Good morning, colleagues, Item 2, Ministers’ statements. Honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, we often talk about the people of the NWT as being our greatest resource. I think it’s fair to say that our Government of the Northwest Territories’ public service is made up of many of those remarkable people who dedicate themselves to public service. Today I would like to acknowledge one of those public servants who has dedicated 25 years to this government and the people of the NWT.

On December 4th Hilda Camirand will retire.

---Applause

During her career she has supported many Premiers and Ministers. All of them, including myself, have benefitted from her wise counsel, expert advice and impressive organizational skills.

Hilda has seen many changes over the course of her career, including division and devolution. In fact, she started her career with the GNWT in 1990, working for the then devolution office. It is fitting that she has been with the GNWT long enough to see devolution become a reality.

Hilda has inspired others around her to meet a standard of public service and professionalism that will be her legacy. There will be more information about Hilda’s retirement celebration available in the coming weeks. I expect it will be quite the event and

that’s where all the juicy stories will come out.

---Laughter

On behalf of the GNWT, I would like to thank Hilda and wish her the very best in her retirement. It will not be the same without her. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.

Mr. Speaker, providing our residents with opportunities to make healthy choices is a priority that has strong support from this Assembly and the Government of the Northwest Territories.

This support extends to all citizens, including those serving sentences in a correctional facility. Progress made by the Department of Justice over the past six months will mean inmates looking to make

better

choices

and

return

to

their

communities as healthy, contributing members will be better supported.

In March of this year, we received a report and recommendations from the Office of the Auditor General on the corrections service. This report was reviewed

by

the

Standing

Committee

on

Government Operations, and later today, at the appropriate time, I will be tabling the Government of the Northwest Territories’ response to the standing committee’s report, including an updated progress report on action taken.

Progress on improvements resulting from the Office of the Auditor General’s recommendations has been substantial. Of the original 106 individual action items the corrections service outlined in their action plan released in May, over 75 percent are now complete, and we expect that most items will be completed by the spring of 2016. Today I would like to share some of the highlights of that progress with you.

All 194 corrections directives, setting out how the service operates, have been reviewed and necessary amendments made in each priority area. These changes have been communicated to staff and they are making improvements in their day-to- day operations as a result.

Every inmate is now receiving appropriate case management,

including

individualized

release

plans. This includes those on remand and those serving sentences that are less than 120 days.

Changes have also been made which allow corrections officers to focus their efforts on true contraband items such as drugs and items that present safety risks. Staff recognized the definitions being used to describe contraband were not focused on those items that could cause harm or disrupt the safe and orderly operations of facilities. In fact, 85 percent of the items were actually nuisance items such as cups or pillows. We will be examining types of contraband closely to be able to react to changing trends as they arise.

I am also pleased to report that progress has been made on training. Through established mandated training, standards have been set and tracking processes are in place to provide a safe and secure working environment for staff and inmates. As crime evolves, so

must our officers’ training in order

to have the best skills and current intelligence to understand today’s inmates.

Steps have been taken to improve correctional programing. Seven years have now passed since the last program review was completed, and we need to stay current with offender needs and profiles. A survey of staff and inmates along with research on correctional programming has been completed. Analysis on the information learned will allow the NWT corrections service to create strong programming that meets the rehabilitative needs of inmates. We plan to complete this work by March 2017. Until then, we will continue to provide a range of programs including those that incorporate traditional healing and enlist Aboriginal elders to share aspects of their culture and traditions. This focus on traditional healing will continue to be a key element of programming at the facilities.

These are just a few of the actions that have been taken by the Department of Justice in the last several months. I want to assure Members that the staff at our correctional facilities are professional and are committed to excellence. We are grateful to the Auditor General’s office and the standing committee for their advice that has helped us refine and focus our efforts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to provide an update on our plans to improve care and services for our residents by improving the Health and Social Services System.

On June 4, 2015, Bill 44, An Act to Amend the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act, received asset in the Legislative Assembly. With the assent of Bill 44, we now have

the legislative mechanism to bring the NWT Health and Social Services System together.

This milestone is the result of years of work and collaboration between many different stakeholders, including the chairs and public administrators of the health and social services authorities, Aboriginal and community governments and Health and Social Services staff from across the system. We also heard from the public about how to improve patient care and client service delivery.

Mr. Speaker, our goal in the process of system transformation is to improve the Health and Social Services System’s ability to provide the best possible care to patients and clients. We want the system to focus on the needs of clients and ensure it is as efficient, sustainable and accountable as possible.

The current governance structure makes it difficult to improve our system. With eight different health and social services authorities, there has been a lack of coordination, communication, and an inefficient use of resources. We are working to improve the governance structure so that we can take advantage of new technologies, improve capacity and continue to provide high-quality services and programs in the future, while ensuring that we provide a consistent level of care for all residents.

Mr. Speaker, on April 1, 2016, six health and social services authorities will be amalgamated into a territorial health and social services authority. The legislation also provides for the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority to become part of the territorial authority at a later date, pending the negotiations required to bring its employees into the public service. The Tlicho Community Services Agency will remain a distinct entity, as provided for in the Tlicho Agreement, but will continue to be an important partner in our system and participate in system-wide planning and decision-making.

Advisory regional wellness councils will be established to replace the current regional boards of management, with the exception of the Tlicho Community

Services

Agency.

The

regional

wellness councils will provide for a more effective regional voice at the territorial level. The chairs from each region, including the Tlicho Community Services Agency, will be members of the territorial health and social services board of management, which will be known as the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Leadership Council.

Mr. Speaker, the NWT is a large territory, with different regions and cultures each with its own priorities and challenges. Residents will now have a greater voice and influence on the services they receive, both at the regional and territorial level.

Despite our regional differences, we share many of the same problems, and it is much better to work

collectively to address these issues and meet the needs of our residents. That means recognizing our diverse cultures, respecting Aboriginal customs and traditions, and working in partnership with Aboriginal governments.

Mr. Speaker, we are working hard to achieve our vision of “Best Health, Best Care for a Better Future.” As a step forward in the move in the new system structure, today I am pleased to announce that Mr. Jim Antoine has been named as the chairperson-designate of the Territorial Health and Social Services Leadership Council. Mr. Antoine brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the design and development of the Health and Social Services System and has been instrumental to this work over the last few years.

Leading up to April 1, 2016, a dedicated team is working with Health and Social Services staff from across

the

system

to

develop

detailed

organizational structures for the Territorial Health and Social Services Authority and the Department of Health and Social Services and accompanying transition and implementation plans to move the current system to the proposed new structure.

