Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member also talked a little bit about the isolation room in the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Health Centre. The program design is currently underway. We anticipate construction of that isolation room, or renovation of that isolation room to begin no later than March, with conclusion early in the new fiscal year. It will be part this fiscal year, part next fiscal year.
The Member also talked about our need to plan and have a plan for long-term care beds in the Northwest Territories. I can confirm for you today, and I believe we have mentioned it in committee in the past, we are doing a comprehensive plan to determine our long-term needs, our short-term needs and our mid-term needs. We are putting together a plan that will identify where beds will be constructed throughout the Northwest Territories. It is long term in the fact that we know that at some point the need for dementia is going to exceed our capacity, as well, and we will have to look at expansion and/or creation of additional facilities to meet those needs.
We are doing that work. We are doing a needs analysis. We are doing a long-term plan that will identify where we are going to expand and/or create new long-term care beds throughout the Northwest Territories that will meet our long-term need that is consistent with the report on needs that was actually already done. We are currently in the process of developing a long-term plan that will identify where these beds need to be. When that plan is done, we will absolutely share it with committee and then we can all work together on the
creation and continue to move forward on long-term care beds here in the Northwest Territories.
There is one more thing that I would like to talk about, and it is the previous Member who was talking, Mr. Dolynny, asked about or suggested that we pursue other alternatives, not just government but private organizations that might be interested in providing long-term care services in the Northwest Territories. In every jurisdiction in the country, this happens. There are private homes all over the country. I’ve already asked the department to begin the research and develop a report on different options that are available to us that we can utilize to help encourage private business to pursue independent or privately owned long-term care type facilities that will be an option for residents of the Northwest Territories. I’ve heard many people say, “I don’t want to stay in one of the GNWT facilities, I am happy to pay my way,” but there are no options for them today. So we’re interested and we’re hoping that we’ll be able to put something together that can create some incentives for individuals to pursue some privately owned long-term care facilities here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.