Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I raised the issue, once again, regarding a seniors charter. Since three weeks ago I made sure that the Minister of Health and Social Services, who is also the Minister responsible for Seniors, received a copy of the matters I was raising as well as the corresponding research on the particular issue, Mr. Speaker, I’d like an update from the Minister responsible for Seniors. Has she had a chance to evaluate the merits of a potential seniors charter for the Northwest Territories and what are her plans with that matter? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Seniors, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member stated, he was kind enough to give me a copy of that charter on February 13th, and it is under review. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the charter that I’ve spoken of as well as the particulars I’ve spoken to in my Member’s statement talk about a lot of things: recognizing the dignity, stopping elders’ abuse, among many, many other things. Does the Minister responsible for Seniors agree with that type of merit and believe that a seniors charter could help us achieve a manifesto of our principles that we believe strongly here? Thank you.
I had a cursory look at the charter and I do believe that we in the Territories have programs for seniors that we can be proud of. We have very extensive health care programs for seniors, extra coverages, we have very generous long-term care programming, which is virtually cost free to the seniors in comparison to other jurisdictions where the costs are rising. We also have very extensive home care programming as an insured service, which is not the case in other jurisdictions and, obviously, we have other housing programs too. Mr. Speaker, I do believe in reading the charter that we go a long way in providing for our seniors and one that we can be proud of. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I couldn’t argue with the Minister. I think she’s quite right. We have a lot of fantastic programs for our seniors. I believe strongly, as do many, that an NWT charter for seniors would certainly be, as the old saying goes, it’s finally when the rubber hits the road it sort of locks into our position on how we feel.
Mr. Speaker, in 2006, a copy of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was delivered to the then Minister responsible for Seniors. Mr. Speaker, this is not a new issue for this department. When will the Minister be able to commit one way or the other if the department and certainly if the Minister is behind an NWT seniors charter? Thank you.
As I indicated, I received this about two weeks ago. It’s under review and I will have to get back to the Member in due course. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the homeownership programs, specifically homeownership programs for seniors needed to be developed by the Housing Corporation. I have some questions for the Minister of the Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister direct his staff to develop a seniors-specific program for repairs and maintenance of senior homeowner units? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do provide a lot of assistance to seniors, and as I quoted some numbers the other day when I was speaking to the motion, the number of seniors that are accessing our programs, our CARE program, for example, which allows them to access more money than they would have under the old system, we had quite a few seniors that took part in that. But I’ve heard the Member’s concern and I heard the motion the other day. I haven’t had an opportunity yet to sit down with the senior staff, but I do know that we are doing an evaluation of our Housing Choices program and hearing the concern of this Legislative Assembly, it’s one area that we’ll have to have a look at. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister direct the staff at the Housing Corporation to develop a strategy to ensure that all senior homeowners are contacted during the delivery stage? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we give opportunities for seniors to contact us and in the response to some questions on the floor last year I did commit to the Member that those seniors that wanted us to come to their units, we would come and we would provide an interpreter so they can best understand the programs and some of the options that are available to them. As far as going door to door, again, we like to work with the seniors and obviously we want to help them, and if the seniors feel like they are in need of work on their home, then we give them the opportunity to contact us and we go to their homes with an interpreter and work with them to fill out an application. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, prior to or during the program delivery stage, at the application stage, will the Minister direct his staff to go to the homes of the seniors and not wait for the seniors to make contact? There are only a limited number of senior homeowners in the communities. Will the Minister direct his staff to actually go to the homes or the staff to go to the homes? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we do like to assist our seniors. We have the government service offices that are going to be in some of the communities which would be able to assist some of the seniors. As far as going door to door, that’s a topic that I’ll have to take up with senior management and see if it’s something that we would consider doing. Again, like I say, we like to have the clients initiate the contact and then we’ll do what we can from there to accommodate them. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although I think it’s essential that the staff go into the seniors’ homes, I don’t think it’s a difficult task. There is probably enough staff to be able to go into all the homes. Aside from that, whether the officers are going into the homes or not, will the Minister direct his staff to do all that is necessary to gather the documentation to ensure that the initial application is completed? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that is one of the reasons that I had to go into the seniors’ homes and bring along interpreters so they can best understand the options and what they may be getting into. That would be a good opportunity to make sure all the proper documentation is placed so they can have a complete application that doesn’t hurt their chances of getting assistance.