Improving our Health and Social Services System is a process, not an event, and will not end with the establishment of the new governance structure. We will continue to improve our system to better support its clients and make it easier for service providers to deliver effective, efficient, patient- centred care and programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, community governments are critical partners in building a strong and independent North. As we near the end of our term, it is a good time to look back at the work we have done to support community governments and the challenges that still remain.

In 2013 the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs launched the Accountability Framework for community governments. This tool is used to measure the performance of community governments based on 14 defined indicators. MACA is currently collecting and analyzing the 2014-2015 data that will be used to create a unique work plan with each government based on that community’s specific needs.

Mr. Speaker, the importance of MACA working collaboratively with community governments cannot be overstated. In May of this year, the department was honoured to receive the NWT Association of

Communities President’s Award in recognition of the collaborative approach taken in the formula funding review. The formula funding review was undertaken by a working group of senior administrative officers and elected officials from communities across the North as well as senior staff from MACA.

As a result of the research and discussions carried out by the working group, a new needs-based approach was developed that better addresses community requirements. This work would not have been possible without the support and engagement of the community government representatives and NWTAC.

MACA is committed to supporting the communities by offering training and development opportunities for

community

government

representatives.

Working with its partners, the department is administering the Public Service Capacity Initiative, which includes a series of programs designed to enhance community government public service capacity.

The focus of the initiative is to recruit, retain and train senior level community government staff, and a community government training specialist position has been created in the South Slave region to provide coaching mentoring and on-site support. Since the initiative began in 2009, MACA and its partners have supported a total of 22 trainees from 18 communities.

With the improved training and development opportunities

being

offered

to

community

government representatives, many community governments are thriving.

However, Mr. Speaker, despite the very best efforts of many people, we are reminded that some communities still struggle to deliver full services to all residents. We know that there are some communities that are struggling to meet demands with inadequate resources, some struggle with capacity and having skilled workers, while others face larger challenges with governance and having effective bylaws and policies in place.

We currently have one community under municipal administration

and

another

under

municipal

supervision. These are significant steps and were only necessary due to extreme conditions. However,

while

these

administrative

and

supervision orders were necessary, I am pleased to report that both communities appear to be progressing and we expect them to return to normal in the future.

Some NWT communities are run by Aboriginal governments under the authority of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, or AANDC. In these communities, the GNWT has a contractual relationship for the administration of municipal-like services. Despite providing funding

for these services, and training and development through the School of Community Government, some of these designated authorities continue to run deficits and are challenged by governance issues. MACA is continuing to work with AANDC to support band councils and band managers to provide more capacity building and improved governance support.

MACA is also responding to new forms of governance, with progress being made toward the implementation of the Deline Self-Government Agreement in September 2016. The community has hired an implementation team that is working alongside DAAIR and MACA to ensure that all necessary components are in place and ready by next September. The three parties have agreed upon an implementation plan and meet regularly to discuss objectives, track progress and outline responsibilities.

Mr. Speaker, as you can see, there has been some very good work to support and develop community governments, while at the same time we also have new and ongoing challenges to address.

The department has done good work, and I invite all Members to join me in thanking all its staff and management for all of their efforts to improve the quality of living for our residents in their communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Item 3, Members’ statements. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As this government has committed to growing the population of the Northwest Territories over the next few years, one of the areas that I talked about in the past is our link between the students who are going out to schools and the Department of HR. We have a disconnect there. I think that we should be able to communicate with those students and link them to jobs before they’ve even completed their education.

Hay River has a great couple of students right now. Mr. Lance Crook is finishing up his education, a doctorate, and he’s in Hay River doing some training. We also have R.J. Simpson, who has finished his degree in law and is looking for the GNWT to do articling. He’s having difficulties finding a position.

The problem we have is that exact thing. Why is Mr. Simpson coming back to the Northwest Territories now to get an articling position? Shouldn’t we have already

known

that

from

student

financial

assistance that that was what he was doing? Shouldn’t we have talked to HR and the Department of Justice and linked this together so Mr. Simpson and other students have an opportunity to come back? The problem now is he’s considering, do I stay in the Northwest Territories or do I go south where I can actually get a position? We should have linked that in his first and second year of school, to HR, to the department he will potentially be working for. Why is there a disconnect?

I know the Department of ECE is looking to create this checkbox so HR can communicate with Justice and everybody else. There is definitely a disconnect with our GNWT. We need to find that link and we need to make sure all our students come back. We are paying for that student financial assistance. We should maximize that opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In continuing my daily ritual of evaluating the performance of the McLeod government, today I want to reference my tabled document of Tuesday, September 29, 2015, and spend some time on our revenue concerns, both federal and own source.

By all accounts, our GNWT revenue grew by 149.79 percent from 2000 to today, and was substantially more than operation spending growth of 115 percent during the same period. However, with federal transfers currently accounting for more than 70 percent of GNWT revenue, and with only modest NWT population growth over these 15 years, we should be concerned of what current negative trend in population growth truly means. In fact, it is in the 2015-16 year where we see the single largest negative revenue growth of minus 1.01 percent, and if you put this side by side with our operational spending at 2.15 percent, you can clearly see this is not a balanced budget process, as it’s been portrayed, but a true deficit process.

While we are told and soothed when we have an operational surplus, it is important to note that this is not entirely true, as this book adjustment surplus is already spent in our capital budget process.

The second source of our revenue is through own- source revenue, and this revenue grew by 143.2 percent from

2000 to 2016 or ’15, far more than the

inflation but less than total revenue. Our own- source revenue is more variable than federal transfers due to the volatility and the forecasting of our corporate taxes collected. We would all agree that increasing own-source revenue through taxes would likely increase the cost of living, and it is

worthy to note that corporate and personal income taxes in the NWT are among the lowest in Canada.

To pass praise where praise is due, the January 2015 Fraser Institute graded

Canada’s Premiers

based on corporate and personal income taxes or changes in tax rates. Now, although not specifically mentioned in this Fraser Report, Premier McLeod would place, and as I’m saying, the best in the country, first place on corporate taxes and second place on personal income taxes, and by these measures Premier McLeod would have been second overall of all the Premiers in Canada, behind Alberta.

At this time, Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

This is very painful for me.

---Laughter

Now, I know the Premier is gleaming right now, and to be fair, I wanted to be balanced in my reporting. He does get an A for maintaining a stable, low corporate and personal tax environment, but

– hang

on

– his government only gets a C grade for how it

has handled our population growth issues, our own- source revenue options and increased volatility in our overall revenue management. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’m very

distressed over this week’s report that the Minister of Health and Social Services has rejected a proposal put forth by the K’atlodeeche First Nations to reopen the only addictions treatment centre located in the NWT. There was a lot of disappointment and disbelief when the department pulled the funding for the Hay River Reserve’s Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre.

