Sandy Lee

In the long run we will always need support of the families to take care of our elders and we’ll always have to rely on the families who look after children with disabilities and all kinds of family members who need assistance, which is why respite care is important to these families. It gives them a little bit of breathing room and helps them cope with the challenge of the extra responsibilities that they have. So I don’t think the government will ever be in a place where we could do 24-hour care for everybody.

We need to work together with the families. In cases of elders and persons with...

I have talked to the Member privately and I’ve responded to any parents that I’ve had a chance to talk to recently, and I say it again, that the Department of Health and Social Services considers the respite care program a very important service, and that I’ve stated in answering questions to the Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins, on Monday, that we have a resolution that we are working on. The important thing is that we work together to get the support that the families need. I intend to do that and the government intends to do that as well. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we always do and we will. I would be happy to appear before the committee in December. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated, we have begun to have a respite care program outside of Yellowknife for the last three years. We are not in all of the communities yet. We have started in the Beaufort-Delta and Deline and I believe we have a couple of respite programs in Simpson. So we need to continue to work together to find respite care programming in communities across the Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to welcome everybody in the gallery and, in particular, I’d like to recognize my constituents from Range Lake: Camila Barros, Chelsey Adams and Kelly Handley. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as the Member knows, we have busily rolled out the equipment into almost all communities in our Territories. We are training and we are introducing this new technology to staff and the residents because we need to get a buy-in from the people. I could assure the Member that we are evaluating the use of it. We are keeping track of data. I would be happy to share that with the Member in due course, hopefully three to six months after that equipment comes into use. Thank you.

With all due respect, that’s a really irrelevant question. I am Minister of Health and Social Services. Whether I am involved directly or not, I am responsible for whatever happens in health and social services. That’s the very reason why he asks me questions and it’s my job to answer them. So what’s the relevance of who cut it? What we know is the respite care program is important. I’m presenting to the Member that we want to go forward on this. The funding under THAF is sunsetted. It doesn’t show up in future budgets. We were able to get extra money from the federal government, so we are...

Mr. Speaker, I believe we did look into this, as the Member has brought this forward before. The variable in the cost that we need to look at is that we already pay for staffing the facility, the X-ray machine and we have just invested in DI/PACS and other electronic health equipment in Simpson, for example, for the entire Deh Cho region. Whether 10 people use it or 100 people use it in a month, there are fixed costs involved in this facility. It is the same with Stanton. If a number of residents decide to go down and use a B.C. facility, it results in us paying twice for the same service, so...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure if I can convince him that the wall behind you is grey, I don’t think any information I give him can convince him of anything, but let me say, and like I said today, and I’ve given a lot of information already, Mr. Speaker. We have had a two-track process when it comes to the respite care program. We’ve had a pilot project in YACL for Yellowknife only. We’ve had a three-year pilot project outside of Yellowknife. I am suggesting that it is time now for us to look a territorial respite care program. We have heard from families in Yellowknife who are saying...

One of the first expansions of respite care programs outside of Yellowknife was started in Inuvik. We have been working with the NWT Council of Persons with Disabilities to do that. We had to lay out the foundation to begin that work, Mr. Speaker. It is our desire and wish that we can have this program in all 33 communities. What I’m saying is, practicably, I would be… Well, I wouldn’t be able to meet the commitment if I said we will do 33 communities next year. What’s important is that we have it in our action plan. We have laid the foundation. We have staff at the department who have been...