Mr. Speaker, we have worked collaboratively with the city on a number of different initiatives. They have been partners with us throughout this whole process. They have taken on the responsibility of the Safe Ride Program. We have taken on the responsibility of the sobering centre. This is costing us right now about $1.4 million, to do the sobering centre and day shelter here in Yellowknife. Those funds are, as I have indicated, already core funding. We are not at this point planning to provide additional funds to the city for their Safe Ride Program, but we will continue to provide the location that many of the clients of the Safe Ride Program will go to.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister. Of course, the Minister is aware that the sobering centre is a harm reduction facility and a further harm reduction measure is a proposed managed alcohol program, which we have talked about in this House before. Are there any plans to introduce a managed alcohol program now that there is a permanent location for the sobering centre? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, many times in this House I have indicated that, once we get a sobering centre up and running, what I have indicated previously is that we will need about a year to get it up, running, make sure the program is running effectively before we actually move forward with the concept of a managed alcohol program. We have not been up and running yet. As soon as we are up and running for awhile, we will see how things are going. We will make necessary tweaks to make sure that the programming is effective and efficient. We are definitely open to exploring the possibilities of a managed alcohol program at that time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke of the possibility of the possibility of a deep sea port in Nunakput, and my questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, my first question is: has the Minister reviewed the base for the Beaufort report? I would like to know what is being done with this information at this point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.

I appreciate the response. It is good to see that things look promising. I know on the other side of the Northwest Passage they are making plans to start construction of a deep sea port. It would be good to have something on the western side of the Northwest Passage.

Mr. Speaker, my second question to the Minister is: has any further consultation or collaboration taken place with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation about the viability of a deep sea port in the Beaufort?

Since the publication of the report, the Department of Infrastructure has continued to gather information and research them from a variety of sources on the potential of a port and service centre in Tuktoyaktuk. We will continue to do that, incorporating this into our marine planning work as we move forward.

The harbour, like I said, is well-suited. There is a lot of supporting infrastructure that has been left there from the old oil boom days with the Dome Petroleum and the Gulf Resource properties that lie there. There are leftover docks, camp facilities, the existing fuel storage that is there; so there is a lot of potential there. We will continue to look at all these things moving forward, and the Government of Northwest Territories remains open to discussing the feasibility and the needs of marine improvements in the Community of Tuktoyaktuk, along with the IRC and other stakeholders as required, moving forward.

I appreciate the response. It is good to see some progress on this. At least looking forward we can ride on the momentum of the completion of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway to advocate for some deep sea services in the Beaufort region, more particularly in Tuktoyaktuk and, as well, some possible dumping sites and docking services in communities like Ulukhaktok, Paulatuk, and Sachs Harbour.

Mr. Speaker, my final question to the Minister is: what will it take to secure a political commitment for this project, and will Cabinet be looking at the viability of doing this as a P3 project?

The Department of Infrastructure has identified the marine service centre for the community of Tuktoyaktuk that builds upon existing harbour infrastructure, as I have said, and the community. In its list of priorities, marine infrastructure could be funded under the Oceans Protection Plan, which I have mentioned. At this time, we continue to engage with the federal officials on funding opportunities and the criteria under this plan, as these details have not all been worked out yet.

As we know, there is growing interest in the Northwest Passage; it is anticipated to increase traffic. We will have to put more federal interest in developing a marine infrastructure, possibly in Tuktoyaktuk, along with other key marine developments that we have been working on with the department and discussing going back and forth. We will continue to do that. Along with the new Tuktoyaktuk to Inuvik Highway, which is opening this year, this will open opportunities, I believe, for the community of Tuktoyaktuk on this.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke on the need for senior care facilities in communities. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Can the Minister identify how many residents of Northwest Territories long-term care facilities are living in a community other than their home community? Mahsi.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not have that information at my fingertips. I will commit to getting that information to the Member and committee. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, earlier, the Minister unveiled plans for senior care facilities. Besides that, does the department have a policy to ensure that elders will be able to access long-term care services as close as possible to their home community?

Mr. Speaker, earlier today I talked about the Continuing Care Action Plan. It is a priority of this government to help our elders and our seniors age in place or as close to their homes as possible. There are a number of activities that we are pursuing to provide supports to elders as they age so that they can stay in their homes. If they are unable to stay in their homes for safety situations or concerns, we are hoping to be able to support them through the Housing Corporation and other partners in independent living units in many of our communities throughout the Northwest Territories.

One of our last resorts, Mr. Speaker, is long-term care. Recognizing that long-term care facilities are level 3/4 facilities where individuals cannot live independently, they need full-time, 24/7 care. It has always been this way. Long-term care facilities are located at regional centres. The reason they are in regional centres is because that is where physician positions are located. We need to be able to ensure that the residents of these long-term care facilities are receiving fully competent, safe services in communities where physicians are located. We do not provide long-term care facilities in many of our smaller communities, where we cannot provide that level of safety and care.

Mr. Speaker, how are our elders who have had to leave their homes for long-term care provided with additional support in ways that respect their culture and unique needs? For example, receiving services in their language if they're unilingual, being able to eat traditional foods, and being able to regularly visit with their families.

In many of our facilities where we have commercial kitchens we have had difficulty providing a service of traditional foods, but this is one of the things we are working on in the Department of Health and Social Services, is to find mechanisms to ensure that individuals are getting traditional foods. We are always able to bring traditional foods in and cook them in the shared kitchens as opposed to the commercial kitchens. In many of our facilities we do have interpreters who can provide language services to those who are unilingual, and where they don't we try to make sure that there are other mechanisms.

As far as the ability for our clients or our residents who are living in one of our regional centres to travel back to the communities, it really depends on their acuity, how ill they are or what limitations they have on mobility. One of the reasons many people move to long-term care facilities is they are not capable of mobility or not capable of taking care of themselves.

I can say it happens on a regular basis; we do have people who are able to visit communities for short periods of times with different supports. This is something we have been able to facilitate with the proviso that depends really on the acuity of the patient and whether or not they have mobility capability in any capacity.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently the Minister tabled the Continuing Care Services Action Plan. Is that plan, the continuing care services, a regional or community action plan? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, it's a holistic plan focused on helping residents stay in their communities and their homes for as long as possible. That's at the very smallest community to the largest centre. If we have individuals in Yellowknife who want to stay in their homes for as long as possible, this plan is to help support them stay there. If we have residents in some of our smallest communities like Colville Lake or Tsiigehtchic, this plan is intended to help those elders stay in their communities and the regions for as long as possible, until it's not safe for them to do so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.