Thank you very much. Just as we move forward with this project, I’d just like to know at what point will the community be involved, engage the chiefs, maybe presidents, the municipality in looking at the potential plans for the health centre replacement in Fort Simpson.

For the details of the process, I’d like to have Mr. Heath provide response to the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Heath.

Thank you, Mr. Heath. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It’s important to engage the community, because I don’t want to be in a situation in Fort Simpson, you know, a lesson learned from Hay River. Everything was all approved, everything was going forward and then somebody realized okay, we’re short a whole bunch of beds here and that kind of stuff. So it’s important to get the community involved and to ensure that we’re getting what the community needs.

As well, I’d just like to point out that with increased development, I think Simpson got it back in the ‘80s when that facility was built, they got an oversized, it was actually a hospital at that time, but because it was identified for the future building of the pipeline it centred in preparation for building of a gas pipeline at that time, not the oil pipeline, but gas pipeline. So we had an operation room and everything. So I’d just like to know, will the planning study encompass such future growth like that. I just want to be sure that we don’t end up with a smaller facility than we currently have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The current facility was constructed in 1983 and does not meet the current needs of the community and of the region. This is going to be a level B facility being constructed there and should be roughly double the size of the current building. So, essentially what is planned is the long-term care facility in Fort Simpson is still a building that is useable, still very functional and still meets the needs of the long-term care in Fort Simpson and the area that uses it. So that part of the building will remain and the new health centre without the long-term care will be constructed. The plan is it will be constructed across the road. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Certainly I’m glad for that level of detail and I’d like to be involved, perhaps, in Fort Simpson. Maybe the Minister and staff can advise of when they’re going to do planning studies or engage the community. I’d certainly like to be part of it to ensure that we have something the community wants. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. I’ll treat that as a comment, I guess unless the Minister wants to reply. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We can provide the Member with a schedule on the planning study and then as we get into the

schedule, indicate in the schedule at which point we will do the consultation with the community.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. General comments. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome to the Minister and staff here. I wanted to ask about, in a general sense, the long-term sense, assisted-living facilities, extended-care facilities across the Northwest Territories, and I believe it was the projections of the Avens Seniors’ Society that estimated an equal or greater than tripling of seniors needing care in the next 15 years. I’m wondering: Is that consistent with the Minister’s knowledge, and further to that, just to get the questions in here, what is our strategy for addressing the need, whatever the Minister’s estimate of it is, and are we on track to achieve that?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are various numbers that do come out. They are all fairly consistent. We have numbers from a national perspective. We have numbers from the territorial perspective from Aven. We ourselves at Health and Social Services are currently doing a long-term care assessment. I don’t remember exactly when we’re scheduled to finish that. Maybe I’ll have Mr. Elkin just give you a time when we’re anticipating that work to be completed.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Mr. Elkin.

Thank you, Mr. Elkin. Mr. Bromley.

Okay. Thank you. So that’s on the numbers. In terms of what the strategy is to meet those. Obviously, we need to be starting yesterday on that, and I see in the budget today we’re making some significant progress. I know that there are partners out there like Avens, who are critical partners and provide leadership, but certainly not every community has that capacity. I’m just wondering: In terms of where are we at on putting a strategy in place to address that need, given that we know it’s going to be some big number, do we have that strategy yet and where are we at in its implementation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Beaulieu.

In my role as the senior administrator responsible for seniors, we do a lot of work at the national level, called Aging in Place. The NWT Health and Social Services has a continuum of care for seniors. That, essentially, is our strategy. We look at the long-term care based on age, and then we determine the percentage of individuals that would require long-term care. Then we develop a plan that tries to prevent seniors from going into long-term care as a first priority, so that we are holding back trying to provide seniors, whether they be in homeownership units, public housing, or in senior citizens homes, which again, is another form of public housing, we would try to hold them back from going into long-term care as long as possible. From that plan, we will have a better idea as the numbers roll out, how many people of that certain age group that we are looking at will actually end up in long-term care. I believe that currently at a national level about a little over 20 percent of individuals actually end up needing long-term care, so it’s not everyone that needs long-term care. We have to work with that realistic number when we plan future infrastructure for long-term care.

Thanks to the Minister for that information. Could I get the Minister to commit to bringing forward a strategy for meeting those needs over the long term, and specifically I’m talking about infrastructure needs, to committee once he’s got the numbers in a few weeks and has the opportunity to develop such a plan?

I will commit to providing the information that we get from our study. I can’t quite understand the note here, so maybe I’ll have Mr. Heath add to what I’m committing to now.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Mr. Heath.