As I said earlier, the home care program NWT-wide is an important component of service delivery, especially if we want to focus on keeping our elders and other people who are in need of health and social services in the communities. I think Fort Resolution is luckier than other communities in that they do have a complement of home care workers who have been given training and have gone through the training.

I do appreciate, having visited the community, that we need to do more work on that. It’s work we need to do in every other community, because home care programming in some communities is relatively new. It will take continued effort for the community to know exactly what the home care worker’s job is — that they’re formalized, that they’re trained — and that there’s buy-in and communication between the community and the home care workers. I understand the community advocate position is right now being reinstated.

Through that person, whoever the new person is, and with the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority, I do commit to the Member that we will work and give support necessary to make sure the program is rendered and provides the services people need.