Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Oral questions. The honourable Member from Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have not made that decision yet. We have been working with the community, the emergency measures people and also working with the Northwest Territories Power Corporation who have upgraded the power plant in Behchoko so it is able to operate when the power goes down by way of a backup system for the hydro system that comes offline. Because of these changes, we are hoping that once we have a final report, we will be able to meet the satisfaction of the community of Behchoko by way of having a backup system in place.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister tell me what the difference is between a seniors' home in Behchoko and a seniors' home in Hay River and Fort Smith which do have backup generators? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Speaker, since the Member raised this question in this House, we are looking at all our seniors' facilities to ensure we have a system in place where they are going to be required and the extent of the emergencies that we can respond. Like I mentioned earlier, we are working with the emergency measures people, through MACA and the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, to ensure that when the power does go down in those communities, what is the backup plan to deal with these emergencies. So we are looking at it. I have not received the final report on it, so, for the Member's information, we are considering this possibility.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we talk about the value of our elders and the respect for our elders. I would like to ask the Minister, for the benefit of the elders and their families, why does it make more sense to put the health and lives of frail elders at risk by forcing them to travel to Yellowknife, away from their families and their communities in minus 45 degree temperatures, than to install a simple backup generator in the seniors' home facility? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I have to sympathize with the Member and I am sorry for the incident that did occur. It was a natural occurrence where the power system went down when one of our towers collapsed under the weight of the ice that was on it. It was an unforeseen accident that occurred. The other situation we ran into was the backup system we had did not work because it was not maintained. So the Power Corporation has replaced the existing power plant in Behchoko with a modern power plant, so the system does work. We are trying to avoid this situation from happening again. Again, I want to apologize to the people of Behchoko for the incident, but we are doing everything we can to ensure that doesn't happen again.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as you know, the summer is here already and the winter is not too far away. Can the Minister affirm, in this House, that he will expeditiously work with his department and identify the need for a backup generator in the community of Behchoko for this winter? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Speaker, if it's okay with the Member, I would make an attempt to go into Behchoko with the Member and have an official opening of the power plant in Behchoko to show that we have a new power plant. It is up and running and it is going to work this time, so we don't have the situation that we had last time where we had the hydro system go down and also a backup system go down. I commit to the Member that as soon as we have this system up and running, we will make an official visit to unveil it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Final supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do accept the Member travelling to my community. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, we are talking about two different issues. Of course, there is the power outage and the backup generator for the seniors' home in Behchoko. The backup generator is badly needed in the community. Even though the power has revived now, anything could happen with the power. I would like to ask the Minister again, if he happens to visit the community, sit down with the community and identify the need for a backup generator, can he commit to this House that there will be an investment in the seniors' home in Behchoko? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, having the facilities identified in our communities as a central emergency facilities that do have backup systems, again, it's worked into our emergency measures plan with MACA, ourselves and other agencies. Again, because the situation happened in Behchoko, we have to see exactly the recommendations that come forward from the emergency measures report, review those recommendations and act on them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if he can inform the people in the communities about the types of action plans his department has planned for serving the percentage of patients in the Stanton Territorial Hospital. What is he doing to provide good quality service that is serving the high percentage of aboriginal patients? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Stanton Territorial Hospital is an $80 million, 500 staff facility. It is our major tertiary care facility. The Member is correct; there is a high percentage of aboriginal population who use the service and we have been working with Stanton, with some of the MLAs over the last number of months and have been getting advice from elders across the Northwest Territories about how we can start to better incorporate traditional healing practices and wellness approaches into Stanton hospital. There has been a lot of work done. We've taken the time to go to other jurisdictions that have done interesting things like Whitehorse, like Sioux Lookout, we have been down to look at the Royal Alex in Edmonton. We are going to be bringing together an advisory group of elders who are going to sit down with Stanton and we are going to start mapping out some of the things we can do more effectively, keeping in mind that we already have a lot of good things underway in terms of interpreter services, the wild foods that we bring in and there are 15 aboriginal nurses now operating in Stanton, which is a real asset. So we want to continue to improve that service. The Member has been involved with the Social Programs committee and we are going to continue on that path. Thank you.