Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve had an opportunity to look at the motion and the different whereases and we agree with the intent of what the Members are trying to say here today. In fact, we know that there’s a problem coming. Our continuing care report articulated clearly the need for beds in the Northwest Territories and this is something that we’re trying to address.

To that end, we have come forward with Our Elders: Our Communities, which I acknowledge Members have made it clear that this is not an action plan, and I agree, this isn’t an action plan. It’s a strategic framework that will help us form and articulate an action plan.

During business planning the deputy minister of Health and Social Services indicated to committee that we hear them and that we are going to take those additional steps to develop the action plans necessary both on aging in place and on long-term care. This is work that is currently underway and I rearticulated it last week during Committee of the Whole. Rather than developing one single action plan to address all the elements of this strategic framework, we will focus on the different priority areas, the different pillars for aging in place and long-term care. That is work that is currently underway. It’s going to take a bit of time. It is a significant amount of work, but it is being done.

Having said that, we continue to move forward and try to address the needs of our seniors, who are obviously an incredibly important segment of the

population here in the Northwest Territories. We are moving forward to try to support our seniors living or aging in place.

I’ve had an opportunity, as I’m sure many people have, to talk to different seniors throughout the Northwest Territories and one of the common things that I hear is: I would like to stay in my home for as long as possible; if I can’t stay in my home, I’d like to stay in my community as long as possible; and if I can’t stay in my community, I’d like to stay in the region in which I am from for as long as possible; and if I can’t stay in the region, if I get to a point where I need the additional care, then I will go to a territorial facility like the Aven Dementia Cottages. So we’re working with the people to do that.

To do that, there are a number of things that happen. For a healthy individual to stay in the home, one segment, seniors living in public housing, we provide a rent cap for seniors living in housing of $90. The Housing Corp is a great partner in trying to address housing for seniors. We also have home heating subsidies for seniors to help them stay in their homes and afford to live in their homes for as long as possible. For individuals who are in public housing or even individuals who own their homes, there are other programs like the CARE program for healthy individuals to do home repair. We’ve got a visible design aspect of the CARE program which I think is innovative, which has helped individuals when they need to upgrade their homes so that they can include wheelchair ramps or other things so that they can maintain access to their homes. It’s there. The Housing Corp is a great partner. They’re doing incredible work.

We’ve also got the Housing Corp providing funding for preventable maintenance for things like furnace repairs. Right now seniors are the largest group taking advantage of this. We do know or, rather, on top of that, the Department of Health and Social Services is working with our valuable partner, the NWT Seniors’ Society, to identify things we have been doing in communities to help people stay in their homes, things like programs to help people shovel walks or get groceries or do all these different things to help them live in their homes for as long as they can.

But we know that individuals may eventually have to leave their home. We want them there as long as they can. They want to be there as long as they can. When it’s time to leave their homes, obviously people want to stay in their communities as long as they can, and we are working with the Housing Corporation to make that possible.

The Housing Corp, in the current capital and I think last year’s capital, as well, is moving forward or has already completed or is in the process of building five independent living units in the Northwest Territories: Whati, Fort Liard, Fort McPherson, Fort

Good Hope and Aklavik. The Housing Corp has worked with Health and Social Services closely because it’s going to take more than one department to address these problems. It’s going to take the partnerships that the Members are talking about. In these facilities, they have actually incorporated a room where the Department of Health and Social Services could run some programming out of and bring professionals like home support workers and others into those buildings to provide care to the residents of those independent living units so we can keep them in the communities for as long as possible. Eventually, unfortunately, it may become true that individuals do, in fact, need to leave their communities and receive a higher degree or grade of care, and those will be provided in long-term care facilities throughout the Northwest Territories.

We have long-term care facilities. Once we’re done in the Sahtu, we’ll have long-term care facilities in every region of the Northwest Territories. The last one is Sahtu. The Sahtu will bring 18 beds that don’t exist today and the Behchoko facility will bring eight beds that don’t exist today. Based on working with our colleagues across the House, we’ve been able to maintain 10 beds that we almost lost in Hay River for long-term care.

Eventually individuals are going to have to move or get a higher degree of care. That’s where Avens has been such a great partner in the development of the Aven Cottage for the dementia facility here in the Northwest Territories, an incredibly valuable service.

We want to keep moving forward. In addition to continuing to strengthen home and community care services, we obviously need to review and prepare for the increasing demand for a facility-based long-term care, including dementia care, extended care, and to improve and enhance supports for respite care, palliative care, geriatric assessment and restorative care. Long-term care facilities are designed to meet the highest level of care needs for people who cannot live independently, even where there is home care available.

