Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to add a few notes about the principles and policies behind the long-term care facility planning within the Department of Health and Social Services.

Persons currently placed in long-term care facilities in the NWT may be of any age. They may be placed in a facility specializing in a certain type of care. There are those who are severely disabled, cognitively impaired in early to advanced stages, frail and elderly and those who need respite care or palliative care in hospital settings or long-term care facilities.

As the Member has mentioned, our senior population is the fastest growing in comparison to enrolment in schools, for example, which we see is declining. There is no question that we need to work together to plan for this but we need to consider some options and the facts involved in this.

I believe most seniors and elders prefer choices that permit them to preserve their independence, quality of life, and personal dignity. Long-term care facilities, while an important service option for the most fragile, dependent, and ill, it’s not the first choice for most seniors. We currently admit individuals into long-term care based on their need. Their care needs, not their age. The need to institutionalize an individual is only an option when it is no longer possible for an individual to live independently in the community.

I’m 46 years old and in 14 short years I may be considered for an institutional setting, but I’m hoping that that’s not going to come. We shouldn’t be planning to keep too many people in institutional settings.

I have seen stats. Right now, we have about 10 percent of the population who are seniors, but in about 30 years we may have up to one-third of the population that’s over 60.

Mr. Speaker, long-term care facilities are designed to provide care for individuals with the highest level of care needs who cannot live independently even with assistance. The trend and delivery in long-term care is to increase community capacity and supports so that individuals can live in a non-institutional setting as long as possible. The department is working with the Department of Public Works and Services on a long-term care planning study. The intent is to develop a long-term care prototype and joint health centre for when current facilities need to be replaced. GNWT is developing facility design standards and prototype designs for long-term care facilities that will provide a basis for development of appropriate facilities in the future.

A prototype design will set the standard that will be used for all facilities to leverage the benefits of standardization and efficiency of building design, programming, staffing models and operational methods. Long-term care facilities will be designed with the flexibility to support aging in place once a person has been admitted to a facility. These new facilities will support implementation of client centre care and the supportive pathways approach which emphasizes providing a home-like approach, maximizing independence and quality of life.

Mr. Speaker, planning for long-term care facilities is aligned with the Foundation for Change directions of an integrative system in which residents of the NWT can access beds regardless of the region in which they live. By designing and building a prototype, the GNWT will not need to reinvent the wheel for every new facility but can redefine the prototype as experience is developed.

Integration of community-based services and...(inaudible)...links will be strengthened to enable persons with long-term care needs to move seamlessly from one service to another.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to leave with some of the stats about people who are admitted to long-term care facilities right now. Right now, the NWT admission criteria requires an applicant for long-term care to be 60 years of age or older, but the average age of admission is much, much older. For all long-term care admissions between 2005 and 2009, the average age of admission was 76.5 years. Of those, 47 percent of residents had some level of cognitive impairment and 72 percent of residents were classified as level 3 to 5. The remainder being level 1 and 2.

In 2004, the average age of admittance to a long-term care facility in southern jurisdictions was 85 years of age and the average length of stay was two years.

Mr. Speaker, I understand the motion that the government needs to plan for this, but I think we need to be careful about how we define the need for long-term care and that not everybody who turns 60 should be considered to be ready for this sort of setting. We will have to work together as a Legislature to make sure that we use our resources well, because each of these facilities will cost at least $12 million to $15 million. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.