Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s certainly an interesting idea and anybody who’s interested in coming north or currently in the North who’s interested in opening their own supported living facility would obviously be great. There are no impediments to a private corporation or business opening an old folks home or long-term care centre in the Northwest Territories, but any private corporation would obviously want to do some research in advance and find out what building codes or other things might need to be in pace for a multi-person dwelling, but as far as Health and Social Services, there are no...

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to all the Members for their comments and thoughts.

There are a number of areas that the Members brought up that there was some clear cross-over. So I’ll attempt to address as many of the questions as I can with my comments and if I do miss any, please remind me in detail and I’ll make sure to answer them at that time.

MLA Dolynny started off talking about some of the challenges and indicating that there’s room for improvement and, quite frankly, I agree, absolutely. We need to have a system focused on better health, better care and a better future for all of...

I do, Mr. Chair.

As we look at the ISDM with respect to the mix of staff that’s available in small communities, we will look at all options and we will consider all opportunities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’d certainly like the Member to share the details with me so we can make sure that that doesn’t happen again. That isn’t consistent with my understanding. If it was prior to 7:00 a.m. or after 11:00 p.m. they wouldn’t have got a response to their call. As of March 1st we will be going to 24 hours. But with respect to this particular situation, I’d certainly like the Member to come to me and we can sit down and discuss it and see if we can make sure that this doesn’t happen again.

There hasn’t been what I would call or consider a fully comprehensive review, but it has been tweaked over time and will continue to be so. We will continue to do that in order to meet the needs of our residents.

I hear the Member, I hear all the Members. We need to do more to improve our services in those communities. I am willing to work with committee, Members and communities to find solutions that work, recognizing that not all communities are the same and not all solutions are going to be the same. We are going to review the ISDM with respect to the matrix or mix of staff that’s available...

Actually, interestingly enough, we had actually just approved the communications plan on this today and I was going to share all this information with the Members before I heard the Member make his statement today. We do have a communications plan. We are going to share that. That will likely be to Members today, and that includes communicating this information to the public.

Just for the record, anyone requiring support for themselves or for their loved ones can call the NWT Helpline at 1-800-661-0844, and it has been operational since February 1st, and it operates from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m...

That’s an interesting question and interesting concept. One of the things we are doing is the Seniors’ Handbook, that I already mentioned, that identifies the different types of programs. That is distributed to seniors in the territory and they have access to it through their local and territorial seniors’ societies. But with respect to any other push-type activity, I will talk to the department to see what we have and I will get back to the Member.

Mr. Speaker, a needs forecast for the entire Northwest Territories is going to help inform the Aging in Place Strategy. I will get back to the Member with that information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

All the information that comes in helps inform decisions that we, in this House, make on both sides of the House. One of the things that we’re using some of that data for within the Department of Health and Social Services is the developing of an Aging in Place Strategy for the support of all of our elders in the Northwest Territories. This Aging in Place Strategy was intended to be ready I believe it was October or November, but we didn’t have it done at that time. I wanted to see a few additional things put in there and have a few more conversations with committee, but I will have something...