Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to all of my colleagues for your comments on this motion. I think it has attracted a lot of thoughtful consideration.
I would like to start by mentioning, of course, that when you look at the capital plans, we are finishing up a couple of facilities in the regions, but that’s it. Where are they? It’s not that we’ve just started talking about our capital facilities, our facilities for seniors.
What this motion is, it’s a call for a plan. It’s a call for a plan because there is no plan right now. We had government report after government report; no plan is in place. I know the Minister has heard the Members’ call for getting ahead of this looming deficit with a plan that shows, in fact, what steps will be taken, what resources are required. Let’s see that capital plan, let’s see a timeline, one that clearly lays out all of those things and, in particular, the partnerships.
I think Avens is profiled here because it has demonstrated what can be achieved. As the Minister and others have said, when there are incredible partnerships, when the community plays a role and when business plays a role, when everybody gets together, non-government organizations and so on, and discusses there is a real urgent need, let’s move forward, and they have done that with government participation and on a timeline that recognized the need and not government’s continual delaying and lack of planning to get things on the capital plan.
I think that what we’re really talking about is respectful treatment of our elders, recognizing that, as some have said, it goes beyond just beds. It goes into the areas of addressing elder abuse and the desire of our seniors to participate in the benefits of the facilities wherever they can, wherever those facilities may be, be they territorial facilities in Yellowknife or locally.
I think three of my colleagues have mentioned concerns that this is a Yellowknife project and doesn’t recognize the community needs. If that’s the case, then I take that as my fault, because I read this as territorial. The elements here describe the territorial situation and it calls for a territorial action plan in both small and large communities.
It does indeed address Avens, which is, again, a project that has had amazing community participation and partnerships with business and so on and, because of that, is actually doing some site preparation, again with support of this government, at least philosophically, to get that work started.
We can spin this every way we want, but the thing is, there is great need. There is an amazing bunch of people who are ready to move, committed to seniors. Their focus is seniors. Their respect is for seniors, and they are going to come up with a process to get it done. They see the need. They are serving seniors from all over the Northwest Territories.
But this motion is not meant to just call for that. This motion is to address long-term care. Everybody, every Member in this House wants their constituents who are seniors to have the ability to access facilities to the extent possible as close as they can to home. That is a given. I don’t operate on any other basis and I know the Minister doesn’t either. So let’s put a plan in place, let’s get this addressed.
The Minister mentioned seniors housing. I am not aware of seniors housing in Yellowknife, other than Avens of course. I think there is essentially none here, despite the fact that we have so many seniors and they are rising at triple the rate of the NWT. We’ve called for this motion to address those sorts of things.
I appreciate the Minister’s recognition of the need for this plan and I would say a commitment to get it done already. I appreciated his recognition that we can’t rely on Aging in Place to get what we need done. We need to recognize that, in fact, even if we are wildly successful with that, there will be huge needs for these facilities.
The Minister mentioned there’s nothing stopping anybody from providing for seniors facilities, private enterprise. Obviously, something must be because it hasn’t happened yet and this motion calls for the Minister to assist society in whatever measure is needed to get that done. I agree that private industry should be playing an important role in this area, but we aren’t down south. The Minister knows the cost of living, the cost of operation and so on. So there are some real issues that the Minister could play an important role in.
Again, this was not meant to be a Yellowknife-centric motion. The Avens facility is a territorial facility. This motion is meant to get a plan in place for throughout the Northwest Territories to address the needs our seniors in terms of long-term care beds in a very respectful way.
I, again, thank my colleagues for all of their comments and I look forward to a recorded vote. Mahsi.
Mr. Bromley, Mrs. Groenewegen, Mr. Dolynny, Mr. Bouchard, Mr. Hawkins, Ms. Bisaro, Mr. Moses.
Thank you. All those opposed, please rise.
Mr. Yakeleya, Mr. Blake, Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Abernethy, Mr. Miltenberger, Mr. McLeod – Yellowknife South, Mr. Lafferty, Mr. Ramsay, Mr. McLeod – Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you. All those abstaining, please rise. Results are seven in favour, 10 against. The motion is defeated.
---Defeated
