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.
Thank you. I guess my next question to the Minister would be why does Cabinet and the Minister not consider that the idea of an elders secretariat will work. Thank you.
Thank you. Because it’s about creating an entire bureaucracy to do something that is already being done by many, many departments in the government. If you look at the entire GNWT -- and the Member’s statement stated that already -- a large part of what we do in Health and Social Services is providing services to seniors and elders, whether it be hospital care, or long-term care, or home care, extra health benefits, a large part of Housing work is providing services to the elders. There are special programs for income support under ECE. Municipal Affairs even is doing Elders in Motion. So the thing is, there are lots of things we do do for the seniors that they need that encompass a large section of our government. So I would like to personally have as much dollars and all the money go to the programs rather than creating a bureaucracy and that is one of the reasons for not going with that idea. Thank you.
Thank you. You know, it’s quite distressing to me that when we as a government question as to why something can’t be done, the very first thing that I hear out of the Minister’s mouth is that it’s going to cost a huge amount of money. I really think that the Minister needs to think that there are ultimate ways of doing things than spending a million dollars on it. The need for coordination of any number of different programs, in this case seniors, was identified by the number of programs that she mentioned and that are spread all across this government. That said, I mentioned that the NWT Seniors’ Society is starting to work on phase 3 of their project and that will be to build networks in our communities. I’d like to know from the Minister what support does she envisage that this government will provide or what support does she intend to provide to the NWT Seniors’ Society to help them accomplish phase 3. It’s outside of their regular yearly program activities. Thank you.
Thank you. As the Member knows, I believe we are the biggest funder of the NWT Seniors’ Society. I don’t think we fund everything, because I’m sure they probably get funding from the federal government on a project-by-project basis, but we are a very close partner of the NWT society. So we will continue to work with them on proposals that they have. I’m not aware of the proposal that the Member is asking about specifically, but should that proposal come to me, I would be happy to look at that. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess what I need to do is advise the NWT Seniors’ Society, who happen to be up in the gallery behind me, that they ought to make application to the Minister for some funding for phase 3 of their Elder Abuse Project.
I’d like to know from the Minister, I talked a bit about recognizing our elders in a different way, recognizing them as a significant cohort and a distinct sort of group within our society. I’d like to know whether or not the Minister has ever considered that possibility in terms of funding to split elders off into their own line item and, if not, would she consider that. Thank you.
Thank you. Unless the Member has information otherwise, I do believe that the NWT society’s work on elder abuse workshops and conferences over the years has been from the funding from the Department of Health and Social Services and government. We are a close partner with the society in working on elder abuse. They’ve identified that financial abuse is the latest topic that they wanted to work on, and we put in some federal funding and our own funding to do a pan-territorial campaign on elder abuse, which has been quite successful. So, Mr. Speaker, we fund the NWT Seniors’ Society. We also fund some of the community groups that come forward with their own elder programming, whether it be to get the community together or do awareness or to do a gathering. So, Mr. Speaker, without having seen the proposals, I cannot say right now whether we can fund it or not, but we do get those proposals. The Member is well aware of the fiscal pressure that we are in, so any of those proposals will be judged on that basis along with other priorities.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
