Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during the budget process, the Department of Health and Social Services received new funding to support enhanced homecare and youth in crisis. On Thursday, we received an e-mail from the Minister of Health and Social Services identifying a proposed plan to allocate this funding. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Health and Social Services please provide further information on the plan to us here today? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have already talked a little bit about the comprehensive review of homecare services that are being planned for 2017-2018, and this is going to help us make informed decisions in the next round of business planning on how we're going to invest to support aging in place for seniors and persons with disabilities. However, Mr. Speaker, we do know that there are some pockets of documented unmet demands for homecare services in many communities through the Northwest Territories. Recognizing this, we truly appreciate the $2.5 million allocation that was issued during the budgeting process. We're intending to use it to make some incremental investments to meet the demands for patient care that we know exists in several of the communities and our regions that have been previously limited by resource shortfalls.
With the new 2017-2018 homecare funding, I'm pleased to announce that we'll be strengthening homecare services in our three largest communities and introducing homecare services in six communities where there are currently none offered. We're looking at putting one additional nurse in Inuvik, as well as two additional home support workers. We're looking at putting three additional home support workers here in Yellowknife and we're looking at putting halftime home support workers in Wrigley, Jean Marie River, Sambaa K'e, Nahanni Butte, Kakisa, and we're looking at putting in an additional one-and-a-half home support workers in Hay River, with 0.5 of that being utilized to support enterprise where there are currently no home support services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
This is great news and I must publicly thank the Minister for sharing this information here today. I was very concerned during the budget process, and now I'm happier to hear this good news. I have to recognize the hard work that the department and Minister have done to this date. Can the Minister advise if this good news e-mail can be shared with the public?
Yes, please share the e-mail with everybody you want to share. In fact, all the MLAs I would encourage to share the information. Mr. Speaker, this is a good news story and it shows us working together as an Assembly and that we recognize the need to invest in staff and home support positions to meet the needs of our residents across the Northwest Territories. Please share the information with everybody that the Member would like to.
I'd like to thank the Minister for allowing us to share this good information again out to the public. Mr. Speaker, with this plan in place, can the Minister explain the next steps to implement this plan and provide a potential timeline, like job descriptions and stuff like that, that have to be done?
I am a little reluctant to speculate on a timeline. There is a significant amount of work that needs to be done. The position job descriptions need to be written. They need to be evaluated. They need to be incorporated into the complement of positions that are out there. Then we do have to go out and staff those positions and that can take a bit of time. Once we do have the positions filled it will likely require some training for individuals to make sure that they're providing the high-quality service that we want to make available to residents throughout the Northwest Territories. I can say that I have talked to the territorial authority and I have talked to the department. They are going to move forward as quickly as they can to get this upfront work done and get these positions filled and on the ground as quickly as possible. I have asked that we utilize the regional recruitment program where appropriate so that, if there are people who meet the qualifications today, we can work to help train some local people for local work.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
