Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The long-term care fees for the tenants are for meals and accommodations.
I raise the issue that a senior went into long-term care and is charged the full rate of $746 and he still has a house and a spouse to take care of. How is the department taking these types of situations into consideration?
The fees are in accordance with the legislation for long-term care. These meals and accommodations are not insured services. All other services that are provided in long-term care, such as nursing and daycare, are an insured service. The two items that are not an insured service are accommodations and meals. Those are charged according to that and that’s what those fees are. I’m not sure if there’s consideration for what expenses they have outside of that, but this is to cover the areas that are not insured.
During my Member’s statement I spoke about the case that I’m talking about. He’s an Aboriginal elder. I know that in our treaties it says that health is going to be taken care of for our people. We do it many ways. The people that aren’t even elders get covered by Health Canada. Why are our Aboriginal elders being charged full fare at the long-term care centres?
The charge for meals and accommodations is under 10 percent of what they charge the cost of maintaining individual long-term care. There’s nursing care, medical care, medical supplies, nutrition, rehabilitation, housekeeping, laundry, janitorial services, which are all covered by the department and the organization providing long-term care. Those two expenses, as I said, are not covered and it’s outside of insured policy. There is no money coming from the federal government to cover those two specific items.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I think the Minister is opening up a whole different area and I’d certainly like to ask more questions and debate this further. I’d like to ask him to review the situation. My question is: How does the treaty impact our Aboriginal seniors that are in long-term care and why are they paying fees?
I know for a fact that the treaty does not enter into any charges for long-term care. Long-term care is provided to individuals within the Northwest Territories whether they are Dene, Metis or non-Aboriginal. All charges are the same. It’s not really a treaty issue. The costs, like I indicated, were only charges to cover meals and accommodations which were uninsured. All other items in there are insured. If there is money in the overall federal transfer to the government and it gets incorporated into covering the other costs, then that may be the case, but for this particular item I don’t believe it’s a treaty issue.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In other cultures a great deal of importance is placed on the role of the extended family. In our culture, even here in the North, we often take our seniors to a different community, put them in facilities. Seniors living in their own accommodation, as my colleague raised today, struggle to maintain themselves in their independence in their own home. A number of years ago there was a prototype of a granny suite developed. They actually had it in the parking lot up here at the Explorer Hotel. The wisdom of the NWT Housing Corporation at the time was to build these modestly sized units, take them into the communities, and actually co-locate them on a lot in a community with the grown children of this elderly person. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation where did that idea go. It was a great idea. Seniors could watch their grandchildren come and go; they could come and visit them; they’re completely self-contained units. With the growing population of elders – as stated in the budget address, it’s going to double in the next few years – shouldn’t we be revisiting such a thing as that and encourage the involvement of the extended family in a seniors life?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is actually the first that I’ve heard of this particular program and I would have to follow up with the NWT Housing Corporation and see what happened with that, where it went, any future plans.
As I said before, through the independent home ownership program they had a couple years ago they were able to get a lot of independent seniors into their own units. But the Member has raised a good point on co-locating with family members. I will commit to the Member that will follow up with the corporation and see where this is at, because I haven’t heard of it before.
I asked the question because, of course, we happen to have a business in Hay River that could build them for you and get them out to the communities. I appreciate that the Minister will go back and check. I mean, sometimes these good ideas come about and then something happens, the government changes direction, they fall off the table. But I particularly like them because the other thing is that they are fairly readily moveable, so they can be deployed to wherever the situation arises, because there is a continuum of care for seniors. They may not always be able to live there, but to me the idea is excellent. I really appreciate if the Minister, maybe even during this session, could get some research done with his corporation and bring it back and table it and let’s look at it again.
I will follow up, and obviously, as with all the departments in the government, they’re over there monitoring the conversations we have in here, so I’m sure that they’re putting some information together for me right now. I will follow up and see where that went. It’s a very novel idea and it has some merit, but we’d have to follow up on it further.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister for Education, Culture and Employment. In February of this year I asked some questions of the Minister with regard to a safe schools policy for all of the schools within the NWT and the Minister responded. Thank you very much to the Minister. I did get a letter which pretty much told me that all schools have an emergency response plan in place. But I was not referencing an emergency response plan, which is like a lockdown if we have a shooter in the school, or a bomb threat or so on. I’m referencing a safe schools policy which looks at all aspects of the safety of the students and the community: bullying, kids at risk, kids involved in drugs and alcohol, involving partners like the RCMP and so on, family violence and violence in the school.
I’d like to ask the Minister, in his letter he advised me that the department would review and revisit fairly regularly, and I’d like to ask the Minister if there’s been any movement on the part of the department to look at a safe schools policy for our schools in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This particular subject is very important to our school system and especially with the school boards across the Northwest Territories. We did address that with the school boards and they’re fully aware of it. There are, as the Member indicated, potential partners that are involved, RCMP, NGOs, and also parents getting involved in this. There’s also a question of an anti-bullying policy into the schools. Those are the areas that we are consistently working on, and I’m glad the Member raised that issue because this is an area that is broad to cover all schools so we are doing what we can as a department to work with the school boards across the Northwest Territories to make it happen.
