Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are moving forward with a pilot on that particular initiative, family and/or community caregivers. There are a number of different opportunities how this might roll out in the future. We want to test a couple of those, so we are going to be moving forward with a number of initiatives in different communities to test that exact principle. From there, we will be able to build a business case in whichever model seems to be the most effective so that we can build a business case to roll out at a territorial level. We are looking to go out in pilot on April...

It is my understanding that the Housing Corporation is actually working on that exact initiative to find ways to support homeowners who need to do retrofits to help individuals age in place. Related through Health and Social Services, we can have occupational therapists, when there is a referral, come into people's homes and help them with other supports to help support activities of daily living, to identify the types of grab bars and other things that might be valuable or alternatives to ramps and those types of things. So occupational therapy, upon referral, can go into communities to help...

Mr. Speaker, I am not off the top of my head aware of the specific retrofits that may have been conducted through programs available through the organizations like the Housing Corporation, but I'm happy to sit down with the Minister responsible and figure that out and get back to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It's my expectation that those will be shared when requested by the regional wellness councils.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will answer the question, but before I do so I just want to take this opportunity to apologize to the Member. Yesterday he asked me some questions on the regional wellness council and gave me an example, and I responded that I had responded by way of email. It turns out that email was in my draft account and I had never actually hit "send," so I am embarrassed, and I really apologize for giving that wrong information. This morning, I did send the Member an email with the correct information. So I do apologize for the confusion and the frustration that...

It really depends on the job. Homecare nurses must be registered nurses. We have also got homecare LPNs. They must be LPNs. When it comes to home support workers, normally we need somebody who has got some skills in areas related to resident care or other things. There is some training that is available in the Northwest Territories, but, personally we believe that's a job where we can train on the job. We have the regional recruitment program that we are certainly willing to use to train people to do those jobs on the job, without necessarily coming in with the skill set prior.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier in this Assembly, we had a large amount of money put into homecare. We used those monies to create a number of positions. There was more money allocated than the positions that we had identified, and we had been trying to use those monies for different programs.

Unfortunately, there was $600,000 that was lapsing. Recognizing that we were going to be lapsing the $600,000 in this coming fiscal year, we had to make a decision on where we could get best bang for buck on those dollars, and it was decided to put them in, for this fiscal year, to Child and...

Thanks to the Members, earlier in this Assembly we actually put $1.5 million, and some additional dollars as well, into the creation of new homecare positions throughout the Northwest Territories. We have struggled to fill all those positions, but those positions have been created. We are also moving forward with an initiative to support aging in place through family and paid community caregivers. We are getting ready to roll that pilot out as we speak. It should be out early in the new year. I also understand that we already have the CARE Mobility program in place, which is where homeowners...

As I have said before and I will say again, this government is committed to aging in place. Following up on the Member's statement, I agree with much of what the Member said as far as finding ways to keep our elders in their homes and their communities for as long as possible. I don't agree with all of his conclusions as a result of long-term care, but we are committed to aging in place.

With respect to the Housing Corporation, they are working on a senior housing initiative that will help them actually make the determination in this particular area. When it comes to homecare, every homecare...

Mr. Speaker, I attended a meeting with the leadership council in the spring, and one of the issues that the board members actually brought to my attention was that in our current setup there was no possibility for deputy chairs of the regional wellness council, which meant it was sometimes difficult to hold meetings. Two things have to happen. There has to be the chair, and there has, and there has to be quorum.

At that meeting, I actually directed that the Department of Health and Social Services work with the territorial authority to amend that so that we can actually have deputy chairs...