Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess, with consensus government, I think it really works. I think, because of the unique nature of the Northwest Territories, we need to have our MLAs from the smaller communities have a voice and that they play a very important role in how things work. All of the detractors of consensus government, not one of them have been able to describe a process that works better. You hear some people that want all of the people of the Northwest Territories to elect a Premier. I look at other jurisdictions. I don’t see any other jurisdiction where all of the people elect the Premier. You hear people want to have political parties. I think for Yellowknife that would be fine. But if we had political parties we’d probably always have a Premier from Yellowknife, especially when you look at other similar jurisdictions like the Yukon where that’s been the case.

I think that consensus government works for the Northwest Territories, and I think by working together and supporting each other, we can make sure we get all the important work of the Northwest Territories done. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

The Chair Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Blake.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to ask the candidates here, as they all know, in the small communities we are challenged with a lack of facilities for the care of our elderly. If elected as Premier, will you support long-term care in the small communities?

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

The Chair Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Menicoche.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. The answer is yes. I’ve got a constituency of many small communities and having long-term care closer to the homes, to their cousins, to their relatives is indeed beneficial to the health of the individual and to the communities. As well, it’s about jobs in our small communities. Once we start cutting in the communities, we’re cutting jobs, we’re cutting families that depend on those jobs, and I would not be supporting that. In fact, I would actually look at a solution of returning services to the communities that have lost them. Thank you.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

The Chair Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m supportive of putting in all the programs and supports we can in small communities; in fact, all communities so that we can have our elders and

our parents and grandparents in the communities for as long as possible. When the day comes that they need 24-hour-a-day care with nurses and doctors, then the reality is for us in the Northwest Territories, we’re going to be looking at regional centres. We’ve got one planned in the Sahtu; for Norman Wells to service the Sahtu, for example, where currently there is no long-term care facility.

The issue is strictly ideally it would be nice to have those services in every community. The reality for all of us in all our planning that we’ve done, it shows that it’s not something that can be done, but we can focus on the home care, we can work with families to make sure that we provide those supports with the nurses and the community health reps, and look at providing the best possible services at a regional level for 24-hour-a-day care. Thank you.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

The Chair Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. McLeod.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess, realistically, the logical conclusion for what’s being proposed is we would have 33 long-term facilities in the Northwest Territories, and I think the reality is that it’s going to be difficult for us to achieve that. I prefer to look at the approach that the government can’t do everything. I think families should support their seniors for as long as they can and I think we should make sure seniors can be independent as long as possible. I know when my parents were alive they functioned very well with regular home care visits and were independent right until the end. I think that through a coordinated approach, I think that probably in some communities we could have long-term care facilities for seniors. But I think that if we have a continuum of care, I think that would work in the best interests. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

The Chair Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Dolynny.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair, fellow colleagues. I just want to publicly, or we should be publicly congratulating our Stanton Territorial Hospital, their staff and administration for their recent accreditation of 95 percent. This shows great care in our primary facility, but we are struggling with the level of quality and the sustainability of health care in some of our many regions across the North. This government is currently spending 25 percent of our budget on health, where national averages are around the 42 percent mark. Coined by many as the greatest unsustainable delusion of our generation with aging baby boomers and costs rising, many budgets, many economists are saying that government budgets will push beyond the 50 percent mark.

My question to the candidates is: what will you do to sustain our health care in the North in the years to come? Thank you.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

The Chair Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Miltenberger.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’re spending $340 million a year on health and social services. It is by far the biggest growth department that we do have. We are going to be negotiating here to replace the Health Accord, the $42 billion Health Accord that currently exists with the federal government. That’s going to be a key piece.

I’ve talked today about issues about prevention, moving money to prevention and getting people to make the right personal choices, doing the things in communities that will keep people healthy, keep aging parents at home, that we won’t add to the costs. We have all these insured services that we want to protect. There are a number of things that we have to do. A lot of it is tied to the front end in terms of prevention, because unless we can make people make the right… Or unless people can make the right decisions, we will never have enough money to fix people, to repair them, to help them recover with the alcohol addictions and all the other physical ailments that will beset them. In the long term that’s the way forward, I believe. As well, we have to be very sure and clear that we’re efficient at how we do business.

