Sandy Lee

I am not able to speak about personal individual situations here, but as the Member knows, we have met on this and I have instructed my staff to follow up. They have been meeting and getting information to evaluate the situation. I am aware of the urgency.

Mr. Speaker, yes, I can commit to do that. We just have to report on their meeting. As the Member stated, they would like to see some stability in the funding. As the Member knows, we have increased the funding under the enhanced community services over the last number of years. This year we are funding $482,000 instead of $460,000 last year. We are going forward for a request for a little bit more for next year. We have also increased funding under stabilized existing shelters by $11,000 this year; actually, $119,000 this year. We have funded $450,000 this year compared to $340,000 last year...

Mr. Speaker, the planning has started and the Member knows that. He has to update his thinking on the basis of information he gets. The $28 million or whatever million that was in Stanton, that was from the old capital planning process which this Assembly has rejected. In the old ways of doing that, X dollars would be put into a budget and then people design afterwards, but we changed that system in 2007-08, Mr. Speaker. Now we have to do a planning study and you have to go through a peer review. You have to have level B estimate before it will get on the books. There is in the budget for...

Mr. Speaker, at the request of the Standing Committee on Social Programs, we submitted about a 50-page draft document, a work plan status update about a week or 10 days ago. I am sure the Member could get a copy of that if he would like. I could provide him with that. That is also being posted on our website. Thank you.

I can say in confidence that our staff looks to find solutions. We do not look at the application to look for a way to deny them. In fact, we have spent $62,000 more on this budget than what was allocated. I can demonstrate to you that we have spent 50 percent more than what was allocated. We look for ways to find solutions. I can give for her one example that she has 10 examples of how we have helped our residents to go back to their communities and pay off their debt. I’m saying that if in this situation the person was denied, they would have been faxed, I would have supported that, and I...

Without knowing the details and facts of the situation, it’s difficult for me to comment, but I think it should be noted that when we say a program is one of last resort it does not equal to saying that anybody who applies for it will get it. They would have to meet the guidelines and policies of those programs. Without knowing the facts, I could not give full answers to exactly what happened in this situation. If the Member wants to bring the details to me, I’d be happy to look into that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to repeat the officials that work with us in this area, and the Member was there with me this morning, the management of our health care delivery system is saying that before we decide and work on details about what to do with Stanton Territorial Hospital, we need to decide what we’re going to do there. What’s it going to be? What is Stanton going to deliver? What do we want it to do? As you know, capital planning is not just about building a building, because, as the official said, if we just go the way we’ve done before, we’re just going to build based on the...

Thank you. I can tell you that increasing money under the stabilizing existing shelters has really helped the shelters in Hay River, Inuvik and Yellowknife. I say that because they have told me that they were very glad to get that money. They were able to renovate some of the facilities to make them more safe and more comfortable for those who are staying there, and in fact that’s probably why the coalition is asking us to make that funding permanent.

We have introduced programming money for communities without shelters because that was identified as one that we had to move on, and in the last...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Centre for Northern Families received funding from the government from various envelopes, but the main funder is Education, Culture and Employment, because they get funding for the best spaces that they have there. ECE has been taking the lead in reviewing the program. We continue to talk to the management of the centre to find options. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Member knows that we have a capital planning process. We just approved our capital budget last fall. In that was money for planning for Stanton Territorial Health Authority. In our meeting this morning in the committee, the Member was advised that the work that we are going to be doing -- and the CEO and the public administrator of the authority have advised the committee as well -- for Stanton has to be in line with the work that we are doing in our regional health centres. What we are going to be delivering in Hay River, Fort Smith, Norman Wells and Inuvik will have much to...