This is page numbers 5713 - 5790 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was women. View the webstream of the day's session.

Topics

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

I will take any opportunity to sit down and discuss with the community what they believe their priority is for a road to access their community, but that's not saying that this is going to be possible in the short term. I'd advise the Member that he advise the leadership of Aklavik, if this is something they want to pursue, to certainly reach out to us so we can have those early discussions going forward. It would be a little bit premature to say that we're willing to lay out an exact route at this point because it's very complicated. There are going to be land access issues and environmental issues that would have to be distinguished on how we would do a routing on that, but we can have some early discussions of what the community thinks that they would like to see.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Will the Minister include an all-weather road to Aklavik on the red flag list that I haven't seen for some time?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

I don't think I've seen the red flag list. I've got my hands full trying to deliver what we've got in the mandate to the 18th Legislative Assembly, but as I said, I'm willing to have a discussion with the community and see what their priorities are going forward.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It sounds promising. Will the Minister provide funding to the community of Aklavik to do a feasibility study for an all-season road? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

The short answer is, no, not at this point. I'd like to sit down with the community and have discussions on what they think their priorities are. I know we're working on the Willow River gravel access road at this point with the community, but I'm glad to sit down and have a conversation, but at this time, I will not commit any funding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

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

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today, I had a Member's statement on aging in place. I have questions for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation because, if the houses are ready, then we can get some homecare. It takes two departments, but today, I want to ask the Housing Corporation, I'd like to ask the Minister if the aging in place program, I guess we'll call it, is included in the housing development plans that the department or the corporation is doing across the territory? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I do appreciate the question that the Member has asked. I'm pretty sure he's referring to the community housing plans that we've been promoting throughout the Northwest Territories with our leaders in all of our communities; as he's mentioned, with the 33 communities across the Northwest Territories. Obviously, these plans will take statistical and program data, as well as information from our community leaders that I've said in this House before, as well as residents and housing stakeholders, industry, tell us what each community does really need.

In terms of aging in place, we have constructed some really good developments in Aklavik, in Fort Liard, Whati, Fort Good Hope, and Fort McPherson. We'll continue to work with our other departments such as Health and Social Services, and yes, obviously, it has been part of the plans as we move forward. The more communities, the more leadership, the more people who speak up and tell us what they need in their communities, we will be able to work with them. As I mentioned as well, we do have that co-investment fund that we made an announcement about that the NWT is able to access and work with our stakeholders to provide that funding into the communities.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

I guess the optimal method of allowing seniors to age in place would be to allow them to remain in their own homes. The aging in place program right now has a budget of $10,000. It's really difficult to keep seniors in their home long-term with $10,000 unless maybe it's $10,000 a year every year. What I see as something viable is $60 to $100,000 worth of renovations to keep the senior in their home; to extend the life of that senior's house for an additional 10 years would be ideal. I would like to ask the Minister if he would commit to looking at the budget and coming up with something more realistic than $10,000? $10,000 is not realistic to keep seniors in their own homes.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

The repair program has been highly successful in terms of program participation throughout the Northwest Territories. It is one of the NWT Housing Corporation's most subscribed programs, and the corporation will do an evaluation on the seniors aging in place program to determine whether it has been effective and, indeed, if adjustments do need to be made. We do take the Member's comments into consideration, and we will do that evaluation and see that it does need to be adjusted. Right now, it is one of our most subscribed programs, and I think it's being effective in most of our communities across the Northwest Territories.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

The $10,000 program is being rolled out. It's being promoted. Seniors are taking advantage of it, but I don't think it's allowing people to age in place. Not that amount of money, anyway. If you need to widen a hallway or put a washroom with an ability for a wheelchair to circulate, to move the plugs down to where the seniors are able to access it from the wheelchair, to put ovens up so that the oven is where you're able to slide under, there are a whole bunch of things to make houses barrier-free, and that's the idea, is to make the units barrier-free. $10,000 cannot make any unit barrier-free. That's okay. I agree that it's a well-used program, but it's just not enough money.

I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister has the data or the information or the statistics to indicate how many homeowners there are in the Northwest Territories that are over the age of 70?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

There are a couple of things there in terms of accessibility and working with our seniors and community members to address that. One of the highlights over the past few weeks was that we had the Housing Summit up in Inuvik, and we did invite the NWT Disabilities Council to come and speak, not only with the NWT Housing Corporation and the GNWT, but with all leaders across the Northwest Territories, to see how we can to fix that problem.

