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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we have a program and policy to address the persons with disabilities. Thank you.

I would have liked to have heard the name of the policy, but that’s fine. I’d like to know from the Minister, her department generally manages the programs, the assisted living programs. I’d like to know if we have a policy that looks after housing needs for people who are challenged and who need assisted living. Does the department work in concert with any other department? I would hope they would work in concert with the NWT Housing Corporation, but do they work in concert with any other department in order to acquire and build the necessary housing for assisted living? Thank you.

The Member knows that the Department of Health and Social Services is not in the business of building houses, so we would not be involved in that. The Member also knows because she had asked in the past and I’ve given her information about the kind of support we provide for persons with disabilities. We have various programs. The Member mentioned an assisted living complex in Hay River, but we also have group homes, we have supported living, we provide respite care. I mean, the persons with disabilities don’t come in one shape and size and need, and so individuals are assessed and they are supported in the best way we can with the programs we have and the resources we have. Thank you.

To the Minister, I didn’t ask about whether or not you were in the business of housing and I wasn’t asking about particular placement options. I’m talking about housing and getting the necessary capacity of housing that we need. It’s

well known that we have a need within the whole of the NWT assisted living housing, whether it be rented, whether it be built. I’d like to know if the department would consider establishing a process to actively build up the housing supply for assisted living and whether they would partner with the Housing Corporation to build the necessary types of housing that’s required so that we can place more of our people in assisted living accommodations. Thank you.

I think the mandate of the Health and Social Services is busy enough, full enough, demanding enough. I don’t think, unless the government tells us to, the department is interested in getting into the housing business. We have the NWT Housing Corporation that does that. I am aware that the Housing Corporation has built units and renovated units for persons with disabilities, whether they be seniors or non-seniors. I would ask the Member to kindly refer the question to the responsible Minister. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister, I would like to ask again, I’m not asking the department to build houses, I’m asking the department to establish a process to work in conjunction with the Housing Corporation who does build houses -- I agree with you -- but asking if they would set up a process to partner with the Housing Corporation to provide the assisted living housing that we need. Thank you.

We do that already. We work closely with the Housing Corporation. So if the Member has specific situations or a constituent that she would like me to look into, I would be happy to do that. As I’ve stated, the Housing Corporation does have a program that addresses the persons with disabilities and, of course, Health and Social Services works closely with ECE and Housing and Justice or whoever we need to.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, Mr. Speaker, my Member’s statement is on the Power Corporation’s procedure for dealing with damage done to people’s appliances over the power fluctuations that we’ve been having. Mr. Speaker, how many of these claims have been received each year from our Nunakput communities that are paid out from the Inuvik office? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Power Corporation does have a policy in place on dealing with customers who have had problems within their homes and can file a claim. I don’t have the level of detail with me that I could respond to the Member but I will get that for the Member. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, what’s being done to ensure that the troubleshooting with the electrical systems can be done in our communities instead of waiting for technicians to fly into the communities? Thank you.

With the new CEO, Mr. Axford, in house now in the Northwest Territories, he’s been looking at the operations of the Power Corporation, their structure, how they deal with our customer issues and our response times, so I expect that in the near future I would sit down at the next board meeting with the CEO and the new chairman and the board to go over some of the work they’ve done and see what flows from that. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, will the Minister ensure that my constituent complaints be looked into by the Power Corporation and be dealt with as soon as possible? They have been ongoing. Thank you.

Those that have made application, I will ask on the results. The first thing, as I had committed to earlier, was the total number of complaints or applications that were sent in, what were the responses to those applications and if there are any outstanding issues. I will get that information back to the Member. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What will the Power Corporation do to improve the communication with the customers in the small communities so that their complaints will be resolved sooner rather than later? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I must say that in initially meeting with the new CEO for the Power Corporation it was refreshing. His experience in that sector of the business and dealing with many customers is, I think, a breath of fresh air, as I see it, in reaching out to our customers in the Northwest Territories. Again, I’ve had discussions with both the chair and the new CEO to discuss the issues around customer relations, and we’ll follow up on that, as well, to ensure that we work on improving that relationship. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the need for an NWT charter for seniors. I think we could develop something that brings clear focus to your beliefs and principles on caring for seniors and elders. If you look across the government, there is no clear coordinating role. The Minister responsible for Seniors is title alone. There is no direct mandate to seniors and certainly as the Minister responsible for Seniors, they have no specific money targeted in order to help and support seniors.

Mr. Speaker, I think that’s a sad state of affairs, and I certainly hope that our government eventually will rectify that problem that we don’t put that type of initiative behind our seniors. Mr. Speaker, my question would be to the Minister who is responsible for Seniors. Would she consider taking to Cabinet the idea and certainly the issue of developing an NWT seniors charter?