Tom Beaulieu

I guess, in addition to the preventative maintenance program and the home heating subsidy, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs offers the homeowner a complete tax break, 100 percent tax relief on their home on an annual basis, which is a program that the senior must apply for. There are other areas, such as cost of living, for groceries and so on. This government has some programs in some communities where they would reduce the cost of their service to the seniors and to others in the communities, but targeted specifically to the seniors, I think those are the three programs the...

In recognition that it is fairly costly to operate a home ownership unit, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment has a seniors home heating subsidy. That has been targeted to be sufficient to heat the home during the winter months. Also, the Housing Corporation has a preventative maintenance program targeted to seniors that has gradually climbed up from the beginning of approximately $800-some-odd, and a different program has evolved into a more elaborate program, and now they can provide up to $2,000 for seniors to do preventative maintenance in their home.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to recognize and congratulate the Fort Resolution Road Runners Boys 12 and Under Soccer Team who won a gold medal in Grande Prairie, Alberta, back in May of 2012. Although belated, I would like to acknowledge this team since I am proud of the team’s achievements.

The Fort Resolution Road Runners Boys 12 and Under Soccer Team also included a couple of girls 12 and under since there were not enough boys to complete the team. The team travelled to Grande Prairie, Alberta, for an annual children’s soccer tournament from May 27th to June 1, 2012. The team...

I’m not sure that we’ve asked the right questions. As I indicated in my Member’s statement, I think we needed to go back out to the communities. At the very beginning of my position as Health and Social Services Minister, I travelled to, I think, 12 or 13 communities with an attempt to try to travel to all the communities in the North, and a common theme was developing in the communities, and the communities were indicating that they need to find a solution for their addiction issues in their communities. With that in mind, we’ve developed this forum to go back out to those people to see if...

Sometimes there’s a specialized treatment that’s not available at Nats'ejee K'eh. However, in order for an individual to get a southern placement, they have to go through a process. That’s a process that’s usually initiated at the community level and then goes through some form of either a regional health and social services authority or through the department. Although I don’t know the details on how people end up in southern treatment, I do know that it is a process and usually the placement is first. If somebody wants to go to residential treatment, the placement would be first at Nats'ejee...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Other than counselling, other types of things including the people like the physicians themselves, dietitians, psychiatrists, mental health counsellors, nutritionists, internal medicine services and those types of things. We don’t have any other type of program. We are working with, I believe it’s the Alberta Health Services. They are willing to provide some of the modules they use to address the issue of morbid obesity.

In 2011-2012 the department worked on the Home Care Enhancement and Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative. We spent $77,500 on that initiative to develop a Chronic Disease Strategy, and diabetes is a part of the overall Chronic Disease Strategy which includes cardiovascular and cancer.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Detox is available in the two hospitals that we operate, Stanton Territorial Hospital and the Beaufort-Delta Regional Hospital. There is also, I think, a capability of an individual to go through detoxification in the larger health centres. Thank you.

Like I said, we would on the elders’ side and the Elders’ Council. I recognize that we need to engage the various seniors’ societies across the North to try and put this together and pay for all of this. I need to be able to find the funding to do such a project. Also, if we are going to engage the youth to find the funding for that as well.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The department is working with the health authorities to run a couple of pilot projects. We’re running a pilot project here, a pilot project in the Sahtu on diabetes, and we’re hoping that from reviewing the results of the pilot project, we’re going to be able to expand diabetes programs across the territory.