I agree with my colleagues in this House; I question whether it was a wise decision to close the only addictions treatment centre in the NWT. I was willing to accept the department’s position that they were shifting their focus to the on-the-land programs, but I was also encouraged that they seemed to be willing to work with the KFN to find ways to reopen the treatment centre.

Now, it appears that Health and Social Services is no longer willing to support this. Like many others, I want to know the reasons why. This government talks a lot about working in partnership with Aboriginal governments. If we truly believe in this, then I don’t know how we can take such a non- productive approach with KFN.

The KFN wants to see the treatment centre reopened. There are a lot of good, common sense reasons why this should happen. We could support the KFN to continue to use that perfectly serviceable facility. We could support putting jobs in the community, and most importantly, we could provide a treatment option for our own residents who want to stay in the NWT while in recovery.

Mr. Speaker, I applaud Chief Roy Fabian and I support the KFN in the push to reopen the only treatment centre in the NWT. Chief Fabian says the response of the Minister of Health and Social Services was like a slap in the face. The chief was trying to provide leadership on an issue that matters to the community and instead he’s disrespected and insulted in the process. This does not sound to me like the actions of a Minister who truly believes in partnerships with Aboriginal governments.

Will the Minister reconsider his response to the KFN and commit to reopening the treatment centre? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the summer months I had a disappointing e-mail exchange with the Minister of Transportation. For several years now I’ve been waiting for the government, the Department of Transportation, to produce

and

make

publicly

available

a

comprehensive, in-depth review and analysis of the Deh Cho Bridge Project. I have repeatedly asked about work done on such an analysis, and for years now I’ve been given excuses as to why it hasn’t yet happened.

Last month I finally got a straight answer, but it’s one which gives tru

e meaning to the phrase “the

government can’t be trusted because they lie.”

On December 13, 2011, there was, in this House, a public commitment by the Transportation Minister of the day to do a full retrospective analysis of the Deh Cho Bridge Project. But the answer I received last month from Minister Beaulieu stated, “I have had discussions with my Cabinet colleagues on the pros and cons of committing additional time and resources to undertaking additional analysis of the Deh Cho Bridge Project. It has been determined that further retrospective analysis of the bridge project is not warranted at this time.” The Minister continued, “Any additional analysis at this time is not expected to result in new lessons learned and could become a distraction to other significant initiatives of the government.” A distraction, Mr. Speaker.

The Deh Cho Bridge Project was undoubtedly the most poorly handled project in this and the two

previous Assemblies. The public deserves to know why and where the project went wrong, deserves to know why it ended up costing residents, through their tax dollars, some four times the original estimate.

The e-mail answer to me went on to say that a number of analyses have taken place and that “other reviews have also been undertaken, including the presentations delivered at several venues.” Are all of these items publicly available,” I asked. Are they even available to MLAs? What are these other reviews? Presentations were made to whom? Did MLAs have access to the info in those presentations? Can the public have access to those presentations? They certainly should.

The last straw for me was this part of the answer: “The Deh Cho Bridge is functioning and operating as planned and there are no outstanding concerns regarding the processes as to procure this important piece of infrastructure.”

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Everything done by the Department of Transportation does not address the fundamental underlying issue: the project did not proceed as planned. Where is the report which identifies and outlines the problems with the project, where it went off the rails and why?

Minister Ramsay committed to a full retrospective analysis of the bridge project, and that’s what I and the public expected. Now it’s just a distraction and not worth doing.

Examining past mistakes is invaluable to preventing the same thing from happening in the future. At the very least, Cabinet should be able to provide me and the public with a report that encompasses all the work done to date in an easily readable and informative format.

I will have questions for the Minister of Transportation at the appropriate time. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On June 24th to the 26th this past summer, I had the honour

of sitting in a meeting with seniors from around the region that I attended and worked on a seniors meeting entitled Working Together to Address Seniors Issues. It was a follow-up to a meeting that some of the stakeholders, some of the coordinators did when they came to Yellowknife and had a meeting with the NWT Seniors’ Society.

A lot of really good discussions happened during those three days, and we had seniors from Aklavik, Tsiigehtchic, Fort McPherson and Inuvik. They were bringing up issues that meant a lot to them, and anybody who was in attendance that day could see the passion and the hardship that our elders go through on a daily basis and that continue to occur.

Today I want to bring up some of those issues that the elders addressed as they broke into their focus groups by community to see what kinds of solutions they could come up with. Things such as language interpreters, whether it’s through the justice system, through the health and social services system, even the education system, and that’s been brought up in this House over the term of the 17th Assembly.

Other things: lack of RCMP in the communities, lack of health care in some cases in some of the communities, as well as on-the-land programs not for treatment but to create awareness, increase our culture, go back to the traditional values they feel are being lost, and working with youth.

Of course, they wanted to bring up something that has continue to occur, and Members on this side of the House have spoken to it on many occasions, and that’s the elder abuse. Other things that we’ve talked about which were kind of addressed and we’re trying to deal with within the Child and Family Services Act are child welfare cases and concerns, and our grandparents are continuing to foster care.

Things such as housing is another issue, and working with youth. In fact, just recently our Children First Centre in Inuvik went and visited our elders at Ingamo Hall and had a great day with them, I think just a couple days ago. As well, home care is needed to be addressed.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

As I mentioned, these elders had a lot of passion and a lot of concern, and almost every elder spoke up. It was their venue to speak and be listened to. Each community brought priorities forward, some with similar themes. As I mentioned, home care, suicide, what kinds of services are provided in the community, and also elder abuse was a big one. It provided great guidelines for other regions to follow, and I think that’s something that we need to promote in other regions throughout the Northwest Territories.

Our elders are our caregivers, providers, and keepers of knowledge. It’s time that we support them, show them the respect that they deserve, treat them with dignity and listen to what they had said in this report.

I will have questions today for the Minister responsible to see how we can address this, how we can get the next government to take this as one

of our priorities. As you know, our seniors population is increasing.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was following and supporting the Finance Minister’s report on the fiscal situation we are leaving for the 18th Assembly, noting the volatility of the global

economy, the mining industry and our economy; low revenues; and the need to diversify. That is until he suddenly and illogically looped back to saying that, therefore, we have to pursue the highly volatile and uncertain extractive industry even harder.

People are drained of any remnant of enthusiasm for this old way of thinking and they pine for recognition of the real opportunities we do have for vibrant, localized and cooperative economies that benefit our families, communities and businesses.

Last May people from across the Northwest Territories, convinced that a new vision is needed, came together with economists to explore localization of our community economies and what it could mean. They saw a viable alternative to a resource extractive economy, but one that must deal with two issues: climate change and poverty. This means changes to our economic model from a global one to a local one.