I can say again that we do provide a lot of assistance for seniors. Under the old program, it was a fixed 10-year forgivable period so they had to wait 10 years before they were able to apply again. Now, with the new program, it can be from one to 10 years, so in three years seniors would be able to apply again. I think this is a benefit to seniors. The money is a lot more, from $20,000 to $90,000, that they could possibly qualify for. Of all the CARE applicants we had last year, 71 percent of those approved were seniors. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For my Member’s statement today, we had the power outages in Ranger Point subdivision of Tuk. Will the NWT Power Corporation compensate private homeowners for the damages it has done, not only the private homeowners but the NWT Housing Corporation for the 20 units that are frozen up and that need repair because of the power outage? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Power Corporation does have a policy that looks at claims filed for reasons of failure on the Power Corporation’s part, but I would say, as the Member has highlighted, the issue that was facing many communities in the Beaufort-Delta in the last week were high winds and storms and the failures were due to the weather. We had a number of outages around the North that we had to send staff. We are very thankful for the staff in our communities. The Member has highlighted the dedication of our staff in the community of Tuktoyaktuk.
What we do have available to us is through the Housing Corporation, the Emergency Repair Program that is administered through the Housing Corporation and CMHC. Homeowners may be eligible through that. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I am pretty sure I counted nine houses in Tuk, private homeowners. Would the CMHC funding still affect the amount of income that they make per year even though, under the CMHC funding, or could it be just because the Power Corporation Premier set precedents in Inuvik when the power surges of paying for the property damage? Now is it going to happen with the housing units? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the issue of the outages in Inuvik and the surge that occurred that caused the equipment to fail in Inuvik was a result of the Power Corporation’s power plant operations. The issue in many of the other communities across the North is the fact that when weather comes into it, we can’t control what Mother Nature does in the Territory. As I was saying, there is funding available through the Housing Corporation Emergency Repair Program which provides up to $11,000 for assistance for low-income earners in our communities. We would be more than happy to try to align the people to the right resources. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, under the CMHC funding for the $11,000, is that the capping? Is that the people’s income again? Does it come into effect for the funding? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it is income tested and it is a program through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation administered here in the Territory by our Housing Corporation. The other factors there, if those homeowners have insurance, that insurance would help them in these repairs. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do myself, too, want to thank all the Housing people in Tuk that are working so hard to get these units back up and running for the people. There are a few lessons following that incident with the wind that we could learn from across the Territory. We should be, through the Minister’s office, through community preparedness, going through tabletop exercises and stuff like that. Is the Minister willing to speak with the Minister of MACA if we could do that this summer so we could be more prepared for the next go around of the weather? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I know in the past that the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs has spoken about working with communities on emergency preparedness plans in those communities. We would have to work with the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk to see what plans they have in place. As well, we do have other responses around the region that we do involve when there are large problems, so the weather, for example, the communications issue that affected the whole Beaufort-Delta, we had incorporated our teams to become involved in that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Premier in light of the program services we have to offer for our seniors and to ensure them that they do live independently, more importantly, that there are supports for them to remain in their home communities in their homes and not have to leave our communities to other facilities such as, say, long-term care facilities in Inuvik and elsewhere. I would like to ask the Premier, would he take it into consideration that there is also an economic cost of having to move people into those types of facilities, the daily cost, the operational cost versus keeping them in their own homes? Would the Premier consider looking at the program services we have for seniors and look at the net fiscal benefit of retaining them in their own homes than having to send them into an institutional setting? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is one of our goals, is to keep our family members in their homes for as long as possible. When we design some of our programs, we try to be as much assistance, for example, on property tax breaks, fuel subsidy issue, or housing repair programs. We do try to take that into consideration before looking at the institution side of the equation. