Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the greatest things about representing Yellowknife Centre is that I have the honour of representing the residents of Aven Court, Aven Manor and Aven Ridge.
Many of these seniors remain active in the community or have had important contributions in the past to the quality of life in Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories. But we all know that as we get older, it gets harder to do some things. That is why the Aven complex uses ramps instead of stairs, so that residents with mobility problems can get around easily.
I know that there are a number of residents in Aven Court, which is the independent living part of the complex, who have mobility issues and could use some renovations to the units to make it easier for them to maintain their independence. Probably the most important renovation we could do to some of these units would be to put in walk-in tubs for those residents who have mobility issues.
I have spoken with Aven Court and the NWT Housing Corporation, and there is interest and support for such a concept from both of these organizations. If these were private houses owned by seniors, they would be able to access funding under the Housing Corporation to install a walk-in tub, and that would be great.
But when the Department of Health and Social Services was approached, their answer was very clear and simple: no. This concerns me, Mr. Speaker, Does the Department of Health and Social Services not support our seniors? This can't be.
Mobility is a certain reason we have to stand strong and tall to make sure our seniors continue independent living. If not, they'll be put into costly places such as high-cost, long-term care facilities.
I realize that the costs may be seen as very expensive, at $10,000 for the partnership that Health and Social Services would be on hand for, but I think that could be simply justified by helping maintain the independence of those people. The issue really comes to do: does the government support independent living of our seniors?
I think this is a simple partnership that could be worked out between the Housing Corp. and Health and Social Services. In my mind, we can't lose the end result, which certainly always should be in sight, which is that we could help our seniors, save money and give them that quality of life they so richly deserve. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.