People were enthused. Localized economies enhance rather than degrade resources, target community

people

rather

than

transient

populations, take a grassroots approach and support diversity. They are achieved by removing fossil fuel subsidies, following the polluter pays principle,

refocusing

towards

diverse

local

enterprises rather than a single extractive industry, and replacing the glamorized industrial model based on external investors to an economic gardening model with local people in mind. The gathering recognized that poverty and inequity are bad for our economy but that the NWT could alter tax policy

– and I disagree with the A grade – so it

is investing in sustainable economic infrastructure and social and cultural development. Attendees recognize that globalized businesses don’t attend to local needs, highlighting why ownership is key. Public and cooperative ownership are ways to include local people and focus investment locally. This approach supports quality of life and the strengthening of social structure. In focus sessions, participants concluded that food systems are at the heart of localized economies and food security for everyone; that climate change, energy costs and health are three primary drivers of renewable energy adoption…

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

In focus sessions, participants concluded that food systems are at the heart of localized economies and food security; that climate change, energy costs and health are three primary drivers of renewable energy adoption; and that compared to oil and gas, renewables are investments in local jobs and businesses. Much work needs to be done to evolve government policy that recognizes and supports local economies.

In conclusion, the goal should be community empowerment that builds a strong local economic foundation and restores the commons. We need to take control of our destiny, invest in our collective strengths, and work together locally towards a brighter economic future. Now there is an economic approach that will address the Minister’s fiscal challenges and all Members’ goals of healthy families and communities supported by this government.

Let’s get ‘er done. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to know why there are so many houses just sitting empty in the Sahtu communities. This is a common conversation I have when I meet with my constituents in the Sahtu, especially in Fort Good Hope. In Fort Good Hope there are rows and rows of empty houses and a long list of young people who are waiting for a house. Unbelievable. Here we have a case where we’re not getting our act together fast enough to put these young people in these houses and fill these empty houses.

The last NWT needs assessment paints a clear picture of the housing needs in Fort Good Hope and the Sahtu communities. A study that shows you the dire straits of overcrowding, the health issues are a result of this fact and this spills over into other areas in our society.

The community leaders of Fort Good Hope have always wanted to do something with these empty houses. “Tear them down,” they say, “or build new ones.” We need houses for our people. There are provisions within the land claim that gives them the opportunity to build these houses and make it work for them, yet there seems to be some delay in movement within the NWT Housing Corporation to release these units. What is the problem? Can we really put people in homes? Is that a good measurable goal we can do, or do we continue to allow these empty houses to sit empty and do nothing?

I’ll have questions for the NWT Minister of Housing on how we can clean house.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’m very

pleased to hear the Minister of Health’s statement on the transformation of our health system, but today I want to let the Minister know that we simply must ensure that our residents in Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte health needs are taken care of. They want to be served by the BC Ministry of Northern Health in Fort Nelson, BC.

The Minister travelled with me in May and heard clearly from the residents that they are treated fairly and with care when they go to Fort Nelson. In fact, our residents have been treated in Fort Nelson for decades. They’re only asking to formalize the process, recognize the Fort Nelson Hospital as a point of service. This will then allow our region to refer and pay for the travel costs of our residents.

Having health services provided as close to home as possible will lower the costs of health care in my region. It’s a two and a half hour drive from Fort Liard into Fort Nelson, as opposed to when they travel to Yellowknife it’s a two day travel.

I have been standing in this House for three terms, asking our government and our Minister of Health to authorize Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte residents to receive their health care in Fort Nelson. We have an agreement with Alberta Health, and we use all their facilities. What will it take to have an agreement with the BC Ministry of Health to serve our residents in Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte?

I will have questions at the appropriate time. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, we all heard the other day that the population in Canada is aging. No surprise, of course, and the NWT is certainly not immune to those pressures. That’s right. Stats Canada says one out of every six persons in Canada are over the age of 64. Heck, take the statistics in this room. Twenty percent of the MLAs are over the age of 60. Stats Canada can see this, why can’t the GNWT see this?

So, while the problem keeps getting ignored, Avens continues to be bursting at the seams when it comes to capacity, and as time goes on, it marches on, more seniors are on the waiting list at Avens,

k

nocking on the door when there’s nowhere else to

turn. But what happens? They get turned away. Why does this keep being ignored?

Avens is maxed out, Mr. Speaker. I cannot keep telling you this, because everyone knows it, and if something doesn’t change, who knows what will happen?

We need more extended care beds because Stanton isn’t going to cover them. Avens is offering a solution.

If this was a school, for goodness sake, we have policies to start looking at renovation plans or extension plans once they reach 75 percent, so why do they just pay lip service to our seniors? So, where are they to go? To the street, I wonder? I don’t know. I could tell you about the 50 or more seniors on the waiting list, but no, the government already knows this, so there’s nothing that seems to want to motivate them into action.

Typically finding a single partner is the biggest problem to these things, but no, they’ve got a partner, a partner that’s competent, that can do the job and wants to do the job. So, what’s the proble

m? Procrastination. I think that’s all it is.

So, while the delays continue, and of course our elders population keeps growing and growing, and the need for 173 residential long-term beds is still at zero capacity because they’re all full and we need more, well, this government, what do they do? They hire an expert, Dr. Hollander, who says in his report – the government’s expert, by the way – “Yellowknife is expected to grow by 287 percent in the next 16 years.” Oh, but that’s too far away to talk about, le

t’s go to 11 years away, 248 percent.

Oh, 11 years is too far away to think about? Well, let’s just get it down to five years from now, 184 percent growth in seniors.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Bromley couldn’t be more right; it was a shame the way Ms. Lemay had been treated in her nineties. She’s given her life, heart and soul to this community and she’s shown the street, with no options. They’re giving her temporary care but there is no solution.

To sum up, it can’t go on any longer. This government needs to wake u

p to the seniors’

problem. We must do something to the demand that’s on our doorstep now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to talk again about our Medical Travel Policy and I’d like to provide an example of where I think there may be a gap.

A patient has been assessed by a doctor and it’s deemed they have to travel from one community to come to Yellowknife to have a procedure done

– it

could be any kind of procedure, it could be surgery – and it’s deemed that they need a non-medical escort. So, a friend or a family member is called upon to accompany that patient. But when they get to Yellowknife, they find out that the procedure or the treatment that’s planned is not available at that time. So, the escort is then left in the situation where the patient must stay but the escort needs to get back to their home and to their family.

I want to get to the bottom of a policy which, to me, seems very unfair. Someone, out of the goodness of their heart, agrees to accompany a patient to Yellowknife, finds out that the stay is going to be too long and they can’t stay for the duration. But when they want to go home, they get told by medical travel, “I’m sorry. If you’re not travelling home with the patient, you’re not eligible to have your cost covered.” I don’t think that’s right. I think it would discourage people from helping a friend who needed a medical escort.

