Glen Abernethy

Mr. Speaker, this is a serious issue, not just in the Northwest Territories, but across Canada. We have made dollars available to the NWT Seniors' Society, who I do have to applaud for the amazing work that they have done on creating programs and awareness around elder abuse here in the Northwest Territories. We have made technical staff available to them, as they need, to help with information, but they have really taken the lead on the development of this. We do what we can to help promote it and to get that information out there.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm completely aware that this is a regional health centre, and I recognize without question the value in moving forward with this facility.

The Member has suggested maybe Stanton bumped this facility. I do have to point out that Stanton facility has been in discussions and negotiations for well over ten years, probably approaching 12 years. The first time that we had a conversation about the Fort Simpson is when we did some initial assessment on the pilings, which proved to be wrong, as a point, which was about 2012, so it's only been in the works for a couple...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during the federal election, there was an indication that there would be money allocated to provinces and territories by the federal government, about $3.9 billion over a four-year period. We don't actually know how they plan to distribute those dollars or what the criteria is for utilizing those dollars are. If past predicts future, and they use the same types of formula as they have in the past, which is often population-based, we could get as much as $3.6 million over the four years, which works out to just over $900,000 a year.

We, and all the other...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the planning study for the Fort Simpson Health Centre is in this fiscal year, so there is no money showing up for next fiscal year. We plan to have that work done this fiscal year.

No, there isn't, Mr. Chair, as far as I'm aware.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me on my left is Derek Elkin, assistant Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services, and on my right Perry Heath who is the director of infrastructure planning.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "The NWT Community Counselling Program Client Satisfaction Report 2016," and the "Public Performance Measures Report 2016: NWT Health and Social Services System." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. These questions came up, very similar questions came up, a week or two ago. At that time, I indicated the Department of Health and Social Services is absolutely open to doing a pilot in this area, harm reduction, managed alcohol, but the first thing we need to do, Mr. Speaker, is get the sobering centre up and running. It will be our priority once the sobering centre is up and running. We'll be in a better position to design a managed alcohol program. In my mind and I think the mind of others, the two of these come together quite nicely, and this would be the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Once again, ultimately all the decisions on the old hospital are decisions that would be made by the P3 proponent in the property manager which is Venture. From my perspective, from the perspective of Health and Social Services, we see a great opportunity to work with Venture to, you know, hopefully obtain more space for possibly more long-term care space.

We will obviously be pursuing to see if there's a business case in that; we'll be working with committee if there is. We will certainly pursue more space in more space in Stanton recognizing that ultimately the decision...

Mr. Speaker, I'm already on the record, indicating that I've already directed the department to begin the work on the development of a sobering centre. In fact, we're out currently looking for a location for a sobering centre here, in Yellowknife. As the Minister responsible for Homelessness pointed out, initially, we're intending to fund that from within. We need to get it in place, figure out what the costs are going to be, and move forward accordingly.