Mr. Speaker, this is going to be our first year of operation, or anticipated first year of operation with this bridge and we are going to be learning lots of new things about a bridge of that magnitude over a body of water, icing, snow cover. If anyone has been down there to see it, it’s quite a large angle of inclination, so we could be running into issues of sliding, small accidents and things of that nature. If we run into a problem in our first season of operation, as the Minister indicated, we don’t have a phone. There is no emergency phone to call.

What does the department suggest we do if, indeed, we have a problem on this bridge? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we would anticipate that there wouldn’t be any incidents this coming winter on the structure. It’s located in close proximity to the community of Fort Providence. If you had an accident on the highway system between, say, Edzo and Fort Providence somewhere near Chan Lake, you’re a lot closer to help on the Deh Cho Bridge itself. So we don’t see that as a big issue. We don’t see that as an impediment to opening the bridge this month. The bridge will open and it will be safe to traverse. Thank you.

Thank you. Obviously, these deficiencies or these temporary systems, including emergency phone, were deemed important for engineers to keep it as a permanent part of our bridge. So I’m really at odds as to what are we going to do for our first year, but that leads me to my other question.

Because we’re in a temporary state, we have temporary systems in place, we don’t have an emergency phone that will be active, we obviously have to carry insurance or liability as a department,

as a government. Would these deficiencies or non-compliance to a so-called final inspection report or a final signing off of the project, are these deficiencies going to affect our liability and our insurance? Thank you.

Thank you. We need to celebrate the opening of this bridge this month and we’ll do that. As to whether or not not having a phone on the bridge and operating some temporary lighting this coming winter will impact our insurance premiums that we pay, that is information that I’d be happy to get for the Member and other Members of the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think many people are quite curious and I’ll definitely have to ask this last question. As we’ve talked about the final completion, we heard about an RFP that has been issued; we’re not sure if it’s closed or not. Can the Minister indicate if this is going to be new monies, potentially, that will be asked in the upcoming next budget, or is this something that would be included in the overall project design and scope and budget? Thank you.

Thank you. That contract, that would be money that is included in the overall project cost. It wouldn’t be new money and it certainly would be included, and that is related to electrical type of work on the bridge itself. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’d like to just note that many of my constituents work on behalf of elders across the Northwest Territories, and certainly many of them and many of our NWT seniors are concerned about the lack of dementia facilities and services, particularly in the small communities.

So I’d like to start by asking the Minister when will full dementia facilities be available in small community health facilities across the NWT. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services recognizes that we don’t have the facility to match all the situations in the Northwest Territories in the appropriate locations. So we’re developing a system called Continuum of Care for Seniors, and

within that care we are looking at, first, all the possibilities of keeping individuals in their home as long as possible; secondly, working with the NWT Housing Corporation to develop assisted living inside the senior citizen’s home that they own and operate; thirdly, going into long-term care at the regional levels; then lastly, there are 132 people that have been placed in the last three years and 19 of them were appropriate for placement in the dementia centre. So there are only 24 beds in there – we recognize that – and 19 of them were placed in the last three years. Thank you.

Thanks for the comments from the Minister. Obviously, most of those don’t deal with dementia, but the last category is certainly the one we’re focusing on here today. The Territorial Admissions Committee makes decisions about placement of older adults – and I have no doubt that’s what the Minister was referring to there – and they make decisions to ensure they get placed where there is proper care. However, if there are facilities that are not being used, they’re in danger of making poor decisions. In fact, just such a situation exists in Fort Smith, where we have spent $6 million to open a wing and yet we have nobody to staff it. So, no use of those beds.

So my question is: How can this happen and what’s being done to correct it immediately, given the demand we have out there? Mahsi.

Thank you. There are 15 people on the overall waiting list for long care treatment. Right now we have five people on the waiting list to go into the Territorial Dementia Centre. That’s just added information.

I think that we need to use the units in Fort Smith. I recognize that people that need care because of cognitive issues are in the Northern Lights Home right now in Fort Smith, but to build a new wing and not have the money to operate it is not acceptable. We’re going to come back to the government as a department to try to get money to continue or expand the operations of that wing. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for those comments. Indeed, it is a principle to try and place people as close to home as possible, obviously, when we have a facility, but no way of operating it that’s not happening. So I appreciate the Minister is going to do something about this. My next question is when? Thank you.

I will start discussion with the authorities across the Territories immediately. I am in constant communication with the Joint Leadership Council through the chairs and the public administrators of all of the authorities across the territory. A dementia authority, yes, it is needed. It’s often a territorial resource. So I’ll discuss it with all of them in my next meeting, which I have scheduled for late January. We’ll start the discussions on how we could get the dementia

centre, or the six-unit wing in Fort Smith operational as soon as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses. I’m sorry; Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That was three questions. I wonder if I could just get my fourth one in.

I’m sorry, Mr. Bromley. Yes, short supplementary. Go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks again to the Minister. I’m still shaking my head over this $6 million and now we have to go discuss it with a bunch of people on whether to make this operational or not, given the demands on our infrastructure dollars. I’m shaking my head.

My last question is: Are other regions in the NWT in the same situation as this Fort Smith facility? Thank you.

Thank you. No, there’s no other area in long-term care, dementia or assisted living where there are units that are vacant that are ready to be used. There could possibly be units that are vacant that are not ready to be used at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are on the Minister of Health and Social Service’s Minister’s statement that he made today. Obviously, it’s sparked a lot of concerns and questions on this side of the House in question period today.

In the statement that he made earlier, he made reference to the government offers addictions counselling through community wellness workers, mental health workers. Then he mentions detox programs. That caught my attention.

Can the Minister tell me what these detox programs are, where they are, and can he give me a specific example other than the emergency rooms and the jail cells? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Detox is available in the two hospitals that we operate, Stanton Territorial Hospital and the Beaufort-Delta Regional Hospital. There is also, I think, a capability of an individual to go through detoxification in the larger health centres. Thank you.