Glen Abernethy

I'm certainly not waiting for the RFP to be issued before we actually make progress on a Good Neighbour Agreement. I think we need to have a Good Neighbour Agreement now. I've given the department the direction to work with a facilitator to see if our neighbours are interested in working with a facilitator to come to an agreement on a Good Neighbour Agreement.

Having said that, yes, we will be issuing a new RFP. I have asked the department to reach out to the current proponent, other interested proponents, the public, and others on types of things we need to do to strengthen those services, to...

In the absence of a Good Neighbour Agreement, we have already made a commitment to working with our partners in bringing them together on a regular basis to receive their input and feedback on how things are going. I do appreciate the Member's description of an organization or committee that might be struck. I am prepared to have that discussion, but I would hate to presuppose what a facilitated Good Neighbour Agreement is going to look like. I think we need to leave it in the hands of the individuals, those who are going to be the signatories, to come up with a plan that meets their needs as...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Northwest Territories Community Counselling Program, Client Satisfaction Report 2018." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

When I stood up, I actually knew the answer to that question, and now, I've completely blanked. I know that we're trying to do the family and community caregivers across a wide-range of communities, and small communities, regional centres, but I have completely blanked. I will commit to getting the Member that information.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to start off this conversation, I want to be clear that our priority is to help keep seniors in their homes first, their communities, their regions, and then, if they do require high levels of care due to different degrees of acuity, obviously they would need to be going to a long-term care facility. Long-term care facilities are those level four, five facilities where individuals' needs are significant. They need a greater degree of care that can be safely provided in a community. We built long-term care facilities where we also have physician positions located.

Ha...

Nuka is a model that is very similar to what we are moving toward here, and we are certainly learning a lot from them, but it will be a made-in-the-North design. The primary healthcare reform is a system-wide initiative. Although our first six demonstration projects don't include Hay River, I want to be clear that Hay River Health and Social Services is participating in the planning and design process to ensure that they are a part of the effort from the very beginning. Although the pilot isn't happening in the community, they are definitely a part.

As we begin to implement integrated care...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I understand the frustration that the residents of Hay River have had. Obviously, we need to do better in Hay River than we have done.

The authority is actually currently developing a new formal recruitment strategy in order to help them find more physicians, hopefully on a permanent basis. A lot of work needs to be done. I think the Member did a great job of articulating some of the things that need to be done. Some of those things are the types of things that they are doing, but I will reach out to the authority and figure out where we are on some of those exact...

In short, yes, the Housing Corporation does have a number of programs around accessibility that seniors can use to do upgrades to their places to ensure that they can stay there safely for as long as possible. We've had a really great relationship with the Housing Corporation when it's come to the independent living units. They've really worked with us to make sure there's program space, and they did participate in the development of the Continuing Care Action Plan. It's not a Department of Health and Social Services action plan. It's a whole-of-government action plan. We really understand and...

Under the Health and Social Services mandate, our responsibility is for the long-term care facilities. That doesn't mean that there isn't a responsibility for this government to move forward with living units for seniors, which the Housing Corporation has done. Over the last number of years, we have built or are in the process of building five independent living units for seniors throughout the Northwest Territories. I do have to applaud the Housing Corporation. They have worked very well with Health and Social Services to make sure that these new independent-living units for seniors have...

We are talking about a new model, and in many of these primary healthcare teams where we've seen, it does involve different types of staff working in different relationships. It doesn't necessarily mean we need to get rid of staff. It doesn't necessarily mean we need to add staff, but it does mean we need to change how they operate and work together and the structure that they provide services in. It could result in some job description changes. Those always have a potential of having some impact on employees, but we have proven that we are quite good at working with our employees to recruit...