This is page numbers 6301 - 6336 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was seniors.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Premier for his comments, but again, we do have to remove those barriers that do put barriers on families, and more importantly, the elders, because at the end of the day the elders are being penalized. They’re not accessing those programs simply because they didn’t have the paperwork. They didn’t have the income requirements that are needed by the program. So I’d just like to ask that they allow for some flexibility, some exemptions where a family member is there taking care of the person, which is saving the government costs, and that we’re able to show that those type of requirements will be allowed and it will allow for those types of exemptions in the policies. Thank you.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Premier

Thank you. Again, the overall programs and the list we have and the criteria for the programs do look at the consideration of having people and seniors in their own homes versus a separate. For the areas of ensuring forms and our programs are understandable, through the Department of Executive we’ve recently put in place community service offices in a number of our smaller

communities to try to reach out, as well, to our seniors. In fact, they do have a program where they go and visit the elders in our communities to make them aware of programs we have and help them through that process. In fact, as the Minister of the Housing Corporation has just shown me, on our CARE program, out of 191 applications of those approved, 136 were from the seniors side. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for Seniors. In my statement I talked about the need for us, as a government, to look at a different way to fund seniors. I also mentioned the Elders Parliament from last year and in that very first Elders Parliament there was a motion passed by the members of that Elders Parliament, and I believe it was unanimously, for this government to consider the establishment of an elders secretariat. So I’d like to ask the Minister has she and/or Cabinet considered the recommendation from that motion. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Seniors, Ms. Lee.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister Responsible for Seniors

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That idea was brought up by the Member for Sahtu prior to the Elders Parliament recommendation and I believe the Cabinet or the government, our conclusion is that that’s not an idea that would work right now. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you. I guess my next question to the Minister would be why does Cabinet and the Minister not consider that the idea of an elders secretariat will work. Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister Responsible for Seniors

Thank you. Because it’s about creating an entire bureaucracy to do something that is already being done by many, many departments in the government. If you look at the entire GNWT -- and the Member’s statement stated that already -- a large part of what we do in Health and Social Services is providing services to seniors and elders, whether it be hospital care, or long-term care, or home care, extra health benefits, a large part of Housing work is providing services to the elders. There are special programs for income support under ECE. Municipal Affairs even is doing Elders in Motion. So the thing is, there are lots of things we do do for the seniors that they need that encompass a large section of our government. So I would like to personally have as much dollars and all the money go to the programs rather than

creating a bureaucracy and that is one of the reasons for not going with that idea. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you. You know, it’s quite distressing to me that when we as a government question as to why something can’t be done, the very first thing that I hear out of the Minister’s mouth is that it’s going to cost a huge amount of money. I really think that the Minister needs to think that there are ultimate ways of doing things than spending a million dollars on it. The need for coordination of any number of different programs, in this case seniors, was identified by the number of programs that she mentioned and that are spread all across this government. That said, I mentioned that the NWT Seniors’ Society is starting to work on phase 3 of their project and that will be to build networks in our communities. I’d like to know from the Minister what support does she envisage that this government will provide or what support does she intend to provide to the NWT Seniors’ Society to help them accomplish phase 3. It’s outside of their regular yearly program activities. Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister Responsible for Seniors

Thank you. As the Member knows, I believe we are the biggest funder of the NWT Seniors’ Society. I don’t think we fund everything, because I’m sure they probably get funding from the federal government on a project-by-project basis, but we are a very close partner of the NWT society. So we will continue to work with them on proposals that they have. I’m not aware of the proposal that the Member is asking about specifically, but should that proposal come to me, I would be happy to look at that. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess what I need to do is advise the NWT Seniors’ Society, who happen to be up in the gallery behind me, that they ought to make application to the Minister for some funding for phase 3 of their Elder Abuse Project.

I’d like to know from the Minister, I talked a bit about recognizing our elders in a different way, recognizing them as a significant cohort and a distinct sort of group within our society. I’d like to know whether or not the Minister has ever considered that possibility in terms of funding to split elders off into their own line item and, if not, would she consider that. Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister Responsible for Seniors

Thank you. Unless the Member has information otherwise, I do believe that the NWT society’s work on elder abuse workshops and conferences over the years has been from the funding from the Department of Health and Social Services and government. We are a close partner with the society in working on elder abuse. They’ve identified that financial abuse is the latest topic that they wanted to work on, and we put in some federal funding and our own funding to do a pan-territorial

campaign on elder abuse, which has been quite successful. So, Mr. Speaker, we fund the NWT Seniors’ Society. We also fund some of the community groups that come forward with their own elder programming, whether it be to get the community together or do awareness or to do a gathering. So, Mr. Speaker, without having seen the proposals, I cannot say right now whether we can fund it or not, but we do get those proposals. The Member is well aware of the fiscal pressure that we are in, so any of those proposals will be judged on that basis along with other priorities.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement, most particularly with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment in that he had indicated that he was going to review the Income Support Program and the seniors home heating subsidy that is in that program. I’d like to ask what the timing is of that review.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I did commit in this House a couple of weeks ago that we are looking at a seniors home fuel subsidy and if we need to make some changes, we need to work with the committee members. Those are areas that I did already commit. We will keep the Members posted as we move forward.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

When they’re reviewing the Income Support Program it really covers lots of different areas. I’m just looking to ask the Minister that when it comes to income support, that the seniors home heating subsidy gets reviewed by itself and all the different concerns that I’ve raised and other MLAs have raised, particularly when people are living with the seniors, and why is it impacting their eligibility, et cetera. If that’s something that’s separate and distinct that he can look at when he’s reviewing it.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

The income security framework, there was a review back in 2007. Out of the review we made some changes to reflect on the high cost of living in small, isolated communities and to provide more subsidies to those communities. On the side of that, we’ve looked at a seniors home fuel subsidy, as well, and over time we made some changes on the threshold as well. This is a policy area. We’re looking at this request that was made a couple of weeks ago on various aspects of where seniors have their

grandchildren or children living with them but they’re at 90-plus years of age. That was a scenario they were throwing at us. Those are cases we need to look at.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Representing small and remote communities I think I'm paying particular attention to how our seniors are treated there, as well, and given the program. I guess one of the other things, too, is that when workers are going to small and remote communities, the documentation is not there and there’s always a need to accept a statutory declaration because some documents are lost. What is the department’s position on using statutory declarations?

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

That was also brought up. That will be part of the discussion we’ll be having with my department. We need to look at the overall structure of how we deliver subsidy programming. We talk about individuals living with their parents or grandparents and some individuals can be making more money than we are, standing up here. But we don’t charge them to be part of the household. So we ask for household income so they can be part of the process. So there’s no penalization on the elders. Those are the options we need to work with.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Minister that there are people living and taking advantage of the seniors and there are people who are there to take care of them. There’s a distinction that we’re going to have to make and we’re going to have to consider that seriously, I certainly agree. I’d like the Minister to use that analogy when it comes to reviewing the income support and the seniors home heating subsidy.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Definitely that will be part of our discussion. We need to think of all the analysis that is out there. Having those individuals that are living with their parents that are working versus the ones that are looking after their grandparents or parents, those are the discussions that we need to have.