Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would appreciate more detailed information on the facility and why it's not being used to capacity. I think it's telling that even before the heating problems became an issue, for instance this summer, the Minister just said that the occupancy was down to two persons. I know that it's not a popular stance, and we've heard a number of Members talking about this the past few days, but I think this points to the fact that these sorts of facilities are not the way to go when it comes to dealing with elderly people. In fact, I know that from our travels with the Special Committee on Health and Social Services, people in almost every single community we visited told us that they would rather be supported to stay in their own homes rather than go into facilities of any sort.
I guess a real concern is that we have this problem with the facility in Deline, and the Premier has mentioned that there are some concerns with people in the community of Deline about whether or not the facility is, in fact, a good place to go when you're elderly, and perhaps it's only a place to go when you die. I would like to know how we're going to be assured that if we're spending money to put in a facility in a place like Fort Norman, we aren't going to end up with the same perception there. How can we make sure that the facility is going to be used?
Mr. Chairman, one other thing I would like to have answered is what are the typical O and M costs for one of these facilities, and how much home care could that O and M cost buy. Have these communities been told that this amount of money could be turned into salaries for local people to support elders in their own homes?