Thanks for the Minister’s remarks again. I know the Minister is aware of the situation and has been supporting getting it resolved, but the standard does obviously need to be prepared, and to ensure accountability and sensitivity to client needs there has to be some transparency in its development.

I’m wondering if the Minister knows, or perhaps could assure me that the standard as it’s being developed examines other jurisdictions’ policies, seeks independent medical advice, and how the policy development will include the input of clients who will be affected by the standard ultimately developed.

When I met with WSCC staff to talk about the standards that are being developed, we wanted to do research in other jurisdictions, as well, as we’ve done with various other initiatives that we’ve undertaken when it comes to policy development, or benefits, or compensation. The discussion on potentially having input from the clients themselves, those are discussions we’ve had, but I will take those into consideration when I meet with WSCC and gather that information.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks for that commitment from the Minister. Another issue here, and this has dragged out this case over four or five years now, has been the backlog of cases waiting assessment by the only physician contracted by the WSCC to do the assessments. Frequently, there hasn’t been one. I’ve been assured in the past that more staff are being contracted to eliminate that backlog and keep it from accumulating.

Can the Minister tell me if the backlog in physician assessment of new claims has been cleared, and if not, what steps are being taken to deal promptly with our injured workers?

My understanding was that the department, WSCC has been looking into the assessment backlog and to deal with that matter, find solutions. I have to get the latest update to the Members. I don’t have that information here before me but I will provide that to the Members.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in my Member’s statement, I find it unbelievable that the Department of Health does not have a matching line item for the 10 long-term beds that are currently planned to be removed from the new health centre. My first question for the Minister is: Will the community of Hay River be protected from having to move its seniors to other communities?

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve said in this House many times that we are going to do everything possible to keep the seniors in their home communities as much as possible. The only time we wish to move seniors is when there is no long-term care available in their communities and they have to go to long-term care, then we will sometimes move them to another long-term care facility. For the most part, the idea is to keep people as close to home as possible.

I would like to ask the Minister of Health why there was no matching line item for these 10 long-term beds when they were being removed from the new health care facility. I understand the concept of not putting any in the health care facility, but why was there no line item to replace these in some other facility or add a facility?

The decision was made to build a new health centre and the decision was made not to have the new health centre be a home for people to live in. The long-term care beds were not incorporated into the new health care centre. Unfortunately, the long-term care beds were not incorporated into any other location. I’ve committed to the Member that we’re going to look at it. We’re not going to leave individuals that require long-term care that are in H.H. Williams Hospital now out in the cold. We will find a place for them within Hay River if at all possible.

The department has indicated they are doing an assessment of the Hay River area and the future needs. I would urge the department to complete that assessment and make sure that this facility is going to be a facility that takes care of the needs for the next 50 years.

Will the Minister commit to completing that assessment and making sure that if Hay River’s needs for the next 50 years are 15 beds, that Hay River looks to that type of facility? If the needs are only 10, that’s fine, but the needs may be even higher, especially with the aging population of the

Northwest Territories. Will the Minister commit to that, please?

Yes. I would commit to completing the assessment for the need of long-term care beds in Hay River and try to move that to the capital planning process as soon as possible.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As time is of the essence in this project and the project is being constructed as we speak, when will the department place these essential 10 long-term beds in their budget process so I can see it and the community of Hay River can see it on the long-term budget process, knowing that it is going to be removed from the community within the next few years?

The Member will be able to see it as a line item in the capital plan once it goes through the capital planning process in this House.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The officials and staff, in fact Environment and Natural Resources, who are conversant with biomass, have been working with the community of Norman Wells. Now that there’s been an election and a change in leadership, we have to revisit the priorities of the community just to confirm whether those are still the priorities or if there has been any change. But we have been working with the community.

The Town of Norman Wells so far has received a letter indicating that they are still continuing to pursue the biomass energy district heating process. I want to ask the Minister, would his government be supporting that initiative through

a letter writing campaign when they formulate their business case to present it to the various funders.

The Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to working with the community of Norman Wells the same as we are working with the community of Inuvik to resolve these critical energy issues. We have been and will continue to work with the community to do that.

The Minister has indicated the government’s commitment. The Town of Norman Wells is compiling a business case and needs the support in writing from the Government of the Northwest Territories, to put together and complete their business case for funding. They are looking at this as urgent, and since it has to go through different levels of hurdles, can we count on this government here to provide some sort of comfort letter that they would give the town for a solid business case?

I’ll commit to have the officials check on the latest status of this proposal. As the Member has indicated, if it’s some type of letter or some type of letter of comfort, then, of course, we will seriously look at that either through Environment and Natural Resources or Finance.