Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to start off this conversation, I want to be clear that our priority is to help keep seniors in their homes first, their communities, their regions, and then, if they do require high levels of care due to different degrees of acuity, obviously they would need to be going to a long-term care facility. Long-term care facilities are those level four, five facilities where individuals' needs are significant. They need a greater degree of care that can be safely provided in a community. We built long-term care facilities where we also have physician positions located.

Having said that, we know we're 258 long-term care beds short by 2026. In the budget, we have already begun to move forward with long-term care beds in Hay River. We've got plans to move forward with long-term care beds in Inuvik. There are 72 long-term care beds going into the old Stanton, the Legacy Building. We're looking at, at least 30 new beds in Fort Simpson over the next couple of years. A lot of work needs to be done. We're still moving forward with the plan that I believe was presented both at the witness table and others over the years, and we are committed to getting that work done.

What I did not hear is reference to small communities, so that's the question that I have: what are the plans for the Minister and his department in addressing the needs for senior care and elderly care programming and facilities in small communities?

Under the Health and Social Services mandate, our responsibility is for the long-term care facilities. That doesn't mean that there isn't a responsibility for this government to move forward with living units for seniors, which the Housing Corporation has done. Over the last number of years, we have built or are in the process of building five independent living units for seniors throughout the Northwest Territories. I do have to applaud the Housing Corporation. They have worked very well with Health and Social Services to make sure that these new independent-living units for seniors have program space located within, where we have seen elders from the community go to and take advantage of different programs. We have seen that in Liard. We have seen that the in other communities. We will continue to work with the Housing Corporation to identify potential areas that they can explore for independent living. We'll keep working with them on design so that we can continue to evolve to meet the needs of our residents.

I understand that the facility in Fort Providence is being retrofitted and fixed up to meet current need. It's also my understanding that that upgraded facility will also have programming space, so we look forward to getting in there with our homecare teams and others to provide supports to the seniors who are actually utilizing those independent living units.

On top of that, Mr. Speaker, we continue to move forward with our continuing care action plan, and one of the first priorities on that is to do our test piloting of the family and community caregivers, pay caregivers, that we're hoping to roll out as a pilot in the next couple of months.

My other question that I have, I think the Minister made reference to it. The Minister said that they're undertaking pilot projects in terms of delivering, and caretakers, and family care program initiatives across the NWT. Is there a particular region that they're focusing on? Is it specifically for bigger regions, and perhaps not small communities?

When I stood up, I actually knew the answer to that question, and now, I've completely blanked. I know that we're trying to do the family and community caregivers across a wide-range of communities, and small communities, regional centres, but I have completely blanked. I will commit to getting the Member that information.

That was a real blank answer. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

In short, yes, the Housing Corporation does have a number of programs around accessibility that seniors can use to do upgrades to their places to ensure that they can stay there safely for as long as possible. We've had a really great relationship with the Housing Corporation when it's come to the independent living units. They've really worked with us to make sure there's program space, and they did participate in the development of the Continuing Care Action Plan. It's not a Department of Health and Social Services action plan. It's a whole-of-government action plan. We really understand and want to, as much as possible, keep our seniors in their homes as long as possible, and the Housing Corporation has stood up, and we continue to work together to find ways to help our seniors stay where they want to stay. They want to stay in their homes, Mr. Speaker. They benefit from staying in their homes. We need them in their homes and in their communities for as long as possible. The last place we want to see them is long-term care, but we know that some will need to go to long-term care, and when they do, we want to make sure they have great facilities, providing great services for that level of care, as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.