Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a few general comments and I feel the need to pretty much repeat the comments that I made yesterday when we were considering the Housing Corporation’s budget. It follows up on my statement and my questions to the Minister earlier today, and that’s my concern for seniors’ housing.
The Minister has advised that yes they are, they recognize that the numbers of seniors are going to increase, that they are using an Aging in Place Strategy, but he has yet to recognize, in my view, that we have seniors right now who need supported living and there is no space for them. We’re building facilities, I appreciate that, but we don’t have space right now and even with the facilities, once they’re completed, we will still have, particularly in Yellowknife, no space for seniors who need supported living and/or who need extended care.
The issue of the expansion and the renovation project at Avens is a really big issue for me. I appreciate that the department is working on it, but again, I think that there must be something more
that the department can do to get this project moving forward.
Again, I appreciate that they’re waiting for this working group, but when I look at the projects that are in this budget, there are several projects which are going to be completed in ’15-16 and I think one or two that might be completed in ’16-17, but there is nothing in this budget which is a new project, whether it’s for seniors or otherwise. There are no projects which are going to be started in either ’15-16 or, I think, in ’16-17. We’re not starting any new major projects. There’s some small stuff but there is nothing new, and it tells me that the department hasn’t yet recognized or they can’t get Cabinet to recognize that infrastructure must be started not five years from now but now in order to accommodate the numbers of seniors that we’re going to have who are going to be needing supported living and particularly extended care. I don’t know quite how to get the message through. Maybe it is there and maybe it’s just that the government doesn’t support the funding for these capital projects, but I would certainly hope that in the next capital budget, ’16-17, we’re going to see at least one new building construction project that will facilitate accommodation of seniors. At the moment, I don’t see that there’s anything there and it doesn’t sound as though there’s going to be anything there, from what I’m hearing from the Minister.
To the issue of aging in place, absolutely I want to age in place, but I also recognize that there comes a time when I cannot, and the Minister knows that full well, because he has family members who are currently in a situation that is very close to that. Somehow we have to assist, particularly in Yellowknife. We have an organization in the Avens Society who is willing to build 60 beds for various purposes, but they’re willing to build 60 beds and to accommodate seniors in varying places across the continuum of care. We know that a NGO organization such as Avens can build a facility cheaper than the government can. That’s been proven with the Dementia Facility, and we know that they are willing to take that risk and they are willing to find the financing. They simply need a guarantee from the government.
When I asked the question earlier, the Minister said that there’s presumably, if the building is built then it would be funded by GNWT to the tune of some $3.5 million or something. I can’t quite remember the number. That’s not the kind of thing that Avens is going to be able to take to the bank and get a mortgage. If I went to my banker and said, well, you know, um, they said that there’s going to be maybe money to help me build my house, but I’m not really sure, there’s absolutely no way I’m going to get any kind of a mortgage based on that kind of a vague promise. If we’ve got an organization that’s willing to take on a mortgage, that’s willing to build us a
60-bed facility, I’m struggling to understand why we are not bending over backwards to find a way to accommodate them. I know that things are not firm yet, but it would seem to me that we know we need the beds, we know the spaces are required, we know we don’t have current spaces, and yet I just don’t hear the words coming out of the Minister’s or the government’s mouth that says yes, we’re going to get on that and we’re going to get on that not today but yesterday because we know that it’s an urgent need.
That’s my biggest concern with this budget. The projects that we’re currently finishing and we’re sort of in the middle of are great projects. They’re definitely required. We need to be upgrading our health centres, replacing our health centres and providing for seniors facilities which are coming through the Housing Corporation, but we need to accept the urgency of the need for housing for seniors.
I have to comment on the total amount of this budget. It says, I think it’s $84 million. Yes, $84 million, almost $84.5 million. But of that $84 million, a huge amount, I think almost half is identified for Stanton Hospital. The Stanton Hospital project, again, is a very needed project, but we’re not going to start construction on that until I think it’s 2018-19. It’s well down the road.
Really, if you look at it, we’re talking about a department which is 25 percent or more of our operations budget and we’re spending $48 million or so in capital expenditures. Like the difficulty that I had with Education and their budget, this is better, but it’s not a heck of a lot better, and we need to start putting a bigger priority on the departments that deal with our people, Education, Health, and Housing. Now, Housing, I’m reasonably pleased with the focus we’ve put on housing because we’ve put some extra money in there over the last couple of years, but I have the same concerns with the capital dollars we’re putting in Health and Social Services that I did with Education. That’s it.