Sandy Lee

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...

As I stated, we are reviewing all of our agreements and it will be based on the review. Thank you.

Because, Mr. Speaker, as I stated, we are reviewing our budget for 2010-11. We are reviewing all the agreements we have with some of the NGOs. We are evaluating to see how we are spending money and what the outcome measures are. We will be renewing the contracts with those organizations and we will sit down with them. Thank you.

The Member knows we were told when we were in Aklavik in January that there is one home care worker and he’s worked off his feet just driving elders around. He definitely needs more support and we are proposing to create two additional home care workers so that three home care workers can support the elders there. There is also a need for respite care program territorial-wide model and, as the Member knows, we are reviewing that. Part of that process, this is actually a very exciting roll-out for us that would depend on a lot of resources. Right now we need to be on the ground, and home care...

Currently we are spending about $800,000 at the Joe Greenland Centre, not taking into consideration extra money that we have to spend there. The program is currently budgeted under the Beaufort-Delta for $800,000. That is serving two elders in the Joe Greenland Centre. What we propose to do is use half of that money, $350,000, back into the community.

When I was there with the Member in January, we committed to the community and the community group that we will sit down with the community and design an elders program together, and it could be recreational activities, social activities...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The decision to change services, not shut down the Joe Greenland Centre -- just for the record, provided by the Joe Greenland Centre -- was a GNWT decision. It is a complex decision as the Joe Greenland Centre was built in 1977, more than 30 years ago when it was customary to admit seniors into care with low-level needs. Today, Mr. Speaker, seniors with low-level needs can and are able to remain at home or in elders housing and receive the care they need from home support workers. In addition, the Joe Greenland Centre does not provide care to the level necessary to meet...