Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just an update from the Minister in terms of the facility planning designs. I know she’s heard from my region in terms of several facilities and I want to ask her again, for the record, to outline the process if we can see something within this government plans to build a regional wellness centre. And also, the elders were looking at an elders home in the Sahtu.

Maybe before we go on, I would just like to point out to Mr. Yakeleya, the elders home situation will come up under 8-30 with regard to care services for elders. So that question could be asked in that area, but I will allow the Minister to answer your question. Ms. Lee.

Mr. Chairman, I can say just from the statement that the Member made, part of Foundation for...action plan is to do an inventory of facility needs to look at the inventory and the status and shapes of our health centres and health care facilities, also looking at long-term care needs of our residents in the Territories.

We know demographically we are going to need about 38 to 40 beds in the Territories over the next little while and it will be up to us to make a decision as to where that would go and I know that Sahtu is looking at that. So that’s where we are with the inventory, doing the facilities review. Thank you.

Under the directive on 8-12, it talks about facility planning and you also made reference to another section I could look at is the elders facility, I guess. I’m asking the Minister in terms of planning for a facility in our region, so you know this region here, the Sahtu is the only region that doesn’t have any type of regional facility like a

wellness centre or emergency centre or even an elders centre for the region. So that’s the focus that I am looking at in terms of this department looking at planning for facilities. I know there is a need for other facilities to be upgraded as I heard other Members talk about their own regions, however, we haven’t one building that we could say that this is the regional facility for us in the Sahtu, so that is how I look at the facility planning.

The Minister has come back and said -- and certainly she is right -- it has to be up to the Members to give their vote to which one they are going to look at and I guess that is part of rolling the dice, I guess, in the Legislative Assembly, in how you get your needs for facilities met. I also hear from my region that people want to come back to the Sahtu that are in Yellowknife or Inuvik or Fort Simpson. They want to come back to the Sahtu, so I guess I want to make note to the Minister that this issue is still alive and well and I am not going to put it away anywhere. This is for my people.

I take the Member’s point that part of this paper is just to describe the function of the directorate which does facilities planning. I understand that there is quite a need for long-term care facilities and some other renovations for facilities in health care centres, and that is something that we will be discussing further with the Members and will be looking at community needs to see where to locate this as we move forward in the capital planning process because it is, as you understand... We need to establish the need, we need to get planning money and then work through our capital budget process. Thank you.

I certainly appreciate the Minister’s response to the process as to how the capital planning process is established and what we agree to, and I was just wanting to make sure that when the needs come up in terms of the facilities for the people, like any project, the Sahtu has some serious considerations. I don’t want to list off some projects that are questionable as to how they got onto the capital process and the funding to operate those facilities. I am not here for that. I am here to see if we can get our projects, such as the ones I listed. There are other communities also going to ask for assistance in their regions. I want to make a comment to the Minister. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I take his comments. It is well taken. I hear him. Thank you.

Next on the list, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I wanted to ask what role this department is taking in developing the government’s response to the Joint Review Panel recommendations. Obviously, a number of them call for planning and even facilities to enhance our

delivery of health care and, of course, these will require commitments for resources, both people and dollars, and I think is the directorate that would be dealing with this. If not, maybe the Minister could highlight who would be dealing with it. It seems like it would be a big issue that we should be engaged in at the professional level within the department in order to put together a good response and plan for the future. Thank you.

Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources indicated, ENR is the lead department, but there are deputy ministers across departments working to provide the input into the response. At the department level in Health and Social Services, the deputy minister is involved in the response. Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister for those comments. I presume part of that participation is a financial sort of scoping exercise and I am wondering... It seems a pretty aggressive schedule that has been set for a response and our various committees are on record wanting to play a significant role in developing that response. Will the Minister be bringing that information as it is being put together to committee, either in written briefings or in person when possible, so that we can fulfill that role that the committee has expressed a desire for? Thank you.

Our response will be coordinated through the Minister for ENR. That is how, I believe, we will proceed. Thank you.

I guess, just on the financial scoping side of it, that is something that obviously would be useful for us in our considerations early on. I am assuming again that that is happening, but perhaps I am just expressing an interest for that being brought forward. I think we wanted a role in both developing as well as responding to the final draft response of the government, so I am seeking opportunities to make sure that goes forward on that basis. Thank you.

As the Minister of ENR indicated, this is quite new still, new in the process. It is massive, it is substantive, it needs a lot of work. I want to state that we are, our department is involved at the deputy minister level to provide the input and whatever else is needed. Included in that would be our expertise on the delivery of health care and social services, which is obviously a part of the recommendations. So without going into the details of that, because ENR is coordinating it, I think we could say that the department is involved in all aspects of the response through ENR. The Minister of ENR wants to respond.

Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to point out one of the factors we are going to have to work around is the fact that three of the Members, Mr. Bromley being one of them, are registered as interveners and there are legal considerations as we go forward briefing MLAs and such. We honour our legal requirements in terms of access to information, treating all interveners the same and it has been pointed out to us that we have to be prepared to work around that consideration as well. You, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. Yakeleya, I believe, are registered as interveners, so it just adds another complication that we have to work around as we do our work, to make sure we are seen to be playing on a level playing field with all the other partners since we are a responding government. Thank you.

Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for the comments from both Ministers and I certainly, for one -- and I am sure the other interveners -- want to stay squeaky clean, so I appreciate the guidance there. Has the Department of Health received a schedule for their input to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources on the response timing? Mahsi.

Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t know if I can add anything more than what I have already said. We are involved. We are part of the responding process for the government through Environment and Natural Resources. Thank you.

We are on page 8-13, directorate, operations expenditure summary, activity summary, $5.975 million.

Clarification, $5.957 million.