I will, later today, be asking the Minister of Health and Social Services if he could clarify for us what the policy is in a situation like this. I mean, it’s very possible that the treatment or procedure that that patient was schedule for could get changed for some reason. It could be any number of reasons. If the patient is not sent back to their home community, what happens to the person who escorted them here when they need to return?

I think it may be potentially a gap in the system that needs to be addressed, and I’d like to question the Minister about it in question period. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Colleagues, before we go on today, I’d like to welcome Mr. Roy Erasmus, Member of the 13th Legislative Assembly. Welcome back to the House.

---Applause

Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize my wife of 36 years and, Lord willing, another 36. I’m glad you’re able to join us in the Assembly. My wife, Judy. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to welcome all visitors to the gallery today. We have some special guests visiting us from the Yukon. We have the Deputy Premier of the Yukon,

the Honourable Elaine Taylor; her deputy minister, Murray Arsenault; and from

the Premier’s office,

Jonas Smith; and I’d also like to welcome a former Member of the House, Mr. Roy Erasmus; and, again, everybody else who’s with us. Thank you.

Thank you, MR. Ramsay. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] I would also like to welcome the Deputy Premier from Yukon. I know that she has the ministry of francophone under her. I know that she has a lot of work, the same as we do, and I want to express my welcome to our House, our Assembly. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize three of my hearts in the gallery today: my loving partner, Mr. Lucyanne Kendo; a wonderful stepdaughter, Brittany Jewel; and my very small grandson, Kayleb Black- Villeneuve. Welcome to the gallery.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like

to recognize constituent Roy Erasmus. At least for the next couple of months he’s a constituent of Weledeh. So, welcome to the House.

I’d also like to welcome the visitors from the Yukon. You know, we don’t get nearly enough east-west interaction, so I really appreciate the visitors joining us in the House and visiting Yellowknife. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to

welcome a constituent to the House today, Ms. Judy McLeod, and also thank her for all the work that she’s done with our Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Servic

es throughout the region. It’s very

much appreciated.

I’m not sure if Hilda is still up there or not, but I want to recognize her and just say that I appreciated curling with her in all the government bonspiels over the years, and I just want to say thanks for her welcoming smile every time we walk down the halls to our meetings, especially for the out-of-town MLAs when they come here.

Also, Mr. Murray Arsenault, a one-time Inuvik resident, welcome to the House. To all the other residents and people joining us today, I hope you enjoy the proceedings. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, although I think Hilda is gone, but I did want to mention Hilda. She has been a stalwart person in

Yellowknife for many years, beyond her work in the Assembly, so I wanted to recognize her work here and her commitment to the community.

I’d also like to recognize Ms. Elaine Taylor. We have had some meetings over the years. Also all the other representatives here from the Yukon. As Mr. Moses said, it’s great to have communication between Yukon and NWT, Whitehorse and Yellowknife. Welcome to everyone.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. They’ve

been recognized a few times, but I certainly wouldn’t mind underscoring it just one more time at least a little further. I’d like to recognize Deputy Minister Arsenault. I’ve gotten to know him over the last few years. I really admire his hard work. He’s had a great relationship with the Northwest Territories and I’m very thankful that we have someone in the Yukon who understands our problems as we learn about theirs. I couldn’t think of a better team to take on the challenges in Ottawa than our good folks in the gallery here today, so thank you for your presence and, also, thank you for being a partner on our side, because we’re certainly on your side too when we challenge Ottawa.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize and thank all the visitors to the Assembly here. I want to name, of course, Hilda. She’s not here, but I also want to thank her. Hilda is family. She’s my first cousin. One of the things that I want to say is when I walk down the hallway into the office, Hilda always says, “No, no, this is how you do it. You’ve got to do this, this and that.” So she keeps me on the straight and narrow. I also wanted to congratulate her on her retirement.

Also, to Mr. Erasmus in the gallery, too, and all the other people from the Yukon for visiting us over in the Northwest Territories. Hopefully, one day we’ll get a chance to visit them over there.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you. I

’d also just

like to make a comment on Hilda Camirand and what a cheerful good morning we get as we go down the Ministers’ corridor to our meetings in the morning and just for being the encouraging and supportive person that she is. When I look around the staff and when I look around the Members, there are not a lot of people who predate Minister Miltenberger’s and my arrival here. Mr. Schauerte is one of them. Hilda is one of them. There are not very many, and Hilda’s been there for a long time. She’s an institution and much appreciated by everyone.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I’d like to welcome everybody here in the public gallery. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like

to ask the question to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. Why are there so many empty houses in Fort Good Hope and how many empty houses are there in Fort Good Hope?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is we have an eight- plex in Fort Good Hope. I believe this is what he’s referring to. That is empty. I think we’re in the process of selling that particular unit. I think we have another eight units that we might be in talks with the local government about taking on these units.

The Minister is correct on the eight-plex that is sitting empty and in the process of sell

ing it in the community. I’m not too sure where it

will be going to or which organization or person. It’s been there for a while.

Why is it taking so long to dispose of this empty unit while there are a lot of people on the waiting list? Why are the empty units still sitting there while there are a lot of people on the waiting list to get into these units? What can we do to expedite this situation so that we can put people into houses rather than have them in other houses where overcrowding is a major health issue?

Every community has an allotment of public housing, and as we take the units out of stock, we have a disposal plan. We try to sell off the unit if we can. Those that we dispose of, with the new WSCC regulations we have to do a hazardous material assessment and abatement before we’re able to dispose of those units. So it’s added on a tremendous cost to our ability to dispose of many of these units. The Member and I were having a conversation where, back in the day, they’d just come in with a backhoe, take the unit down and haul it off to the garbage dump. We don’t have that ability anymore. So we’re trying to come up with the funding to… It’s almost double or even triple the cost in some cases, so we’re challenged that way and our aggressive disposal plan is not as aggressive as it used to be. So we’re taking steps to try and address that. Thank you.

Certainly, the Minister and I were speaking this morning on why it’s taking so long to dispose of these empty units, knowing that Fort Good Hope has a long list of potential tenants who want to go into these units and there’s overcrowding. It’s causing health issues; it’s causing social issues and people want to get into these units.

Is the Minister actively looking at an expedient process where these empty units can either be retrofitted by the local community organizations or be torn down? Like the Minister said, in the old days it was good because you could go in there, knock the houses down and build a new one. Now we seem to have more bureaucratic red tape costing us more, so it’s more difficult to replace these units or sell them off to the local government. People want these empty units filled either by building new ones or tearing them down.

