We’re all reviewing the needs of tenants and residents across the Northwest Territories. I will commit to the Member, and I’m actually going into the community of Lutselk’e with the Member and have an opportunity to meet with the leadership there. I’m sure they’ll share a lot of the same concerns. With that in mind, we’re always reviewing how we put units on the ground and this is going to be another opportunity to do that.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Prior to the Minister and I travelling into Lutselk’e -- and we also went to Fort Resolution -- will the Minister commit to having his staff begin an immediate dialogue with the Lutselk’e Housing Authority and the Fort Resolution Housing Authority to provide more appropriate seniors’ housing in both communities?

Before I do that I would like to commit to the Member that I will start the dialogue with the leadership in Lutselk’e and then have discussions with the housing authority and the Lutselk’e Dene First Nation on some of the talks that we’ve had. Then once that’s completed, we’ll see where we go from there. If there’s a need for staff to have further discussion, then I’ll commit to the Member that I’d be willing to direct them to do that.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the WSCC regulations and the concerns that the regulations won’t take into consideration the feelings and worries of industry, both small and medium. As I highlighted continually, that small and medium industry certainly is our breadbasket in our economy and if we don’t do everything we can to keep them competitive, it makes it very challenging for them to keep up and running.

My question to the Minister is: I understand that the WSCC has extended its feedback deadline, which certainly has been received positively. However, the key to feedback is the WSCC’s willingness to discuss or even accept observation and comments from industry. What assurance is the Minister able to give to industry, business and employers that their feedback will be considered and won’t be a waste of their time?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can assure the Member that any feedback is not a waste of time. I can assure him that in the February meeting of the committee they will take all correspondence that they’ve had, all consultation, all feedback that they’ve had and do a summary and provide written correspondence to those that submitted the recommendations. Then they will continue to consult with them and make sure that all their input is taken. I can assure the Member that the input is taken quite seriously.

I want to thank the Minister for that answer. That’s the type of answer they’re certainly looking for, is that the WSCC will listen and certainly evaluate, if not consider their response.

The other problem with changes to the regulations is the reality that changes mean money. One of the big fears is the cost of any of these potential regulations that will be happening. May I remind this House, and the Minister knows this, that there are almost 400 pages of regulations being updated. What is the WSCC doing to ensure that the administrative burden is not being ploughed down onto industry when they’re able to afford it least? What are they doing to ensure that we’re looking at stabilizing and ensuring that costs will remain the same for industry through this regulatory update?

I’d like to remind the Member that this is still a draft. We’re still consulting. As far as costs, we won’t have an idea of what the costs may be until after the whole

consultation process is done and the report is then brought to the Minister for his review, my review, then to see if any further consultation is required. We’ll take the necessary steps to ensure that all the voices are heard, as far as this goes. I can assure the Member that we’re in a draft process right now and we don’t have an idea of what the potential costs might be.

I appreciate the Minister’s answer. As I’ve highlighted a few times in this House this term and certainly the last term, my concern about red tape and a red-tape bureaucracy, and B.C. has a red-tape Minister. If they bring in a new regulation, they have to take away two. The point being is they don’t want to continue burdening industry as well as the everyday person with more rules and unnecessary regulations.

The Minister had said this is a draft and I’ll accept his statement that it is a draft. My concern is the draft will roll into this is the way it will be before costing out these regulations. Will the Minister be able to commit to this House or provide direction or guidance on this issue, which is there will be costing out of these regulations before an implementation is put into place and allow some discussions so that people have a good idea of what may or may not be happening and be able to provide some feedback before anything does get locked down for who knows how long before the next review?

