Yes, thank you. So those are two different questions. So the first question is -- the answer is that the Department of Health and Social Services provides $100,000 a year to the NWT Seniors Society to do the elder abuse awareness and they're -- we're at a point where we're going to review the -- whether there is more that we can do to raise awareness and combat elder abuse. So that's the one thing.

There's one long-term care that is not government operated but it's operated by contract to the government. And so there is a quality assurance complaint process in place so that if family members had any concerns about how elders are being treated in those facilities, they could start with the complaints process to make those concerns known. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Nokleby.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister for the answer. I guess that sort of brings up the seniors society. One of the -- they would be obviously a large player in this mandate item and I've noted that their executive director position is up for competition at this moment.

Is that -- is the Minister aware of -- perhaps any chance there may be a delay in that role and therefore impacting care for seniors or impacting the ability to carry out some of this -- this work? I would imagine as an NGO, they also are not super well funded and don't have a ton of capacity, and I'm worried about whether or not they would have an issue with continuity of service and care if that position isn't filled once it's needed. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am aware that the NWT Seniors Society is looking for a new executive director. I don't know how soon they plan to do that or whether there is a transitional period with the current executive director. The seniors society is really at arm's length from government so if they ask for our help, we'll help them but they manage their own affairs. And so that would be the case, as I say, unless the board members choose to ask us for help in some way. But they are funded with a number of different pots of money and so they have their own board to make a hiring decision for the new ED. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Nokleby.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that the Minister's open to helping them if they do need that.

I guess my next question is around the employee training that's being provided in the last item on page 53.

Having -- just with respect to that third party -- or sorry, contracted long-term care facility, will they be part of that training program as well even though they're -- they're not HSS itself? Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we treat Avens as one of our own, if you will, where we've provided them with additional funding to manage the stresses and strains of COVID. We're assisting them with evergreening their equipment and so on. So it's not a stretch to think that if their staff wanted training that we were providing that we would consider doing that. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Nokleby.

No, thank you, I'm good, Mr. Chair.

Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to double check that on page 52 it says that the NWT Seniors Strategy is going to be developed by June 2022. That doesn't really leave a lot of time between now and then. I just wanted to check on whether we're still on schedule for that. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

And look, my -- I know that the Member -- the Minister was very passionate about this when she was on this side of the House. I just want to make sure that we allow for enough time to do a good job, not a quick job, and I'm sure the Minister will agree with me on that. So I'd like to hear about that. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Ms. Green.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it's my understanding that the consultation on the seniors strategy is going to begin in April, and it will last for a couple of months of having different kinds of consultation online, in person, special meetings, and so on.

It was my understanding that a "what we heard" report would be developed and finished in June, and then the strategy itself wouldn't be ready until the fall. So I think there's -- my understanding and what's written here are not the same. So I am expecting to see it in the fall and so that -- that gives us about four or five months to do the consultation work and develop the strategy.

And as is usual with these cases, we will engage Regular Members in the development of this so that they can provide their input on behalf of constituents. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I feel more comfortable with the schedule outlined by the Minister than what I read here. So, yeah, I think the objective is shared to do a good job, not a quick job.

I guess -- and I don't want to prejudge in any way what might come out of this strategy, but it might seem reasonable to expect that a number of the initiatives identified in this section could be wrapped up and be part of the strategy. Is that kind of a safe assumption? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Ms. Green.

Yes, thank you. Yes, I believe, Mr. Chair, that that is a safe assumption. One of -- one of the purposes of the senior strategy is to do a gap analysis and to come up with solutions to those gaps. So many of the priorities that are listed in this section of enabling seniors to age in place with dignity do represent gaps. So I would expect to see some version of them in the senior strategy when it's complete. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that response. And maybe the last line I have here is about there's supposed to be some sort of a new program that's outlined on page 52, the second from the bottom row, some new income assistance program that's tailored to seniors and persons living with disabilities and it's supposed to be launched in 2023.

I've heard about this now several times. So is there any progress that's being made here, and what sort of program are we talking about? Is this going to be through the tax system? Is it going to be a -- some sort of means tested or income tested, you know, payments or direct deposits, or what is this going to be all about? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister Simpson.

Thank you, and the Member is correct. He has heard about this many times before. This is in our original mandate, and I have been bringing it up time and time again.

This is separating people who are essentially out of the workforce, people who don't expect to go back into the workforce, from people who are, you know, in and out of the workforce. So income assistance has different types of clients. Some of those clients are able-body people who are in between jobs who have fallen on hard times and who just need some assistance, and they will be on income support for a short amount of time and then off income support. And others are people who we don't expect to get back into the workforce. They've aged out of the workforce. They have situations that prevent them from working and there's no need to treat those different groups of people alike. We expect that there would be, you know, less reporting requirements, different reporting requirements, and we would look at different -- different things that perhaps would be funded in different ways. So we really are looking at what are the needs of seniors and how do we better serve them through an income assistance program. You know, we don't expect them to have income from a job that they're going to have to report on a regular basis so why bother making them come in every month to report. So that's one example there.

We also have a number of programs tailored for seniors such as the senior citizens supplementary benefit, seniors home heating subsidy, and so on. And we're looking at ways to tie all of those in together. And what I would really like to do is, you know, create this stream and separate it from income assistance in the sense that, you know, it is there to assist people with their income but it's not what people might consider to be welfare, which is really the negative connotation that the income assistance program has. And we don't want seniors to feel like that. We don't want them to be discouraged from accessing this programming. So those are some of my current thoughts on it and progress is moving along nicely, and we fully expect this to be implemented April 2023. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.