Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I think that these community health programs, especially when it comes to the aging population in the Northwest Territories, which we are realizing, I know, from comments from the Minister, which stipulated that the elders population is almost 50 percent and increased over the last number of years. I can vouch for that on the basis of my home community in which they did a study to see exactly how many elders were from Fort McPherson and they counted 126 elders between the ages of 60 and 97 years old.
I think it shows that we do have a large number of our population in a lot of our communities throughout the Northwest Territories and I think that we, as government, have to find ways of accommodating that population in the Northwest Territories by assisting them by way of some means of providing seniors care, accommodating them through housing and accommodating them through care facilities, long-term care facilities, residential care and also in regards to hospital care.
I think at that point, we do have structures around that; the dementia centre, the hospitals we do have in our regions. I think it is important that we, as government, find a way to deal with this challenge that we are facing. It is not only here, it is across Canada, but I think that we have to find a way to accommodate our aging population. So I would like
to ask the Minister, are there any plans of working with the Housing Corporation or CMHC, or whoever, Health Canada, to find a way to deal with this challenge that we are going to be facing, which is already upon us, and try to accommodate those people, when they basically get on in age and require special attention and care? Thank you.