Thank you. Member.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'm looking for the cost per bed to run a bed for a person who is in -- so not the capital cost but the O and M costs for a person who is in long-term care versus a person who is in extended care. I'm wondering what the number is that health uses in order to budget based on the number of rooms or number of clients they expect to have. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we'll have to return to the Member with that information.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake, did you have -- nothing? Okay. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just in regards to home care services support in the communities, what does it look like for the Beaufort Delta per se in regards to costing and breakdown for communities; is there a way to get numbers on that? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for the question. The details of the NTHSSA budget are not part of this budget. This is the departmental budget so we don't have a breakdown by region of what NTHSSA is spending. So my best recommendation would be for the Member to talk to the COO of the Beaufort Delta authority and ask them specifically what that budget is for. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So long-term care support services, I got permission to talk to the COO so that's good, I'll get an email into them. I appreciate that.

Long-term care and supportive service -- supported living in the communities, in regards to that, is the same thing different budget, or is this right across the territory for that? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

So that number, the $21 million some odd number for home care and support services -- oh sorry, the $46 million for long-term care and supported living is what is allocated to the health authorities for use for home and continuing care. And the breakdown of that is NTHSSA has $33,819,000 of that. Hay River has $6,002,000. And TCSA has $3,905,000. But how they allocate that, like NTHSSA is a big entity. It's got the Beaufort Delta, the Sahtu, the Deh Cho, Yellowknife, South Slave. So how it's allocated among those entities is part of the NTHSSA budget. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So the $46 million per year for home care, that's right across the Northwest Territories. So I guess what I'm looking for is regards to you going to be -- home care in regards to some of the communities that I represent, and the lack thereof, I guess. Is there everybody in the communities that apply for this through the health centre, are they getting approved? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Yes, thank you. I think it really depends on what the person needs. So some people need a personal support worker maybe to help them go shopping, sweep their floor, and do that kind of thing. And other people need nursing care. So they need dressings changed and medication dispensed and so on. So I think it depends on what the needs of the client are. And we have had the paid family caregiver program running for a couple of years, and it -- I think it's running again next year. And it's running in Tuktoyaktuk. So that would give you an idea of what kind of services are available in that community. So I think that at the end of the paid family caregiver program, the question will be whether this program is scaled up to other communities or whether there is a different approach that we could take to meet the needs of our aging population. We know that this is an area of high growth and demand because we have committed to enabling people to age in place, and they won't be able to do that unless we can provide them in-home support. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the Minister for that. Oh, it's so true about aging in place. People, you know, back home, we take care of our elders and we have big issues with that because, you know, the long-term care facility in Inuvik, we send some of our elders from Ulukhaktok and Paulatuk and Tuk, you know, that we just leave them there, and you can't take them home. The only time you visit from the smaller communities is, like, Sachs, Paulatuk, and Ulu. That's over a thousand dollars. That's almost $2,000 to go visit your family with the prices these days. I think what we should be doing is the programming that we do have with family care and that and once that program's successful, we should be working at that in the smaller communities across the territory, not only, you know, in the delta but right across the territory because you know as well as I do that we really honour our elders, and we want to take care of them. But it's just sometimes it's the same family members that are doing it all the time, and they're burnt out and tired. And then, you know, hopefully you can get respite care, put them in care in Inuvik or something for a week or something so they could rest up. But we really should be looking at a long-term fix for this. And it's more of a comment but I'm thankful for what you've done in this section. Thank you, Madam Minister. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. I didn't hear any questions. But did the Minister have any comment?

No, thank you for that. This is a big priority. For me, I toured the Member's riding in the summer of 2022 and met elders in Sachs Harbour in particular who were trying to hang on in their own homes with the support of family. A very difficult situation for the family but also for the elder whose first language was not English, who had lived on country food most of their lives, and wanted to die where they had lived all their lives. So it's really a heartbreaking situation. I realize Inuvik is part of -- generally part of the same culturally group but it truly is a million miles away in terms of what people are used to. So that is -- keeping people at home for as long as possible, I think, is a priority all across the territory. But that's one situation that really touched my heart. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Are there any Members that still want to speak to long term and continuing care? Okay. So what I'm going to do is just break right here, and then we can resume in maybe about half an hour, 20 minutes.

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Committee, we are continuing on with Health and Social Services, long term and continuing care, and I am going to turn it over to the Member for Frame Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. A few questions here. I'm just wondering if -- what's happening with the paid family caregiver pilot project, and is it still going; is it going to be expanded? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.