This capital plan is for this upcoming fiscal year. We have based it on the long-term care planning facilities needs study, but this is not a final sort of document that’s not to be changed forever. The long-term care needs have to be reviewed every five years. The populations will tell us where the needs are and it is possible that Aklavik and McPherson combined for the Gwich’in Nation, that they may be able to establish a long-term care facility that they could jointly share.

The important part is that this is a template that we can work on, and I think the department has done really good work in terms of having a long-term kind of view on where we need to go. We have worked out a prototype on long-term care facilities, the staffing needs, what we should look like, what should be provided there so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every single time. Future Legislatures, this is something that’s going to be on us every year. We’re going to have to look at what the long-term care bed needs are in our Territories.

For now, we are presenting the best plan we can at the moment and at the same time supporting communities in a way that can allow our elders to stay in the community, create local jobs as much as possible, and they don’t necessarily have to be done 24/7. Home care is still a good option for many communities. That has to come hand in hand with long-term care facilities. The less we have people staying in long-term care facilities, the better. That means our population is being taken care of better. Modern technology and treatment

options allow for that, but there will always be our people who need to be in a more acute care facility and we have to address that separately.

To answer the Member’s question, this is an ongoing concern. This doesn’t end here. We need to constantly review to see where the needs are, and these plans are subject to change. This is a plan for this year at this time on the information that we have. Thank you.