Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in my Member’s statement, I find it unbelievable that the Department of Health does not have a matching line item for the 10 long-term beds that are currently planned to be removed from the new health centre. My first question for the Minister is: Will the community of Hay River be protected from having to move its seniors to other communities?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve said in this House many times that we are going to do everything possible to keep the seniors in their home communities as much as possible. The only time we wish to move seniors is when there is no long-term care available in their communities and they have to go to long-term care, then we will sometimes move them to another long-term care facility. For the most part, the idea is to keep people as close to home as possible.
I would like to ask the Minister of Health why there was no matching line item for these 10 long-term beds when they were being removed from the new health care facility. I understand the concept of not putting any in the health care facility, but why was there no line item to replace these in some other facility or add a facility?
The decision was made to build a new health centre and the decision was made not to have the new health centre be a home for people to live in. The long-term care beds were not incorporated into the new health care centre. Unfortunately, the long-term care beds were not incorporated into any other location. I’ve committed to the Member that we’re going to look at it. We’re not going to leave individuals that require long-term care that are in H.H. Williams Hospital now out in the cold. We will find a place for them within Hay River if at all possible.
The department has indicated they are doing an assessment of the Hay River area and the future needs. I would urge the department to complete that assessment and make sure that this facility is going to be a facility that takes care of the needs for the next 50 years.
Will the Minister commit to completing that assessment and making sure that if Hay River’s needs for the next 50 years are 15 beds, that Hay River looks to that type of facility? If the needs are only 10, that’s fine, but the needs may be even higher, especially with the aging population of the Northwest Territories. Will the Minister commit to that, please?
Yes. I would commit to completing the assessment for the need of long-term care beds in Hay River and try to move that to the capital planning process as soon as possible.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As time is of the essence in this project and the project is being constructed as we speak, when will the department place these essential 10 long-term beds in their budget process so I can see it and the community of Hay River can see it on the long-term budget process, knowing that it is going to be removed from the community within the next few years?
The Member will be able to see it as a line item in the capital plan once it goes through the capital planning process in this House.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
