Thank you. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. One other I guess point I'd like to bring up -- or issue as well is that on that -- on the land where the new -- where the extended care will be going and the hospital's coming down, there is also an old medical clinic on there. And my understanding that it's only used for storage of medical files right now. And will that in any part, I guess, you know be part of this, taken down and constructed a new facility, new extended care facility? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for the question. I don't think there are any plans to demolish that building. I think it's called the Commissioner's building. There are no plans to demolish that. It is holding files that go back to the founding of Hay River, medical files that go back to that point.

We, in the department, have a significant storage issue with old medical files, and what we need is the budget to have a dedicated team to start sorting through these files and deciding what to do with them. Some of them may be disposed of, some of them may be digitized. Some of them may be held back for other reasons. I understand there's a group of records being held back for a potential tobacco lawsuit, so. So the business of storing the records is really problematic. And so for the time being, since we have a place in Hay River to store records, we're going to continue using that place. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Hay River.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess with respect to the old clinic and the storage of files there and, you know, I know it's problematic, you know, where to store these, and knowing that the government is looking -- the department is looking at ways to digitize or another way to store, you know, to keep them, I feel that I guess that's going to be quite a few years down the road, whereas that building could be repurposed, in my mind, probably for a permanent day/night shelter, and what would have to be looked at is another facility or to store these files, which I understand is a combination of cold and heated storage, which would be sea cans possibly and then just a small heated one. Such a building would probably be better located near the health centre. Can the Minister just comment on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Yes, thank you. Yes, I understand what the Member is saying, that could we find alternatives. You might not use a sea can for another storage, but you might use the Commissioner's building for another -- for another reason.

And so I don't know if there has been any effort to find an alternative location by the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority. But that's something that we can inquire about and look at the relative costs, what would it cost us to obtain and secure and heat a sea can or heat a portion of a sea can or a smaller one versus the cost of keeping the records where they are right now. So that's something to follow up. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I guess I would just urge the Minister to maybe to reach out to the Hay River Health Authority because as far as I know they put together a discussion paper or some numbers down on what it would cost to find a place or build a place to store those files closer to the health centre. Thank you. That's all the questions I have.

Thank you. Did you want to respond, Minister? No. For anybody who hasn't spoken to long-term and continuing care. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just in regards to -- I bring this up every year, and -- in regards to long-term care for my riding. We have home support. Thank them for, the staff for what they do and the home care support workers in the community. I want to thank you for all what you've done for our people and our elders. But I really think it's time to build a -- like I've been bringing up working on bringing up in Sachs, or Ulukhaktok, trying to work with the Minister to get that done with a private company that's able to build it. They will come, you know, so to say. But I'm really hoping that we could get into an agreement within the next year. You know, we got two years left in our -- our terms, and hopefully we can see that because my elders in the community of Ulu and Paulatuk and Sachs, they're all not wanting to go to Inuvik. Travel there is too costly. Only time you'll get to see them if you're travelling on a medical, most likely. Or for work. I really think it's time to take that step to -- there's a design and -- that we could do to work with the community corporation, their business arms, and partnership, in trying to make a committee for the community with local leadership and people from the community to try to work together to find a way through this. So I'm wanting to know from the Minister if she's willing to work with us to try to get long-term facility in Paulatuk and Ulukhaktok. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair, and I thank the Member for inviting myself and others to tour his riding in July. And one morning I walked down the main street in Sachs Harbour and visited a couple of elders in their homes, and they were very clear with me that they had no interest in leaving their community, and they had no interest in leaving their homes. And so then the issue is how to support them in their homes, and home care is the way to do that.

It seems to me that what was needed there more than anything was housing for seniors as opposed to long-term care. So last spring -- feels about nine years ago -- but I think it was February, the Minister of Housing and I went to Fort Good Hope, and I saw an NWT Housing Corporation project of seniors housing, a 9-plex that had a common kitchen and a common recreation area, and I thought that that really was a great prototype for small communities that don't have the need for 24 beds, which is our standard, is to do it in increments of eight. But I thought that having this purpose built facility which has no barriers, roll in shower, you know, ramp to get into the building, that this was really a great way to help seniors be comfortable and stay in their communities at the same time. So I'm looking forward to engaging with you and with the Housing Corporation to see what we can do in those High Arctic communities where people want to stay, and should stay, to be in touch with their families, their language, and their culture. And so if we can make that happen, I'm certainly very interested in doing that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the Minister for that. I'll take two.

---Laughter.

Even a six bed. Even six -- six and six. But the best thing, though, that's really good to hear because it's going to help alleviate the pressure on my elders and families, because you know it as well as I do, our elders are so important to us and they're the ones that made the way, and that's why we're here today, and we're trying to leave them home so they could -- because once they go out the community, that's -- you know, it's not good. But I want to just comment, thank the Minister for that, and I look forward to working with her and the Housing Minister to get to Tuk. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Okay. So I have Member for Kam Lake and Member for Monfwi left, and then any other Members to ask questions of this? Okay. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it looks like I ended up on your list at the perfect spot because it leads right into my question.

A lot of the information that we are seeing about long-term care facilities coming out, especially post-COVID, are saying just what exactly what the Minister is saying, is that the way to go is home care for care for our Elders and our seniors and prolonged quality of life, especially when you get to stay around family. And in addition to long-term care facilities, which we absolutely need, we -- some people just need a place to live and some people just need the ability of family to help them out. And so one of the things that comes up quite often is multigenerational housing. And I think this feeds in quite lovely as well to what the Member for Nunakput was talking about, is the ability to stay in your community, to live close to family, and to have the support of family. And so I'm wondering what work is being done on the part of Health and Social Services to coordinate with the Housing Corporation on multigenerational housing for Infrastructure, because I have noted that while that doesn't appear here, it also does not appear in the section for Housing Corporation. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Yes, thank you. I'm not aware that we're doing any work on multigenerational housing. Our role there is to make sure that the people are in those houses are receiving appropriate home care so that their needs are being met to age in place safely and happily. But I'll just ask Mr. Heath if he knows of any work that's going in this area. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Heath.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.