I can assure the Member and ministry out there that it would not be my intent as Minister of WSCC to proceed with the regulations until all stakeholders have had an opportunity to have one last comment on it. Then as far as the financial part of it, those would need to be worked out. I can assure the Member that this is not something we will just implement without seeking feedback.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I spoke in my statement about the lack of facilities for adult disabled children who need to move out of their parents’ home and into assisted living or independent living. The impact of the situation on families is huge when they have no space that they can move into. For this family of constituents of mine, this is their home community. Yellowknife is

where they’ve been for some 30-plus years. They want to stay in their community. They want their child to be able to stay in the community that is their home. They live and work here. If their child happens to go someplace else, they really don’t have an option to move because they are living and working here.

I would like to ask the Minister a couple of questions in regards to facilities or the lack thereof. Does the Minister or will the Minister acknowledge that there is a space problem for adult disabled children needing assisted living? What is the responsibility of the government to provide assisted living for our vulnerable peoples?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we should not forget that this Assembly and this government is the first to invest into a built-for and custom-designed assisted living facility for persons with disabilities. In this year’s budget we’re spending $2.5 million for a complex in Hay River. That’s a territorial facility and that was one of the largest capital investments that we had on the books for the Department of Health and Social Services.

We also spent a sizeable budget in Yellowknife and other areas, to help families with persons with disabilities. I do appreciate that, as is the case with many things in Health and Social Services, the demand exceeds the supply, but I do take a bit of exception when the Member says the department is not doing anything. We have gone further than I’ve seen in 10 years in this area.

Thanks to the Minister. I have to say that I don’t believe those were my words, but that may have been how they were interpreted.

I do commend the government for the work that has been done to provide assisted living facilities, but there is an evident need, particularly in the city of Yellowknife where about 50 percent of our population lives. We do have an expanding population of adult disabled children who need supervision and need assisted living. I’d like to ask the Minister what the department’s plans are for the future. How will the department accommodate those adult disabled children who need assisted living in Yellowknife? How will that happen in five years from now or, actually, how about next year? Thank you.

Two points to that, one is that Yellowknife has more assisted living beds than any community in the Territories. The second is that, Mr. Speaker, the Member knows that we do our budgets together. It’s not the department alone that sets out this budget.

I agree with the Member that this is an issue that we need to plan for. That’s one of the reasons why the department has worked to finish the long-term care facilities plan for the next 20 years, which has not been done before. The long-term care unit is not just for seniors, it’s for anybody who needs long-term care. I agree with the Member, this is an issue for every jurisdiction in Canada. Every government has to do future planning. This government and this department have done enormous work in the last year and we need to work together on that. She sits on the Standing Committee on Social Programs, and we need to plan. It’s a huge issue, but we have gone quite a length in the last two budget cycles to move this ahead. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I have to say I agree we have more spaces here in Yellowknife than any other community, but we happen to have more people in Yellowknife than we do in any other community. So, you know, I think that probably goes hand in hand.

The Minister says that we need to plan. Absolutely, I agree, we need a plan, and this is my point. I would like to know from the Minister, I did ask what that plan is. We have an increasing number of adult disabled children who are going to need accommodation. I’d like to ask the Minister when we can expect to see a plan or when can we expect to begin working on a plan, since she says that she’s working with the committee. Thank you.

We are working on that right now. That’s what a capital budget review is. The long-term care facilities review has done work on that. It talks about how many bed spaces we need for long-term care territory-wide. That’s a 20-year plan reviewable every five years.

Mr. Speaker, we have to recognize that not everybody in the Territories gets to stay exactly where they want to be. We would like to have people stay in their communities as much as possible, but the assisted living facility in Hay River was built for everybody in the Territories. We do have services in Yellowknife, but whenever there is a resident in the Territories who needs assisted living or a facility living arrangement, they go through the Territorial Admissions Committee and we place them as best as we can to places that are available. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker I need to ask the Minister, if there is a plan in the works, then that plan presumably has some detail in it. I’d like to know what the detail is in that plan relative to beds. When can the Minister tell me that there will be more beds for assisted living adult children needing assisted living in Yellowknife? When can I expect to see more beds? Thank you.