Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do know that we have a few programs. Care and mobility, the Safe program, the CARE Major program, but I'll let the Minister of NWT Housing Corporation expand on that and how actually we actually support seniors to age in place. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As we go forward and look at the programs that the Housing Corporation currently has, one of the things I'm interested in doing to support the seniors aging in place is I would like to enter into a partnership with Indigenous groups in smaller communities. I find, honestly, with the red tape that we have, and the paperwork that we have, these programs are very difficult to access. One of the things I would like to see is partnerships with the Indigenous groups that are in those communities. I want to try this, and I want them to put forward a business plan. If they're looking at there are 10 ramps that need to be built in Lutselk'e, I don't want to keep on accepting applications and program delivering for one program, and it costing X amount of dollars. I would like the bands or the Indigenous groups in those communities to apply, put forward a business plan, so they can say, "We're going to take care of these 10 ramps, and this is how much it's going to cost," and we could just pay the band, and they can do the work. It's just a strategy that I'm thinking of, that we are talking about, but something to try to give funding to the communities so they can deliver the programs. I hope that answers your question. I could follow up with a list of senior programs that we do have within the Housing Corporation. I could forward that over to you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess you kind of referred more so if it's predominantly Indigenous community. In Hay River, it would be a little bit different. The other thing is you could put up maybe five ramps, but a month after, there might be somebody who falls down and is permanently disabled, and they're going to need a ramp. I guess the question was: how much funding do we have there available for this, and how accessible is it? It seems like there always seems to be red tape, or we have no money. That's usually the go-to answer for the department. How is this government going to change that and do what we say we are going to do? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Housing Corporation, I believe, has a budget of approximately $100 million a year. It is quite substantial. It used to be $80 million. I just want to make sure that she checks on that and gives you the right figure. I believe it used to be 80, but I think we got an increase in it. The second bullet within our mandates, if you look at that, it says that we are going amend the NWT Housing Corporation policies to allow more low-income seniors access to housing supports. That is in our mandate that we will do that. There is money available currently from low-income seniors. We need to make sure we keep our programs affordable. I would love to be able to provide universal supports to all seniors. Our demographic is aging quickly throughout the world. We need to make sure it is still affordable.

You can get care mobility funding I believe. I will have to correct it if I am wrong but it is up to $10,000 per person. You can get the Safe program again up to 10,000. You can get CARE Major; I believe that is $25,000 that you can access. Those programs also can be bundled. Our goal is to try to help as many seniors as possible. Like I said, there are programs already in place for low-income. Our mandate says that we will be reviewing the policies to help more low-income seniors stay in place. That is our commitment. Again, I can't stretch that to say that we will not be for all seniors or elders because some can afford to buy their own ramps, et cetera. For example, when I retire from here, do I need to have the support? Probably not. Those are questions that we have to have. We need to take care of the most marginalized. The most marginalized are seniors, children, but seniors who are low-income. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess when I am reading this, on page 29, it says increase supports for seniors to stay in their homes and communities. It doesn't say seniors with money or seniors without money. I would like that clarified because what is the cost to keep somebody in their home, whether they have money or not. If they are going to stay in their home, what is the actual cost savings to this government if we help somebody stay in their home? If we spend $10,000 or $20,000 a year to keep them in their home, what is our cost if we have to house them in a public housing unit? I think there is probably a big cost difference there. I suspect that the department looked at it. I would like to know that number. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am not sure if the department actually did a cost analysis to see what the cost would be. What I would like to say, Madam Chair, is that sometimes we have to agree to disagree. I think on this one, we have to agree to disagree. We don't have a lot of money. Our economy is bad. We know that there is not a Member here that does not know that and is not aware of that. We need to make sure that we focus our funding during this time towards our most marginalized. I beg to differ. I think that people who are making $200,000 a year plus should be able to afford their own ramps. I bet that those people, elders, seniors who are making over $200,000 will not stay in public housing if they can stay in their own homes. They will pay for that. Our goal is to provide services to as many low-income families, elders as we can. That is our commitment. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree we disagree because, really at the end of the day, I look at these seniors, even if they have money. They have a choice: they can stay in the Territories or they can leave. If we don't give them the little bit of support even to help them and keep them here, that is $35,000 roughly a year. If there are two of them, that is $70,000 that we are getting from the feds. It just doesn't make sense to me to say, "No, we can't really help them." They have been paying taxes and they have been contributing, as well, all their lives, just like a senior that maybe is not as well off. I see where you are coming from, but at the same time, I guess we kind of have to look at the bigger picture because those same seniors who maybe you are saying can afford something also contribute to the community, as well, after the fact. I think we have to look at that, and there is a cost associated with it. When we say we are going to put money into keeping seniors in their place and we don't really know what the benefit is, then maybe we don't really have to spend any money in keeping them in their place. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Absolutely. It is not that I don't care about our aging population or seniors as a whole. The reality is that once we take care of our most marginalized people in society, once we can make sure that all low-income seniors have adequate housing, then we should be looking at expanding the income threshold. We have to start somewhere. A society is judged by how we treat our most marginalized populations. We have to keep that in consideration. When the economy is good or we have lots of money or we have dealt with all the low-income families who are needing services, then yes, we should be expanding. We have 22 priorities. Do I take the money out of one and put it into seniors who are making over $200,000 a year? That is a question that we have to ask. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Time is up. We will move to Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Madam Chair. In July of 2019, the Minister of Health and Social Services at that time tabled a report on seniors' access to Government of the Northwest Territories programs and services. This was a gap analysis study of what was offered to seniors. I am trying to understand, then, point number 1 on page 29. It sounds like a brand new gap analysis. Could the Premier please explain how this work is different than the work completed less than a year ago? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Honesty is a strength and a weakness. I will admit that I didn't know that there was a tabled report. I will commit that we will pull that tabled report, and all applicable Ministers who have an interest in this will be directed to read that report. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that commitment from the Premier. We don't have the time or resources to redo work, especially work that is so recently done. At the time this work was undertaken, what the NWT Seniors' Society asked us for was a seniors' strategy. Instead of a seniors' strategy, we got this gap analysis. Is there any possibility that, within the life of this Assembly, the government will undertake a seniors' strategy to roll up all of these services for seniors into one place? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to clarify on the last question, Mr. Goldney actually clarified for me and said that the report that was tabled last year was more of an internal document done with Seniors' Society, but we are looking to expand that actually. This gap analysis would be more working with other partners such as Indigenous governments, et cetera, that might not be part of one organization. We will be looking at that. As for doing the seniors' strategy, at this point, I don't want to commit to that. It is not that I don't care. It is that we have got huge amount of mandates that I am already worried about getting through. That might be a question on the floor, but at this point, I think I need to stick with the mandates that we've already adhered to. Thank you, Madam Chair.