus has changed into providing preventative care to seniors, so more home support work, more home care, you know, and providing that after-hour care. And for the care that happens outside of the clinic hours, that it's not just Monday to Friday, 8:30 to 5, and that's based on those projections that were from the 2015, is that we did not have these services outside...

Thank you. At this time, that is not in the budget and in the capital plan. But I think where the project on the wellness and recovery centre, you know, is 100 percent funded and was based -- the proposal to the federal government was based on replacing and providing a fixed home for the services that are going into there. As for the other building, I can turn that over to ADM Mr. Heath if that's okay.