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I think that we also have to realize that there is a cost associated with the operation of a long-term care facility, incarceration programs. I will use the Arctic Tern Facility in Inuvik where we had one inmate which was costing this government some $5,000 a day to keep that one inmate in that facility, in excess of $150,000 a month. I think that we have to be realistic. The cost of keeping elders in their home is a lot cheaper than providing them that assistance and putting them in long-term care facilities where you have 24-hour care and provided by their families. I would just like to ask if he really seriously consider this and take down those barriers and keep their families in their homes, give them their family supports they need, and more importantly, bring down the cost of having to move them out of their communities and live out their days in their home communities. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, in fact, I think we are in full agreement in our goal, is to keep our family members, seniors, in their homes as long as possible before having to look at settings of long-term care, for example. We have tried to design many of our programs. As we continue to look forward, we continue to look at how we can try to better address the needs of our seniors throughout the Territory. We are in agreement that the cost of having seniors or any individual in an institution setting versus a home setting is much more costly. When we look at those programs like our fuel subsidy, our power, land tax, home care, home repairs, we look at those and, in our design, try to meet the needs as best as possible of our elders in our Territory. Thank you.
Thank you. Those are all good programs, but the downfall of that program is the way that you do the household income testing. As soon as a family member comes to visit their parents or a relative or a grandchild comes to spend some time with their parents, they’re penalized, and for me that is the problem with the programs. We have to remove those barriers where you penalize families for visiting family members. I think that is the key in making sure this program works. So could we remove that clause that discriminates families from being families? So I’d like to ask the Premier if he can clearly stipulate or clarify that policy so that we allow family members to do what families do, and that’s reunite them, live together and help their seniors go through their aging process, but also with some enjoyment of their grandchildren and their children living with them? Thank you.
Thank you. The program that we do have in place and the programs we have in place do take into consideration the seniors are exempt from any of these. For example, public housing, rent free, other housing programs that we have, it is household income, but it is the income of a person that doesn’t qualify as a senior or an elder in our communities. So we have taken that into consideration as we look at the design of our programs. I know that the Minister of the Housing Corporation is looking at a Shelter Policy for the Government of the Northwest Territories as well. So when we look into the future, we have to ensure that our programs do make sense and provide the best of services available, but the other side is we have to ensure that we can afford it overall to be able to provide the level of service we can. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Premier for his comments, but again, we do have to remove those barriers that do put barriers on families, and more importantly, the elders, because at the end of the day the elders are being penalized. They’re not accessing those programs simply because they didn’t have the paperwork. They didn’t have the income requirements that are needed by the program. So I’d just like to ask that they allow for some flexibility, some exemptions where a family member is there taking care of the person, which is saving the government costs, and that we’re able to show that those type of requirements will be allowed and it will allow for those types of exemptions in the policies. Thank you.
Thank you. Again, the overall programs and the list we have and the criteria for the programs do look at the consideration of having people and seniors in their own homes versus a separate. For the areas of ensuring forms and our programs are understandable, through the Department of Executive we’ve recently put in place community service offices in a number of our smaller communities to try to reach out, as well, to our seniors. In fact, they do have a program where they go and visit the elders in our communities to make them aware of programs we have and help them through that process. In fact, as the Minister of the Housing Corporation has just shown me, on our CARE program, out of 191 applications of those approved, 136 were from the seniors side. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for Seniors. In my statement I talked about the need for us, as a government, to look at a different way to fund seniors. I also mentioned the Elders Parliament from last year and in that very first Elders Parliament there was a motion passed by the members of that Elders Parliament, and I believe it was unanimously, for this government to consider the establishment of an elders secretariat. So I’d like to ask the Minister has she and/or Cabinet considered the recommendation from that motion. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Seniors, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That idea was brought up by the Member for Sahtu prior to the Elders Parliament recommendation and I believe the Cabinet or the government, our conclusion is that that’s not an idea that would work right now. Thank you.