One of the other things that was in the letter that I received in March, further to my February questions, was that the Department of Education, within negotiations with the NWT Teachers’ Association, would bring this issue to the table. I would like to ask the Minister whether or not, now that the negotiations have been concluded with the NWTTA, there was any decision made during negotiations whether or not there is an implementation plan as he’s referenced in his letter?
With specifics to the NWTTA negotiations that were undergoing and the conclusion of that, the Member is asking for specific information on this which I don’t have in front of me, but I will be more than happy to get back to the Member on what is the status on those initiatives that were discussed at that point.
I appreciate the Minister’s commitment. I’d like to ask the Minister, I’m well aware that one of the boards in Yellowknife, Yellowknife Education District No. 1, has a very involved Safe Schools Policy. It could be used as a template for all the rest of the schools within the territory. I’d like to ask the Minister if the department would consider taking the YK No. 1 Safe Schools Policy and sending it to all the schools within the territory and encouraging them to develop their own policy from this template.
Those are the types of discussions that we do have at the board chair level. The Safe Schools Policy of YK District No. 1, we can certainly utilize the policy that they currently have instead of reinventing the wheel.
What’s before us, if we can enhance that policy for other school systems then, by all means, we will definitely pursue that and have our discussions with my department and the YK No. 1 as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that the Minister is going to do something, that he’s going to talk to board chairs. But I think this goes beyond board chairs and I think this is something the department could do directly with the schools. I’d like to ask the Minister when I could expect him to provide some concrete action… Sorry. When he could report to me that there’s been some concrete action on developing policies in all our schools.
Before the end of session I will get back to the Member on the status, what my department is pursuing on this particular subject on the Safe Schools Policy and working with the YK District No. 1 and other research that we’ve done within Canada and will provide that information to the Members.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My next line of questions are for the Minister of MACA concerning a CBC news report on 2016 Arctic Winter Games, which indicated that there’s going to be limited sports on the ice surfaces. What involvement has MACA had with this Arctic Winter Games planning?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a cause for some concerns; however, it’s a decision that’s made by the Arctic Winter Games International Committee. They make the decision and I think they take into account the location of the games and the fact that they don’t have some of the facilities. Obviously, we’ve relayed our concerns, because a lot of the ice sport activities and games are a core part of the Arctic Winter Games. It’s a decision that’s made by the Arctic Winter Games International Committee and we have relayed our concerns on to them. However, I’m expecting that we’ll be hearing a lot more about this particular issue in the future because it does affect a lot of folks out there across the Northwest Territories.
Obviously, it’s a concern to me. I know Hay River and Fort Smith put a proposal back a couple years ago to combine the two communities together to host the Arctic Winter Games and they were declined because they didn’t want to put the two communities together to host all the events, yet they’re allowing this one community to do it with limited sports. What is the next step for MACA involved with the Arctic Winter Games planners to ensure that these games are included for the youth of the North?
We can have discussion with our representative on the International Games Committee and see if there might be a way that something could be worked out, because a lot of kids look forward to the opportunity to compete in the Arctic Winter Games, compete in the sport of their choice, and having to respect the next host, which is actually Greenland and their lack of a lot of ice facilities, I think some kind of alternate arrangements might have to be worked out. We’ll have to have those discussions to see where we go from here, because it is going to be a concern for a lot of people in the next year or so. Thank you.
Has the department looked at any, as he indicated, alternates for some of these youth that would be deprived of their opportunity to be in the Arctic Winter Games at this time?
Mr. Speaker, we have had some initial discussions as to some of the alternatives that might be available. We have to further those discussions and see, because we have a lot of athletes that take part in the ice portion, which I said before is a core part of the Arctic Winter Games. We have to try and ensure that they have an opportunity during the Arctic Winter Games season to gather and compete. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have no further questions, but I am concerned with this issue. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I have no further answers. I am also concerned with this situation. Thank you.
---Laughter
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table a number of documents today. The first package of documents is the e-mail from the Minister of Transportation to me dated February 14th.
The next package I would like to table is a note, plus a similar package of information, an e-mail Monday, May 28th.
The third part of this compendium would be the copy of the Hansard particular page I was referring to that highlights a bunch of commitments.
The next item I would like to table is off a Twitter account under the name of Tait Communications, notably page 3. It cites Det’on Cho Construction in Halifax at the Marriott hiring for construction in the NWT. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Wednesday, May 30, 2012, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, that the Government of the Northwest Territories reinstate funding at least equivalent to the budgets devoted by the 16th Assembly for programming and support of renewable energy generation and more efficient use of energy;
And further, that comprehensive planning and implementation of new hydro generation and grid connections be reinstated towards the achievement of both reduced and stabilized power costs and expansion of hydro zones to communities currently relying on diesel generation of electricity;
And furthermore, that the government provide a response to this motion within 120 days.
Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Item 17, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Mr. Abernethy.
