Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We understand and the Member recognizes that we need to have a long-term care facility network in regional centres at least. We have a long way in doing that. We have planned for them. We have put them into capital planning. We know that has to be the last resort. Most families and elders, even, I don’t think want to go into long-term care facilities unless they have to. This is why we set up as our long-term goal to expand home care services.

We have very good home care services in places like Yellowknife, and the GNWT provides home care as an insured service, which is something different. In other jurisdictions you have to pay for those, except for those who meet income tests or something like that. We want to expand these programs to regional centres and communities and that’s one of the things we’re doing in Aklavik, whereas right now we’re looking after two long-term care elders for a large amount of money, MLA Krutko has pointed out a number of times that he believes there are, and we agree too, they are up to 100 or 30 to 60 elders who are at home doing their own thing but who need support from the government, so that we pay attention to them, that we have elders program, lunch program, where health care professionals and other community people could converge and keep an eye on our elders so that they’re supported, they’re provided with recreational programs, and just a network is built around these elders so that we prevent them from falling through the cracks. It is one that we

want to expand and that’s the goal of the department.

Thank you. Unless the Member has information otherwise, I do believe that the NWT society’s work on elder abuse workshops and conferences over the years has been from the funding from the Department of Health and Social Services and government. We are a close partner with the society in working on elder abuse. They’ve identified that financial abuse is the latest topic that they wanted to work on, and we put in some federal funding and our own funding to do a pan-territorial

campaign on elder abuse, which has been quite successful. So, Mr. Speaker, we fund the NWT Seniors’ Society. We also fund some of the community groups that come forward with their own elder programming, whether it be to get the community together or do awareness or to do a gathering. So, Mr. Speaker, without having seen the proposals, I cannot say right now whether we can fund it or not, but we do get those proposals. The Member is well aware of the fiscal pressure that we are in, so any of those proposals will be judged on that basis along with other priorities.

Thank you. As the Member knows, I believe we are the biggest funder of the NWT Seniors’ Society. I don’t think we fund everything, because I’m sure they probably get funding from the federal government on a project-by-project basis, but we are a very close partner of the NWT society. So we will continue to work with them on proposals that they have. I’m not aware of the proposal that the Member is asking about specifically, but should that proposal come to me, I would be happy to look at that. Thank you.

Thank you. Because it’s about creating an entire bureaucracy to do something that is already being done by many, many departments in the government. If you look at the entire GNWT -- and the Member’s statement stated that already -- a large part of what we do in Health and Social Services is providing services to seniors and elders, whether it be hospital care, or long-term care, or home care, extra health benefits, a large part of Housing work is providing services to the elders. There are special programs for income support under ECE. Municipal Affairs even is doing Elders in Motion. So the thing is, there are lots of things we do do for the seniors that they need that encompass a large section of our government. So I would like to personally have as much dollars and all the money go to the programs rather than

creating a bureaucracy and that is one of the reasons for not going with that idea. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That idea was brought up by the Member for Sahtu prior to the Elders Parliament recommendation and I believe the Cabinet or the government, our conclusion is that that’s not an idea that would work right now. Thank you.

As I indicated, I received this about two weeks ago. It’s under review and I will have to get back to the Member in due course. Thank you.

I had a cursory look at the charter and I do believe that we in the Territories have programs for seniors that we can be proud of. We have very extensive health care programs for seniors, extra coverages, we have very generous long-term care programming, which is virtually cost free to the seniors in comparison to other jurisdictions where the costs are rising. We also have very extensive home care programming as an insured service, which is not the case in other jurisdictions and, obviously, we have other housing programs too. Mr. Speaker, I do believe in reading the charter that we go a long way in providing for our seniors and one that we can be proud of. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member stated, he was kind enough to give me a copy of that charter on February 13

th

, and it is

under review. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On this program, I just want to say that based on the Members’ priorities related to the Child and Family Services Act, we have earlier agreed to begin work on the completion of new public information material and a new up-to-date policy and standards manual during the 2011-12 fiscal year. I also understand Members’ further concerns regarding

child and family services committees and I commit to returning to committee in May with options to begin implementation of child and family services committees in 2011-12. Thank you.

---Applause