Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I and my Cabinet colleagues, as all Members in this House, are committed to the seniors of the Northwest Territories and obviously we want to make sure that our programs and services are meeting their needs. We as a department have Our Elders: Our Communities elders strategy which is focused on aging in place which ultimately does address or talk to the need for additional housing units or beds for seniors here in the Northwest Territories.

Avens is an incredibly important partner of ours and we have been working very closely with Avens to move their project forward. We have provided Avens with $25,000 to participate in the working groups to move this project along. We also helped, or rather, got out of the way of Avens so that they could move forward with the leveling of the ground on their campus. We do have a working group and as part of that working group there are two sub working groups and one of them is to continue to advance the partners to the GNWT’s capital planning process. Second is to participate in oversight of the financial model related to multi-year block funding and client rates outside of the current regulatory environment.

These aren’t simple questions. These require a significant amount of analysis and work. I know the Avens is frustrated with the progress, as are we. Recognizing that things haven’t been moving as fast as, say, Avens or even we had wished they would, the department is actually going to be

contracting with a consultant to support the detailed financial regulatory as well as legal analysis necessary to provide an accurate and comprehensive range of funding options to help move this project forward. I expect that work to be done in October. Thank you.