Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to go back and see if I could get some specific answers to some of the questions I asked earlier. I would like to address these questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I am not talking about a specific case. I would like the Minister to try and think globally and think a bit beyond any specific individual or group of individuals. Firstly, I would like to ask the Minister if she can give me the name of the policy that addresses the provision of housing for NWT residents who require assisted living. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will get back to the Member on that specific point, but the Member knows already because we have had many communications between the two of us that we have programs available and we do provide assistance to those residents in the Territories who need support in living situations due to their disabilities. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister for telling me what I already know. Yes, the department has programs. Those programs, however, are absolutely full. I don’t believe there is any more than maybe one vacancy within the whole of the NWT for somebody who needs to be placed in assisted living. I am trying to get the Minister to think beyond what we know and to go into the future.
We know there are many people coming forward who are going to require independent living, assisted living as adults and we want them to stay in our community. I would like to know from the Minister if she can tell me why they would not go to the NWT Housing Corporation and ask to work in conjunction with our housing provider, which is NWT Housing Corporation, to build houses to house the people who need independent or assisted living. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I don’t think there is any disagreement between the Member and myself that there are more demands than resources available. I am thinking that the Member is thinking that I should just go and build some more or something like that.
The way the programs are being delivered, we have lots of providers. We have NGOs who have group homes. We don’t build housing. It is really about resources. It is not about lack of policy or programs or intent. We have more demands and supply and on a case-by-case basis, we work on our residents and we assess them. We place them where we can and we try to support them as much as possible. I don’t think it is lack of policy, program or will. It is always about resources. Thank you.
Thank you. If it is about resources, I’d like to ask the Minister is she planning for the future, and I would hope that she would say yes. If she says yes, I’d like to know how the Minister intends to accommodate the 20 or 30 individuals in Yellowknife alone who will need accommodation in independent or assisted living in the next five to 10 years. Thank you.
The Member has been here for three and a half years. She knows how we get resources. It’s through the business plan process. All the departments and programs make business cases. There are unmet needs, yes, in Yellowknife, but there are unmet needs in every community. We have lots of people in our communities who could benefit from having supported living that are being taken care of by families and friends and communities. I have met them in every community in the Territory. So one of the ways we are doing that under Foundation for Change is including home care programming. Respite care is one of them.
Giving them housing is just only one option, Mr. Speaker, and the solution to that is not the Department of Health and Social Services getting into the business of housing, because we have organizations like the YWCA and YACL and private homes who could take care of them. It’s about priority decisions, Mr. Speaker, and it’s not lack of intent or desire or the will on the part of the current Health Minister. It is about the Department of Health and Social Services with $30 million in deficit, with huge demands, and the entire government under fiscal pressure which is a responsibility for every Member in this House, not just me. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for that passionate response. I was not suggesting that there was not will to accommodate these people. I’m asking the Minister to look to the future and to try to envision a different method of accommodating people who need assisted living, and that means supervision for some of those. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, no question.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