I, as well, would like to congratulate Stanton. It is the flagship of the acute care side of health services in the Northwest Territories.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

The Chair Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Menicoche.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much. I’m very supportive of a healthy living strategy that we will adopt, but it’s not a quick answer. The question is about can we prevent those huge expenditures in our health centre. The new agreement is important and we have to ensure that that funding is appropriate. Also, we’ve got to look at our current expenditures. I’m not convinced, Mr. Chair, that we are spending in the right areas, and I believe that we can review it and make changes and recommendations to how we are spending money in our health care system. Thank you.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

The Chair Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. McLeod.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Like Minister Miltenberger, I think it’s very important that we don’t get left behind. We have to start planning so that we’ll be ready to negotiate with the federal government when the Health Accords are being renewed. We have to push for a very hard bargain. I remember way back when, when the three

northern Premiers got together and went to Ottawa and stayed in Ottawa until they got a fair share of funding for health care. I don’t know if it will come to that, but we have to be prepared to take that type of action.

Obviously, prevention is the cornerstone if prevention can help reduce costs significantly. I talk about the Foundation for Change. We need to continue to work on that. We can’t supply all of the services, as I said earlier. Medical travel is a very big, big cost. We have to make sure that it is administratively done properly and also serves the needs of the people that use it. I think we are very lucky here in the larger centres because we have access to health professionals. We get prescriptions. We can walk down the street and get it filled. I think we have to make sure that the smaller communities don’t get left behind. We have to make sure that we get health professionals there, that they be able to access drugs and get support as needed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

The Chair Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Hawkins.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The homelessness problem has caused significant concern and great pressure here in Yellowknife. This community, I will say admirably, has been responding quite well to the challenge, and you will see significant investment through the Bailey House and great support behind the Betty House that some day will come to life here and be helping women.

Mr. Chairman, I have heard informally, repeatedly, that 75 percent of the homelessness problem originates from members of our territory who are originating from outside of Yellowknife. They are coming to Yellowknife because they have no services to access either in their regions or in their small communities. What are the Premier candidates willing to do to help the small communities in the regions address some of their homelessness problems? It has become a serious problem here in Yellowknife. I have understood quite well that many of these people would like to be closer to their regions and communities as well as their families rather than just coming to Yellowknife. To address the problem, how are you going to help the North? Thank you.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

The Chair Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. McLeod.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think we have taken the approach similar to what we did here in Yellowknife where social agencies and the municipal government and territorial government got together to try to find ways to deal with it. I think there are a number of issues in trying to resolve homelessness. I think you have to have a

continuum of housing for the homeless. There are mental health issues. There are addiction issues. I think that the way they approached it for now, it is used as a model for other jurisdictions on how to deal with the homeless. I think that we have to identify how many people are out there. We need to try to deal with what their issues are. I think that we need to work with Income Support. We can provide for them. I really believe that we need to find ways to provide for individual support closer to home. Also, it is not just Yellowknife; I know most of the communities have hard to house people and so on. I think if we take the similar approach to communities, we can deal with it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

The Chair Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Miltenberger.

Questions By Members
Election of the Premier

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is money currently in the budget to work with communities, money for Yellowknife as well as the small communities. If that money needs supplementing, we should look at that. I know that it is designed to be accessed on a case-by-case basis. There is also the issue of differentiating between homeless and hard to house. Plus, I agree and it is clear that Yellowknife is, by far and away, the largest magnet community we have in the Northwest Territories. People come, sometimes intend to stay here, make some personal choices, often not the right healthy ones and end up staying here in a way that they can’t afford and they can’t leave. I think we have to look at how we are going to do through interagency planning and in the communities and between communities to make sure that we can do the right things, and if repatriation back to home communities is the thing that should be done, then we should have a way to do that. Thank you.

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