Is the Minister looking at an expedient process for this to happen in Fort Good Hope?

This eight-

plex that’s in

Fort Good Hope, I’ll get the update on that and share it with the Member. I’m not sure where we’re at with that.

As far as the other units go, I’d have to get an update on those. If there are some there that we deem are write-offs, we will sell them if people want to take them on and try to do some renovations themselves. We’ve had that done in the past. I’ll get an update on all of the units that are in Fort Good Hope and the status and where we’re at with those. Again, we’re challenged by the fact that we have to do an assessment and remediate a lot of these units before we dispose of them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a TV program called Clean House where they come in and they take all the junk out of the house and people sometimes have a hard time letting go of some of their junk in the hou

se. It’s almost like

this Housing Corporation is letting go of some of their junk in the House here. So, I know this can be done because in my hometown of Tulita the Housing actually did a very good job of turning over these empty units to the community corporation real estate. They actually bought these units, fixed them up and rented them out.

Can this happen in Fort Good Hope where the Housing Corporation can go and say these units can be turned over to the community? The community is waiting to purchase these, build them and get these young couples into these houses. That’s what they’re waiting for. So, can the Minister clean house on this issue?

Thank you. We’d love

to clean house, but again, we’re faced with some of the challenges of the proper assessment and remediation. We would be more than pleased to sell these units to a community group as we did in Tulita and they took on responsibility of those units. I think they were in the process of renovating them and they would rent them out and they would collect the revenues. We’re more than willing to partner with communities where we have a lot of these vacant units, and if there’s an opportunity for them to take those off our hands and fix them themselves, then we have other opportunities to possibly look at putting new replacement public housing in the communities. We’re faced with many challenges and we’ve continued to try and address those. We understand that it is an issue across the NWT, so we’re looking at taking on that challenge head on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Public Works and Services. I’d like to follow up on his statement yesterday.

Yesterday the Minister gave a statement outlining some of the things we have done to reduce energy consumption, and I was pleased to hear the progress that’s been made. However, until a long overdue energy efficiency act is in place, our performance as a territory will be hit and miss.

We know that an act is not about to happen during the life of this Assembly, but the Minister at least promised a discussion paper towards such an act, but where is the promised document for our review? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have the information here in the House with me on how far along the department is in producing a discussion paper for the Assembly. I will talk to Public Works today to find out if I can get an update for the Members in the House and provide that early next week. Thank you.

I’m not quite sure what to say

here. The Minister seems to be unaware of this, and yet this is fundamental to reducing our energy costs and so on.

Will the promised discussion paper be ready… I can’t even ask the rest of my question, so I’ll have to stop here, Mr. Speaker. The Minister doesn’t have any information. I’ll have to say I’m very disappointed. We need our government to be on top of these important issues. Mahsi.

Thank you. That was more of a comment. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just following up to my Member’s statement earlier, and there are some really good Ministers’ statements here as well. One was from Justice in terms of using an elder in some of our work that we’re going to be doing in the traditional healing and enlisting Aboriginal elders in the aspects of their culture and traditions, focusing on traditional healing in the corrections facility. Also, when I mentioned that meeting that we had in Inuvik, we had discussions of the regional wellness councils, and elders who were there spoke up and said that they would really love to be on those regional councils, as well, but they had a lot of concerns, and I guess, just the whole aspect of having that regional meeting.

I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for Seniors, what is his department doing to create more regional

meetings

like

this

throughout

the

Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a fairly positive working relationship with the NWT Seniors’ Society and we have provided funding for some meetings and some of the functions that they’re undertaking.

With respect to facilitating the exact type of meeting that the Member is talking about, I will talk to the department to find out where we are with those kinds of supports and I will get back to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In terms of an action plan, I know there is a Seniors’ Handbook that’s out in the communities. Can I ask the Minister, is there an action plan for seniors? As he heard here today, there are housing issues and even issues in terms of long-term care facilities and beds. Is there an action plan for our senior population over the next five, the next 10 years? One of my colleagues mentioned the increased population, you know, five years from now, 11 years from now, even further down the road. Is there an action plan to address some of these issues moving forward? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We don’t have an

action plan per se. What we do have is Our Elders: Our Communities framework which focuses on seven different priority areas: healthy and active aging; home and community care services; integrated and coordinated services across the continuum; getting people to work together, as the Member has described; caregiver supports; elder- responsive communities is another initiative that

we’re working on with communities and partners; and ensuring that there are sustainable and best practices available for all of the care providers and residents of the Northwest Territories.

We are also working on the development of an NWT Continuing Care Service Delivery Action Plan which will focus on facilities and where we need to be building facilities, recognizing the large increase of seniors we are going to be seeing over the next number of years. This project is going to help us figure out when, where and how to build facilities to meet those needs. So, there are a number of different things happening, Mr. Speaker.

My experience that I had at the meeting over the summer, just being in attendance – I wasn’t there for all the three days, but I sat in and listened to some of the discussions

– and the

passion and concern of these elders speaking up and not really having the confidence. Within government and other areas of leadership, something needs to be done so that with the Continuing Care Action Plan that the Minister is discussing, would he welcome some of the senior populations from the regions to sit in on the discussion of an action plan to help to address the real issues in the small communities and at the regional level? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I’ve indicated

previously, we have a really positive working relationship with the NWT Seniors’ Society, who represents seniors from across the Northwest Territories

and

the

board

actually

has

representatives from people from across the Territories. We work closely with them and are always seeking their input and guidance. I am happy to meet with seniors’ societies across the Northwest Territories to get their input. The services and programs we are talking about are ultimately for them and it’s important to make sure they are engaged. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we come to an end in the 17th Legislative Assembly,

would the Minister responsible ensure that this is a priority of the 18th Assembly? Would he commit that

our seniors’ issues, such as elder abuse, housing and services in some of the small communities are a priority in the 18th Assembly so when the new

government comes in, they can hit the road running and address some of the issues our elders are dealing with? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This is obviously an incredibly important issue in the Northwest Territories, especially recognizing the rate in which our seniors populations are increasing. It’s something I have asked to be included on the Cabinet’s transition document so it is brought forward to the future government. If I’m fortunate

enough to be back, whether I’m on that side of the House or on this side of the House, it’s still a priority for me and would continue to be a priority for me. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions

today

are

for

the

Minister

of

Transportation. I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement and ask some questions about the Deh Cho Bridge review, which is apparently not now coming. I would like to ask the Minister, first of all, if he could please explain to me the answer that I got from him that he and Cabinet had decided that the public did not deserve a report which had been promised by the previous Transportation Minister in 2011.

