Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement I spoke of seniors and trying to keep them as long as we can in their homes. My questions are for the Minister responsible for Seniors.
What systems does the GNWT have in place to link all those seniors’ issues? I had indicated in my Member’s statement that lots of the seniors’ issues are in different departments, so that is a question I have for the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister responsible for Seniors, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services does work with MACA and the NWT Housing Corporation to come up with ways to try to keep seniors in their home as long as possible, and to provide services to the seniors in order to remain in their home. I think it’s just a matter of collaboration. I guess that would be the system that we’re collaborating on, trying to make sure that seniors can remain in their homes as long as possible.
That collaboration is something I would like to see go forward as much as possible. I am looking to see what the Minister and the departments are doing to deal with the increased costs associated with staying in their own homes. Have they looked at what the CPI is and are some of our funding programs tied to that type of increase? Because from my understanding, some of those increases haven’t been seen over many years.
In recognition that it is fairly costly to operate a home ownership unit, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment has a seniors home heating subsidy. That has been targeted to be sufficient to heat the home during the winter months. Also, the Housing Corporation has a preventative maintenance program targeted to seniors that has gradually climbed up from the beginning of approximately $800-some-odd, and a different program has evolved into a more elaborate program, and now they can provide up to $2,000 for seniors to do preventative maintenance in their home.
I appreciate that information from the Minister. I guess my question was about the linking of those expenditures and those funding programs to some sort of index that shows that they’re going to see increases. Like I indicated, some of those have not seen increases for several years. Is there a way that the government is looking at implementing this to a CPI index to increase those amounts for seniors?
I thought I did indicate that those programs had seen increases. I recognize that if the individual needed to live in their home, to make it more barrier-free for the seniors to remain in their home longer, then that’s a larger program that’s offered by the Housing Corporation called CARE that can do that. But in as far as looking at the Consumer Price Index and how that impacts the seniors, then definitely, the Housing Corporation has made appropriate increases in the preventative maintenance program and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment has made appropriate increases in the seniors home heating subsidy to account for that.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
As I have indicated, many seniors are struggling to keep up to these increased costs, and some believe that they’re in a situation of poverty. Is the department looking at adding any new incentives for seniors to keep them off the demand of our facilities, which we know is going to be increasing over the next few years? Is there anything that the government is doing to implement new programs for seniors to stay in their homes?
I guess, in addition to the preventative maintenance program and the home heating subsidy, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs offers the homeowner a complete tax break, 100 percent tax relief on their home on an annual basis, which is a program that the senior must apply for. There are other areas, such as cost of living, for groceries and so on. This government has some programs in some communities where they would reduce the cost of their service to the seniors and to others in the communities, but targeted specifically to the seniors, I think those are the three programs the government is proposing to assist the seniors with costs. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
