Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the Member is talking about long-term care facilities, there are none in his riding. If he is talking about homecare support so that people receive services while in their own homes, every community in the Beaufort-Delta and in his riding has homecare services available. They are usually provided by the healthcare centre, and they work with elders and their families to deliver the services that are identified as required under a nursing assessment. That could be a full range of things from help with bathing and mobility, light housekeeping, meal preparation, and so on. Tuktoyaktuk, as well, is one of the sites of the paid family caregiver program where this pilot project is providing up to four hours a week of additional supports to five elders in the community. We are very interested to see the outcome of this, whether it's a way forward to provide more community support. There is quite a bit of homecare, but long-term care is only available closest to him in Inuvik. Thank you.

The next steps are working with our housing Minister and Health Minister in regard to getting elders facilities in both Paulatuk and Ulukhaktok, which we need. Like I said before, flying to Inuvik is over $1,000 to go see one of your loved ones. The only time you'll get to go there is if you are going there for medical. It really hurts and impacts families deeply when they are sending an elder to Inuvik for long-term care. We need to fix this problem. We could find money for anything when it comes to bigger projects and stuff like that, but something like this, working with the Inuvialuit Development Corporation, the community corporation, and our government: are they willing to work together to take those next steps in regard to providing elders facilities in those two communities?

The issue here with long-term care is economies of scale. There are 12 elders in Sachs Harbour who are 60-plus, 43 in Ulukhaktok, 31 in Paulatuk, and 139 in Tuktoyaktuk. That's a very small population from which to build a long-term care centre that benefits from the economies of scales. I think the minimum size is 16 beds. I don't think that it's feasible to do long-term care in those facilities because of the size of them. However, we have heard from Mr. Colin Okheena from Ulukhaktok, and he has requested that we meet with him and his community corporation to talk about elders facilities in his communities. We have agreed to that. We wrote to him at the end of February and suggested that he call the office and set up a meeting.

I thank the Minister for that, for reaching out to Mr. Okheena. I really think the demographic size of a community or distance from Inuvik to Ulukhaktok or Ulukhaktok to Sachs Harbour or to Paulatuk or Tuktoyaktuk, it shouldn't matter. It shouldn't matter for the money that we are spending. These elders were here first, born and raised. We have to take care of our elders. Money shouldn't be the main issue. I know we are stretched like a rubber band, but the thing is: my elders deserve this. My elders need to stay home. Our families need to be kept together because you know it as well as I do: as soon as they go to Inuvik, they don't last long. I don't mean to say that, and I'm not trying to hurt anybody's feelings or nothing. At the end of the day, our elders were born and raised in the Northwest Territories, and we demand service.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just for the record, will the Minister and her colleague in housing commit to working with myself, the community of Paulatuk and Ulukhaktok in my Nunakput riding, to work together to try to see if we could get long-term facilities? Would she commit to that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I have articulated my commitment, and that is my commitment. Thank you.

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