Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier, I spoke about homecare services in Nunakput. Mr. Speaker, it's exciting to see the finalization of this bilateral agreement between the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Government of Canada, to bring home community care funding to the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister is: when does the Minister expect that our communities can start to engage with the planned paid-caregiver pilot? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are going to be working over the next couple of months to create a number of options that we can go out and pilot with, either community caregiver or family support giver at a community level. We are hoping to have the pilots designed, at least for initial goaround, later in 2018. We are hoping to go out and start doing some piloting in 2018. I am happy to have conversations with the MLAs across the way, to help us set some priorities for where we might want to pilot some of these options. We know we want to pilot them in a variety of different communities: small communities, large communities, medium communities. So we are hoping to start that in the fall of 2018.
It's good to see that programs like this are starting to roll out across the territory. Mr. Speaker, in the interim and in the future, to provide a strong professional foundation to home and community care, what other actions will the Minister take to improve homecare, especially in our smallest and most remote communities? What are the options there?
Mr. Speaker, there's a number of things that are going on. In the last budget cycle, we had some additional dollars approved to create some more homecare positions across the Northwest Territories. Eleven positions were created, and a number of them were in small communities throughout the Northwest Territories. Most of them are filled. There are still a couple that we are out recruiting for.
At the same time, I committed to doing a homecare review of the entire Northwest Territories to assess the level of care that is provided in all communities, all regions, all areas of the Northwest Territories. The preliminary work has been done on that. We are developing the plan to move forward on that. We are hoping to get that work done during this upcoming fiscal year so that we can determine whether or not we are adequately resourced for homecare, home support workers across the territories.
In the meantime, we have a number of partners that we are working with, and work being done in the departments and the authorities, to support things like Elders in Motion, to provide palliative care. There are footcare options available in different communities throughout the Northwest Territories, through partners; chronic disease prevention and management. We've got vision screening that's done throughout the Northwest Territories. There are all sorts of types of things we are doing.
I think there are great partners out there, the NWT Seniors' Society and others, as well as different communitybased organizations. We are trying to work together as best we can to make sure those supports are available.
It looks like it's a good opportunity to work with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, as well as the GSOs in Nunakput. Mr. Speaker, my final question to the Minister is: without local homecare services, what options are open to communities like Sachs Harbour?
Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are doing that homecare review to help us assess where we need to enhance some of our supports. In the meantime, for communities like Sachs Harbour where there is not a home support worker, our community health nurses are the ones who can actually provide some of the homecare services, recognizing that it's a small community. That has been able to work over the last number of years, but it is going to be included in that homecare review so that we can determine adequate resources for homecare throughout the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions, Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the response from the Minister, and it's good to see the healthcare system working for elders. Mr. Speaker, I am just wondering if it's in the near future that the Minister will reinstate the position in Sachs Harbour for a homecare worker? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I can't say for sure. We really need to get that work done, the homecare assessment, so that we can make some determination across the entire Northwest Territories where we need some additional resources or where we can better utilize the resources we have, to make sure that our residents get the best care that they deserve in all communities and regions of the Northwest Territories. As we get that information, I am absolutely going to work with Members and share it with Members. Thank you.
Masi. Oral answer. Member for Kam Lake.