We recognize that sometimes seniors will require a higher level of care than can be provided in their home or in an independent living unit. To meet this need, we’re expanding our complement of long-term care facilities so that this service is available in every region, allowing our seniors and elders to be closer to their families and their homes, which we have heard is what they want.

Over the past eight years, the GNWT has invested heavily, developing and expanding long-term care facilities to a total of approximately $86 million. Today there are a total of 173 long-term care beds. I hear the Members; it’s not enough. We know it’s not enough and we need to do more.

Recently completed and current projects include the expansion and renovation of the Northern Lights Special Care Home in Fort Smith; the Woodland Manor extension, which is maintaining the 10 beds; the construction of the Norman Wells Health Centre, which is 18 beds, which includes the long-term care facility with the 18 beds; the expansion and renovation of the Jimmy Erasmus Long-Term Care Facility in Behchoko, which is the nine beds; and the construction of the Aven Cottages and the Territorial Dementia Facility, which opened four years ago.

When current projects are completed in Behchoko and Norman Wells, the total number of beds available in the Northwest Territories will be 201.

As I mentioned previously, we completed a continuing care review in November 2013. The review identified a number of priority areas for action to provide equity of access to services and address the needs of our aging population. To guide those actions, we developed Our Elders: Our Communities, which is the strategic framework. Based on the recommendations from Members during business planning, we will use the recommendations of the continuing care review to plan for the enhancement and improvement of home and community care services so we can better support seniors as they age. As I indicated and confirmed last week, part of that is a long-term care review and a long-term care action plan. That action plan will be a longer term action plan for the provision of necessary long-term care beds. It will highlight the areas of resources, facilities and timing in order to meet the oncoming needs, the needs for facilities for seniors. It will identify possible partnerships to serve those seniors who have some financial independence in both large and small communities. To that end, Mr. Speaker, there is nothing today stopping somebody from building an independent, non-government funded long-term care facility to meet the needs of the residents of the Northwest Territories.

The plan we are working on is a plan that will take us to 2031 and beyond. It is exactly what the Members are asking for, and regardless of how the vote goes today, it is something we are committed to doing, it is something we are doing and we will continue to move forward with the development of that plan.

I look forward to working with Members, our important partners like the Housing Corp, seniors’ societies from across the Northwest Territories and Avens. We know it needs to be done and we are going to do it.

Where we have a problem with this motion is that it recommends or suggests that we need to enable construction of the proposed 60-bed territorial facility, the Avens facility, by next spring. We are working closely with Avens. We are their partner

and they are our partner. We are partnering with Avens on the pavilion expansion, which is the construction of 29 to 30 new beds and the refurbishing and upgrade of the additional beds that are currently in the facility, which is 29 or 30. It is not 60 new beds in the Northwest Territories. It is 29 new beds and the refurbishing of the existing, to take us to a total of 69 beds in the Avens complex.

We have given Avens $25,000 to participate on a steering committee to help quantify what their ask is. I heard Ms. Bisaro mention that all they want us to do is confirm that we are going to use the beds. We have been working with Avens for a while on this project and they have come to us with a number of different asks. One of them was to guarantee beds. We are certainly exploring that, but right now, the last conversation I had with Avens was, they want us to build it, they want us to pay for the construction of this building and they also want us to pay for the O and M. If this building is built, regardless of whether or not we participate in the construction and capital costs, we are going to be paying the O and M, which we know is about $3.6 million a year.

So we need to do the planning. We need to understand what we are getting ourselves into as we move forward with our important partners, Avens. But to suggest that we will be ready and they will be ready to begin construction in the spring is jumping the queue. We need to work with our partner. We need to identify clearly what their ask is. We are doing that, we are working with them. The first step is to retain and consult and review the data that they have come forward with and that we have as well. We know the end of life of the existing facility is coming; we know there is an urgency. I as Minister of Health and Social Services and a resident of Yellowknife, am committed to making this happen, but we cannot commit to doing it in the timeline specified by this motion.

We have a capital process and we will continue to follow the capital process. I will continue to work with Avens; the staff of the department will continue to work with Avens; we all want the same thing and we will get there, but it would be impossible for us to begin construction or work with them to begin construction in April without actually knowing what their plan is. They have come to us with a large number of plans. We will work with them. We will find a solution. This facility will get built. Thank you.