Thank you. Is there any other questions from Members? There's one I had is the Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is a more general question just about long-term care in general but is -- are any of the long-term care facilities that are either planned or already built going to be able to provide a standard of care which would allow repatriation of out of territory long-term care patients? Because I know that's something that we spend -- I looked back through the mains and, you know, we are spending $45 million a year on out of territory long-term care. And so by building these long-term care facilities, is there a possibility for -- what I'm really asking here is that is there any way that we're going to be achieving some cost savings? Because I know that the facilities will have their costs to operate, but are we actually building something that's going to allow us to bring people home? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the long-term care facilities, you know -- and I hear where the Member is coming from. We do spend a lot of specialized out of territory based-care for our residents in the Northwest Territories. The thing with that, it's not space in the territory. Like, we don't -- but it's the specialty that they require of care. And long-term care, the levels of care that we provide in our long-term care facilities, you know, depending on where -- you know, if you're in Inuvik, there's only a certain level of care that is able to be provided. In, you know -- and then we have different levels, like in the dementia centre here in Yellowknife, that's a different level of care. But the -- and a lot of the clients that are out of the territory require multiple different specialties that they require. And the staff that we -- you know, we're not saying we don't have the staff, but we don't have the staff capacity to be able to provide all of the needs to many of those clients. Saying that, you know, we will -- we continuously reassess what services and how many people that we could potentially bring back to the territory and what those might look like and what those numbers are, I couldn't answer that here today, because those clients, you know, it's -- although they've been away for a long time, their needs change and so we would have to reassess every client on a case by case to see whether or not our services in the territory could meet their needs. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, appreciate it. And so I just wanted to kind of just to wrap up my comments on the long-term care. I mean, there were some things that really stood out to me, and I dug into this one a fair bit, looked at the 2015 report, and I would just note that, you know, a few of the thing that were pointed out in the report is that if you increase the number of a service, like long-term care, it can ultimately increase the demand for the service, interestingly, and that you can induce demand. And a point that I think is really important to note too is that, you know, the Northwest Territories has people who require long-term care at a much higher rate than other places in Canada and in Canada in general. And that tells me that we are not providing regular health care or keeping people healthy, you know, outside of long-term care and before long-term care, at a level that we need to be in. So just noting that investing in long-term care is important, I don't deny that in any way, but I also want to note that we need to be focusing on providing basic health care too, keeping people healthy, keeping people so that they don't end up in long-term care facilities should be our ultimate goal. So I think when I'm kind of looking at the system and looking at whether, you know, we're right sizing it, whether we're going to be spending money on that, I want to be clear that whatever savings that we can realize, I want us to be using that to keep people healthy, to provide basic health care, you know, similar to what is being talked about in our health care sustainability unit, making sure that we're, you know, right sizing our system, making sure that we are getting adequate service into the communities, adequate service in Yellowknife too. I know I've got lots of constituents who are having a hard time accessing basic primary care. I'm one of them. So we've got lots of work to do.

So I just wanted to get those comments on the record, that long-term care is important to me. I want us to be investing in it where we need to, but we've got to be careful to right size the service because it's expensive to provide, like everything else in health, and ultimately our goal should be keeping people out of long-term care so that they can live healthy lives well into their 80s and 90s and be walking around the community and not in a long-term care facility. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'm going to continue on now. I'll go to the Minister, sorry.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I just -- you know, I want to thank the Member for raising that. And what I wanted to highlight is that the 2015 report did not really -- you know, and I think this is the work that has changed is that the focus has changed into providing preventative care to seniors, so more home support work, more home care, you know, and providing that after-hour care. And for the care that happens outside of the clinic hours, that it's not just Monday to Friday, 8:30 to 5, and that's based on those projections that were from the 2015, is that we did not have these services outside of regular hours. And so when the change in the model and how we support residents to stay at home and remain in their communities longer by increasing those supports, that is exactly what the government has changed and that's why the numbers kind of have decreased. So I just wanted to, like, make sure that that's why -- like, it's not comparing apples to apples with that report in the last projections that we did that changed so significantly. So just so that is the message out there. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. I'm going to continue on.

Health and social services, long-term and continuing care services, infrastructure investments, $27,485,000. Does the committee agree?

Thank you, Members. Please return now to the Department of Health and Social Services summary found on page 38.

Health and social services, 2025-2026 Capital Estimates, $61,932,000. Does the committee agree?

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that this committee defer further consideration of the capital estimates for the Department of Health and Social Services at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. The motion's in order. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried. Consideration of the Department of Health and Social Services, 2025-2026 Capital Estimates, total department is deferred.

---Carried

Thank you, committee. And thank you, Minister. Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witnesses from the chamber.

Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 193-20(1), Capital Estimates 2025-2026, Housing Northwest Territories. Does the Minister responsible for Housing Northwest Territories wish to bring witnesses into the chamber? Minister.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Does the committee agree?

Thank you. Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witness into the chambers.

Thank you. Would the Minister please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with me today, on my left is president of Housing NWT, Eleanor Young. And to my right is the vice-president of finance and infrastructure, Jim Martin. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Committee, Housing Northwest Territories is included in the capital estimates as an information item, and the total is not voteable. We will continue to review these estimates as we have for the previous considered departments; however, we will not vote on the totals. If Members have comments or questions, they can be raised at the appropriate time.

The committee has agreed to forego general comments. Is the committee agreed to proceed through the detail contained in tabled documents? Committee, agreed?