I have to ask him, what is the value of the promise of government and why did you decide the public did not deserve the analysis that was promised? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe I said that the community or the public did not deserve a retrospective analysis. I indicated that we had done some work with the Auditor General in looking at the bridge at the point when we took the bridge over from another project authority and changed the contractor. We also had a report done by independent people, the Levelton Report that was done from the time the bridge started until we took over the bridge, and DOT had done a couple of reports on lessons learned. I felt that that was sufficient for us to move forward using that bridge as lessons learned on other major projects that would be undertaken. It isn’t a matter of whether or not people deserved something; it was something we felt we could work with the information we had to move forward. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I didn’t

suggest that… I think it was my statement that the public didn’t get what they deserved. It was a public commitment in the House to do a retrospective analysis and then there was a decision by the executive, by a Minister and I guess the rest of Cabinet, not go through with this.

So my question is again, which I think the Minister chose to ignore, what is the value of promise by government?

The Minister mentioned a whole bunch of documents. I have a list here that is probably about six or so documents, but why should the public have to go searching all over the website, all over the GNWT public site looking for documents to find

out why this project didn’t proceed as planned? I would like to ask the Minister, in that particular instance, where is it

– I know there is no spot – that

the public can go to get a fully inclusive retrospective analysis of the Deh Cho Bridge Project. I don’t believe it’s there. There is no one report which covers everything and I want to ask the Minister why that is not there. Thank you.

We do have that information on our DOT website. We felt that individuals who wish to determine what the issues were could find that information in a lot of different places. We looked at a retrospective analysis as a tool for ourselves when we move forward. It appeared that the main issues that people in the House felt that there was something wrong with the Deh Cho Bridge. What we were saying is the issue was that the contractor changed midstream, that the project authority changed in midstream. That is what seemed to be the issue.

As far as the department goes, we felt we did a very good job. We put a project in that is very valuable to this city, valuable to the people of the Northwest Territories. It makes travel a lot easier and we felt it was a very good piece of infrastructure. It appears as though individuals are indicating that that may not be such a good piece of infrastructure. We put information together from lessons learned so we could do a better job on other projects, but it wasn’t something that would be there for the individuals to see and say exactly what happened.

Everything that happened with the Deh Cho Bridge was very public. There is more information, and if individuals want specific to what they are saying what they see as an issue, they can make that request. Members can make

that request and we’ll

comply. Thank you.

I don’t believe I was suggesting that

the bridge was not a good project. By the time the government took over the project, I believe it was extremely well managed and it has become an excellent piece o

f infrastructure. That’s not the

issue. The issue is that the project started under a veil of suspicion and it continued under that veil of suspicion for quite some time.

There is no analysis, to my mind, that’s been done, looking at all the documents I got from the Minister. There’s nothing that looks at the project from its inception from the 15th Assembly when it was first

discussed, from the transition from the 15th to the

16th when the contract was signed and then on into

the 16th until the government took it over. There is

nothing which I can go to or direct the public to go where they can see what sorts of things happened and what went wrong.

I would like to ask the Minister, there were lessons to be learned, absolutely. The lessons that were learned by the department were from a review team

and specific to the building of the bridge. I don’t have a problem with that. My problem is what lessons were learned from the very inception of the bridge project. Thank you.

I don’t know specifically

which lessons were learned from the very inception of the Deh Cho Bridge, but we do have lessons learned. They are on the website. We have made several presentations. The department of highways and

marine

division

of

Department

of

Transportation made a presentation on the Deh Cho Bridge lessons learned. That is on the website. Retrospective Lessons Learned on the Deh Cho Bridge, again prepared by the Department of Transpiration, is on our website. The Auditor General’s report is also on the website. We charted out the recommendations of the Auditor General’s report. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to say to the Minister that the only lessons that were learned were from the review team project. I quote from their report: “The analysis was based on the experience of the delivery team, and many more parts that included political, financial and legal issues were not looked at.”

I have to ask the Minister, will he, once again, commit and fulfill the promise that was made by the previous Minister of Transportation and provide one report, a fully thorough and analyzed and retrospective analysis of the Deh Cho Bridge Project from inception to completion?

I can have that discussion with the department again. We felt like there was no real value in continuing to do a retrospective analysis. We are busy. There are a lot of projects on the go, and the department felt that with the retrospective lessons learned and the Deh Cho Bridge lessons learned, the Levelton Report before we took over and the Auditor General’s report at the point we took over were sufficient for us to move forward, was sufficient to provide information.

Th

e Member is correct; that doesn’t cover the

financial and the political perspective of what occurred with the bridge, and I’m prepared to put that information together to provide it to the Member or put it on the website.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Colleagues, before we go on today, I’d like to welcome back to the Assembly Mr. Derek Tremblay, our former head of security here. Welcome back to the Assembly, Derek.

Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my Member’s statement today – and I gave the facts and the numbers, and even the GNWT’s numbers through their partnership with the researcher on Avens

– the study Where to Go and

What to Do, one thing is clear: a tsunami of seniors is coming and there’s nowhere for them to run.

As I said in my statement, if the capacity was similar to a school, where once a school hit 75 percent full, it triggers a renewal of the school whether through renovation or a building of a new school, but yet we have no policy or solution for the seniors. Avens is 100 percent full right now, at least 50 on their waiting list with nowhere to go.

I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, what are the delays that are stopping this government from making a formal commitment to address the seniors population problem and provide Avens with the necessary tools so they can provide the solutions for those seniors who need places to go?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the numbers that the Member has put forward. I mean, they are department numbers. There is no question that the degree of increase of seniors in the Northwest Territories is going to be significant over the next number of years, but it isn’t just a Yellowknife problem; it’s a territorial problem and we have to look at this with a territorial lens.

We have been putting new beds for long-term care facilities in the Northwest Territories. We will have 18 beds in Norman Wells. We are going to have nine more beds in Behchoko, and we have put new beds in the Territories over the last number of years, including the Dementia Facility. At the same time, we are also partnering with the NWT Housing Corporation that is putting in independent living units throughout the Northwest Territories, five in the life of this government. That will make space available.

We are focusing on Our Elders: Our Communities, which is an aging in place strategy to help encourage and help support people who want to live in their homes.

All that said, we know we need additional beds, and over the last two years we have been working very closely with Avens, exploring a number of different alternative financing options to support the pavilion project which will increase the number of units or beds in the Northwest Territories significantly. We are committed to finding a solution. We will find a solution and we will find a way to support Avens as

we move forward on th

at project. It’s an important

project that needs to happen.

It couldn’t be said better than by

the Canadian Medical Association president, Cindy Forbes. She talks about the growing rate of seniors. She also references the cost, where it costs $1,000 a day, on average, in Canada to hospitalize and hold seniors. Whereas if you find partners like Avens, it comes at a fraction of that price. She estimates average cost in Canada at fifty. Now, I know these are southern costs, but the ratio is the point, not the actual dollar number. Why is the government not realizing that?

