Sandy Lee

Mr. Speaker, I was in the community of Fort McPherson with the Member in January. It was one of my first tours that I had as a Minister. I visited all of the Health and Social Services staff there. We have a whole floor of social workers, health protection workers, community wellness workers, the healing society; we have a lot of people there that are assigned to help the people of the community. What we are trying to do is see how we can service the community better by putting all those resources together and enhancing services in Fort McPherson. Mr. Speaker, I’ll just leave it at that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the question from the Member. As the Member is aware, I have been to Tsiigehtchic twice since I became a Minister, and I have had meetings with the community. The Member has talked to me about this issue repeatedly. I do appreciate what the Member is asking me to do, and I have been working on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, as you know, right now all of the authorities are directed to operate in such a way that they balance their budgets. For authorities like Beaufort-Delta and Stanton, where they have been experiencing deficits, they are having to look at all the...

Mr. Speaker. Once again my information is that the doctors have been writing on the form that they fill out to get medication and palliative care pharmaceuticals that the doctor prescribes to patients…. They have been notified to put palliative care on the application. Green Shield knows about it, and it’s been running very smoothly. Maybe the pharmacist dispensed the drugs and was not aware of it, so I will make sure that the pharmacists are made aware of that. If a Member knows of any difficulties that any patient in palliative care is experiencing, I would like to know about that too. Thank...

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Member’s question. Following up on the Member’s recommendation, we have implemented that. We have a process now where as long as the doctor says in the application for medication to Green Shield or whoever is administrating our health insurance that it’s palliative care, Green Shield has been processing the documents on a 24-hour turnaround basis. By all accounts, I understand that it’s working out really well. It was in practice almost within a month of the Member asking for this to be implemented.

Mr. Speaker, there is no plan to establish a seniors’ secretariat, because within the fiscal environment that we are working on, we are not able to look at expanding government bureaucracy. Even if there were a secretariat, whoever is working there would have to work with departments across the government, because seniors are looked after by Health and Social Services, by Income Security, by Housing, and in many, many different areas.

I think the point, the more important thing, is that we work together, and the Minister responsible for Seniors does do that. We work closely with the NWT Seniors...

Mr. Speaker, there is not a plan to set up a secretariat for seniors separately. However, we have a Minister responsible for Seniors who worked with the NWT Seniors’ Society and other seniors in the territory to address the seniors’ issues they advocate for on behalf of the seniors in the Territories.

Mr. Speaker, as the Member pointed out, this is not a new issue. It is a natural phenomenon, as the Member has stated. Municipal governments around the world take care of issues that the Member is raising. So I do believe that it is within the power and responsibility of the municipal government.

Mr. Speaker, I’m sure this government is willing to work with any partners who may want to address any number of issues, but I think by any standards this is probably a municipal issue. I know they’re having discussions going on about some of the issues that the Member is bringing up, and I would be happy to discuss it with the municipal government and any other parties to see what options are available.

As the Member is aware, the dementia building is being built. The consolidated clinic has gone to tender, and I believe the tender has been awarded. The administrative offices, with about 35 staff, are going to be moved out of Stanton into what’s now known as the old Extra Foods building as of December. There is other work being done to maximize the use of the building and to concentrate the renovation of the building on what’s most necessary and what has to be at that hospital, which is supposed to be an acute care facility.

We are looking at lots of other measures, and we are doing that in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity to update the Members on this capital project.

In May, when the new public administrator of Stanton was appointed, one of the tasks he was given by me was to look at the master development plan and report back to me on it. What I found out when he came to me is that they are working on a $200 million plan for Stanton. Obviously, that was not a workable plan. I sent him back to work, and he and the deputy minister and the planners went back to work.

They came back in September with something that’s more manageable at $50 million. It will...