The information on how many owners are over 70 years old in the NWT, that information may be available through the NWT Community Survey, administered by the NWT Bureau of Statistics. It will have to be determined whether this information is readily available, but we can look into it and make sure that we get back to the Member.

I would say that one of the big steps that we have taken with the Housing Summit was having the NWT Disabilities Council come and make a presentation, be part of it, and speak with all leaders across the NWT. We had a lot of leadership at the summit to have those discussions.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

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

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the whole concept of aging in place is to keep people out of long-term care and, in effect, save a lot of money. It is not all about saving money, but it is also about keeping people in their own communities. There are a lot of benefits. I talk a lot about the benefits of it.

I would like to ask the Minister of NWT Housing Corporation if he is prepared to start doing some work with the Department of Health and Social Services to see if there are some projects that can be done, real projects, like something where you go into a community and have four, good, viable clients that can have their houses modified. It doesn't have to be 60; you may be able to modify a house for $10,000, that is still possible, but some may take $100,000, to look for good, viable projects for people over 70 years old where their alternative would be to either be placed in another community in long-term care or in their own community, like here in Yellowknife; to see if this is viable; to prove that this is something that the apartment could do to and has tremendous economic spinoffs, including people who would be able to do the work on the units. There are small contractors, building suppliers. There is a lot of benefit to it. I would like to ask the Minister if he would consider looking at something like that with the Department of Health and Social Services before this 18th Assembly is complete. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Yes, we have already started some of that work. We are working with the Department of Health and Social Services to keep our seniors in their residences. On the other side, like I have said, we have already constructed some projects in the communities that I have mentioned. Sometimes it comes down to contractors in the communities, whether or not we can do that type of work when they are looking at bigger projects, just on the reality side, Mr. Speaker.

We have done senior aging-in-place retrofits through the Housing Corporation. We also have ongoing seniors' marketing and promotion campaigns on the programs that we deliver, so that seniors can understand what they are able to access. We are also -- and I think all Members should be aware of this, especially the small communities -- piloting LHO repair services to private residents, something that has never been done before. We will see how that works out. It is going to benefit seniors who own their own homes, who need repairs or retrofits in their homes, and we are going to see how that works. Our LHO maintenance crew can go and help them out.

As we progress with that program, we will make sure that the Member, as well as all Members, know how that program is happening. That is something new, so it is really exciting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Daniel McNeely

Daniel McNeely Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my Member's statement here on the importance of infrastructure growth in the NWT and, more importantly, maintaining continuity of our 18th Assembly mandate during the transition, mandate commitment 1.1.1, the Mackenzie Valley Highway, has seen, to date, 37 percent funding.

My first question, Mr. Speaker: can the Minister of Infrastructure assure this Assembly that mandate commitment 1.1.1 will be included in the Cabinet's transitional report to the 19th Assembly? Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The transitional document that we are working on, myself and the Minister of Health are on the transition committee, which is made up of Regular Members and Cabinet Members. I can assure the Member that I would recommend that we put that in the report. As I have said in my earlier questioning today, it is part of our 25-year strategy for the Government of Northwest Territories and the Department of Transportation. I will reassure the Member that I will recommend that we have that in that document. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Daniel McNeely

Daniel McNeely Sahtu

Thanks to the Minister for that "yes" reply. My next question here: can the Minister provide information on whether the department is in the process of submitting a second funding application under the National Trade Corridors Fund for the highway?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

The National Trade Corridors Fund was laid by the Government of Canada. They did the $400 million carve-out for the northern territories. On the first application, we are successful in acquiring $1.2 million for the Mackenzie Valley Highway for a portion of the road, mostly for the Great Bear River Bridge, the section of Mount Gaudet from Wrigley, and the EA process of the road. On the second round of funding, Mr. Speaker, we did not submit for the Mackenzie Valley Highway, as we have to start on the work that we got the commitment from the federal government to do. Since then, the federal government has announced another $400 million Northern Trade Corridors Funding arrangement with Canada, and in this application, we don't know when the call is going to be coming it. It may be in the remainder of the 18th Legislative Assembly, and it may not be until the 19th Legislative Assembly, so I can't say if we can commit to doing that until we know the timelines around the federal government's application process.

Daniel McNeely

Daniel McNeely Sahtu

Thanks to the Minister for that reply. My third and last question is: would the Minister include that commitment into the transitional report, similar to the first question?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

I will correct myself; this is Cabinet's transition document that will be going forward. I can recommend that this go into the document. As I have said, it is part of our 25-year strategy. The Mackenzie Valley Highway completion is important to all residents of the Northwest Territories, so I will commit to doing that.