My next question is: When will this government be willing to finally step up and address the Avens problem, which is an NWT problem because there are a lot of seniors there from the Northwest Territories, not just Yellowknife. In other words, when will this government be willing to step forward to make that final commitment to address the overpopulation of seniors and the inability to meet those needs?

As I’ve indicated,

we’ve been working very closely with Avens over the last few years. We’ve even presented options and they’ve presented options back. At one point in time, we were talking about working with them to utilize the extended care needs and an extended care facility here in Yellowknife as an option to help them leverage some money to build their long-term care facility. At that time, that was declined by the board. I’m happy to say that the board has actually re-engaged and they are now interested in having dialogue and discussion about the possibility of merging those two opportunities, and it is certainly something that we’re open to. As I’ve said, we work very closely with Avens. We’re in the process right now of actually taking all the work that’s been pulled together to figure out how we can move forward and exploring all the different

financing

options

that

have

been

presented to us by Avens and other groups to make this a reality. As I’ve said, this is incredibly important. We need to make this h

appen. We’re

working with our partners. We’re going to continue to work with our partners and we will find a way to make this pavilion project a reality.

Avens presently has 29 beds. They want to extend it to 60, and of course, they have bigger plans than that. But you know what? They see what’s in the near future. They’ve got over 50 on their waiting list. I won’t go on at length, but our population is growing to 184 percent in five more years. We’re not meeting the demands. We couldn’t start the planning, reviewing and building and meet that challenge that’s presented to us in five years if we did something today.

Again, I’m going to ask the Minister, when is the government going to make a formal commitment so

Avens can march forward on this particular project? We cannot wait anymore. Catastrophe is on the doorstep of seniors. Who is going to take responsibility for this tragic end?

At the current time on the Territorial Admissions Committee list for Avens we have 13 people on the wait-list to get into the Avens facility, so there is clearly a need. We know that when the facility in Norman Wells and the facility in Behchoko opens, we may have some opportunity to move some people back to their initial or home communities, which we are hoping will take off some of the immediate need on Avens.

But at that same time, as I’ve indicated, and I’m going to indicate again, we’re working very closely with Avens. We have a number of options and opportunities in front of us. We need to explore them and we will come to an agreement with Avens, and at that time we will be prepared to make announcements on when and how we’re going to move forward.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Territorial-wide, territorial-wide, the growth in five years in seniors is going to be at 150 percent. All the beds that have been created today and all the beds they think that they’re going to create tomorrow still won’t meet that demand. The Minister

can say we’re going to shuffle seniors

around the room, around the territory to solve the problem. It is not meeting the challenge.

Will the Minister just be honest in this House to say are they going to make an agreement with Avens and when, because they cannot wait any longer. I can’t wait any longer. The seniors can’t wait any longer. As I started, and I’m going to finish, this tsunami of seniors is on our doorstep and they’re crashing away because they’ve got nowhere else to go. They demand their government to act.

As the Member indicated in his opening comments and following up with his questions, Avens is a territorial facility and it has a number of people from across the Northwest Territories. As we make beds available in Norman Wells, as we make additional beds available in Behchoko, we do believe, and we have a fairly solid understanding, that some of these individuals will move. That will take off some of the temporary demand on Avens, but it doesn’t eliminate the demand. I’ve acknowledged that today.

We are working very closely with Avens. We will continue to work very closely with Avens, exploring all the possibilities and financing options. We’re committed to getting this done and we will get this done. There will be an expansion to Aven Pavilion, and we believe it will be done in the appropriate

time, given resources, timing and agreements with Avens.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Addictions and its effects in the NWT are a big problem. It’s sad to see many of our people struggle, and like many, we are compelled to try to do something. Chief Roy Fabian and his council on the K’atlodeeche First Nation were trying to do that. We have an unused and empty facility on that reserve.

Will the Minister commit to working with Chief Fabian and his council to consider reopening the treatment centre? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In 2011 the Nats’ejee K’eh Board funded an organizational review, which made many observations about the issues at the facility that impacted negatively on programs, clients and staff. We worked closely with the board to try to find some solutions. Unfortunately, they were unable to implement any of the solutions to improve the situation there.

In 2013 the executive director advised that no further intakes should take place due to the risk of client safety in that particular facility. When that happened, we were in no other position than to withdraw funding from that facility and prioritize it into other areas that it was going to meet immediate demands.

We recognize, as I said the other day, that the people of the Northwest Territories want a continuum and a range of services, including on- the-land

programming,

community

treatment,

community

counselling-type

treatment

in

communities. We’ve offered the Matrix program and we have contracts with four southern facilities that are providing those services that we’ve never been able to get through facility-based treatment here in the Northwest Territories.

Having said all that, I have been working with the chief of the KFN to try to find a solution for that building. We’ve funded them $44,000 to hold a workshop in 2014 where they brought residents from across the Northwest Territories together to discuss possible options, not including a treatment facility but a wellness centre, a training centre for mental health and addictions, a spiritual centre for Aboriginal people, as well as possibly the home location of what will be the future of a mobile treatment option. All of these seem reasonable. We

discussed those with the chief at the time. Even the chief, at the time, indicated that they did not want to open a facility; the facility they had had too many challenges and even their board were the ones who directed that it be shut.

I’m absolutely interested in having a relationship with KFN to find a way to use that building outside of a dedicated treatment facility and we will continue to work with KFN to do that. Thank you.

I’d like to thank the Minister for his

reply. Can the Minister expand the fundamental issues in terms of having customized made-in-the- NWT treatment programs? Can the Minister explain to this House the cost deficiencies in terms of having customized addictions programs here in the NWT versus sending people down south? Mahsi.

Thank you. At any given time here in the Northwest Territories, even when Nats’ejee K’eh was in fact opened as a territorial treatment facility, we have approximately 12 people in treatment at any given time. As I explained earlier this week, we have 12 people going out and they’re going to a wide range of programs that we haven’t had in the past. Nats’ejee K’eh offered one sole program. We have a women’s facility; we have a men’s facility; we have a facility focused on narcotics and other drugs.

What we do know is at this time those facilities in the South are costing us around $150 a day for a wide range of programs we’ve never been able to offer, whereas Nats’ejee K’eh was costing us $420 per person per day, which is significantly higher for a very limited program where people and clients were not safe. Thank you.

In the NWT we pride ourselves on made-in-the-North solutions and we always try to be independent in terms of trying to aspire to make things work here for us.

Why can’t we have our own people treat our own people in addictions to help them recover and at least reach a productive life in communities and in the NWT? Mahsi.