Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Monfwi.

More questions. Okay. The NWT Housing Corporation has several homes -- homeownership program. Approvals to participate in this -- in these program is low, okay. So can the Minister of NWT Corporation commit to guaranteeing an application approval rate that reflects national homeownership rates? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Right now all of our single-family housing dwellings are up for sale. Today we have 105 applications that have been received, and the Housing Corporation tries to work very diligently with the client in trying to help them to become successful in the homeownership program. But nationally, I don't have those numbers in front of me. I'd have to follow up with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Further to my Member's statement, I'm wondering if the Minister can advise us of the rates of Alzheimer's, dementia, and Parkinson's disease in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this information is housed in the same place as I mentioned to the Member from Deh Cho, the Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance Program which, as a reminder, is a collaborative network of provincial and territorial surveillance systems supported by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The information on the website is broken down into geographic region, age, and sex; and the rate of Alzheimer's and other dementias in the NWT for residents aged 65 and older is 5.73 percent which compares to 6.68 percent nationally. The rate of Parkinson's in the NWT for residents aged 40 years and older is 0.25 percent versus 0.43 percent nationally. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate that, and I think that it's important that we establish a baseline if it's expected to go up substantially over the next decade.

Mr. Speaker, the rate of Parkinson's among NWT residents is low, but watching very intimately residents try to go through the process of being diagnosed leads me to believe that maybe we do have more of a higher instance of Parkinson's in the Northwest Territories and Alzheimer's and just are not aware of it.

So I'm wondering, Mr. Speaker, what supports are available to Northerners with neurodegenerative diseases in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it all starts with the relationship between the health provider and the patient. They would be able to recommend a range of health and social services that would assist with diagnosis, treatment, and support. For example, medications and medical supplies and equipment can be covered through the NIHB program for First Nations and Inuit residents and the Supplementary Health Benefits program for non-Indigenous residents. Home care services are available to residents in all communities, and Meals on Wheels in some communities. Rehabilitation services are available in person through community outreach visits and virtually to support individuals with mobility, cognitive, and other impairments resulting from their conditions.

It's also important to say that Indigenous governments are active in this area. The IRC has a dementia coordinator, and that non-profits, like the Alzheimer's Society, are also active in this area to support individuals who have neurodegenerative diagnoses. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate that information. I think anecdotally from what I am learning, alongside some constituents, is that the process of going through the recognizing of a degenerative disease and then from there being able to go through the process and begin the process of being diagnosed is really a difficult, difficult stage of the -- of the entire journey and that we do not have, in the Northwest Territories, specialists who are able to help people through that process and that can be very, very difficult because you end up kind of trapped in this area of not knowing what someone has, not knowing where to turn them and where to support them, and so I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to, given the expectation of the growth of these diseases across Canada, what the hiring plan is for the NTHSSA to support the surge of neurodegenerative diseases expected over the next decade? Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there isn't hiring that's being planned that would support diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. That really requires a level of specialty that it's necessary to use medical travel to obtain. So, you know, the person would need to go to Edmonton or another place where that kind of specialty is available. What we're offering more is how to support the patient who has that diagnosis.

So going back to home and community care, there was a comprehensive review of that program done in September 2019, and it did, indeed, verify what the Member has said, that there is an anticipated surge in need coming from across the NWT, and it's my information that the health authorities are moving towards meeting this need. They are recruiting a health planner and a manager for continuing care planning to lead this work, and the positions will be advertised in January. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.

Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Minister's recognition that a lot of this work does require a specialist to really go through this process with someone. And often medical travel's not always a possibility. Sometime there are a multitude of appointments that need to happen, and sometimes along the way people just need to be able to ask questions. And so I'm wondering if this position of a health planner and the plans of the NTHSSA speak to possibilities of creating a host of specialists that can speak to different conditions that Northerners have that Northerners could then access. We've been doing a lot of work as far as virtual care and really expanding a database of physicians and specialists within that and so is there work that can be done to provide a greater level of support virtually for people, then, to be able to answer those questions and help them through this journey? Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not aware that specific staffing is being considered at this point, although it makes sense to have someone who is able to answer questions and provide a navigation-type of role with people with neurodegenerative diseases for the reason that the Member has mentioned, that the incidences of these diseases is likely to get greater as time goes on.

I know of people who have had neurodegenerative diseases in the Northwest Territories who have received good support from non-profits, but mostly that's been by telephone and not by in-person means. And so there's clearly work that needs to be done in this area. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're very interested in tracking wait times because it is a tangible measurement of how quickly the system is providing services to those people in need. We, however, do not track every possible program and service for a variety of reasons that aren't very interesting because they mostly have to do with software and data collection.

But having said that, we do track and report on wait times for long-term care placements, home care services, community counselling, rehab services, and colonoscopies. And some individual clinics are also posting wait times in the clinic. So there are some places that people can find this online. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I suspect it's the boring explanation "due to software" that I am most interested in, Mr. Speaker. I note, on that list, was a very short list of services we're tracking wait times for and did not include a number of procedures and surgeries which is where I get most of my constituent complaints. I'm just wondering if there is any work to be done to create some sort of dashboard where that information is available publicly. I know this is done across all the provinces in Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the Member in his statement referenced a knee replacement that took a number of years to accomplish. I don't think that we track those wait times for those major joint surgeries, and I know the time is variable. You can put yourself on a waitlist and get within a few months, or you can end up waiting years. I don't know how hard it is to track that kind of information so that's something I would have to take back to the department and inquire about.

There is some information online which I want to bring to the Member's attention.

• Home care wait times are available at yourhealthsystem.ca.
• The community counseling wait times are on the same website.
• Long-term care times are in the Department of Health and Social Services annual report.
• Wait times for colonoscopies were in the most recent business plan.
• And we are trying to develop a methodology for reporting on rehab services, and this is a commitment in the four-year business plan, which we dealt with last year.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, I would appreciate the Minister getting back to the House with information on how or what software we need to do this. I know we are purchasing a new electronic medical records system which will cost millions of dollars. And I guess I wanted to also know, as I mentioned in my statement, when we did the vaccine roll out, the software, however we got it, was great. I think everyone who could book online and could see their appointments and get reminders was very happy with that software but I'll note, with perhaps the exception of occupational therapy and physiotherapy, no similar software is being used for any health services, and is that something we could look into. The department has actually flagged this before, that people missing appointments is a significant cause of their wait times and backlogs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said, this kind of tracking is important to us so that we have a full understanding of how long it is taking to meet people's needs for services in these areas. There are some limitations, as the Member referenced, to our electronic medical records system at this time. It's going to be retired in the 2023-2024 period, and it's going to be replaced with something that is going to be super-duper, I hope. And it's going to be able to have an online patient portal. It's going to have all kinds of different ways to report things such as those that the Member has inquired about so that we have a full set of dashboards for people to see. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I'm going to go to a different super-duper Minister with my questions, and they're for the Minister of Infrastructure who has responsibility for the Arctic Energy Alliance.

Can the Minister tell us whether she's aware of the difficulties caused by the federal energy pre- and post-audit requirements under the Canada Greener Homes Grant program, and what is she doing to fix that problem? Merci, Mr. Speaker.