Tom Beaulieu

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.

I will start discussion with the authorities across the Territories immediately. I am in constant communication with the Joint Leadership Council through the chairs and the public administrators of all of the authorities across the territory. A dementia authority, yes, it is needed. It’s often a territorial resource. So I’ll discuss it with all of them in my next meeting, which I have scheduled for late January. We’ll start the discussions on how we could get the dementia centre, or the six-unit wing in Fort Smith operational as soon as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The NWT Seniors’ Society does come together on a regular basis. Many of the communities do have seniors’ societies. I think this type of work is something that, interestingly enough, the Stanton Elders’ Council is interested in doing. They talked about this in the context of the health of the community and how they have a strong desire to have an elders' conference, bringing all the elders together headed by the Stanton Elders’ Council to one central location and having a discussion to talk about this. In addition to that, they’ve also asked that they meet with our...

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [Statement delivered in an Aboriginal language and then in English.]

Today I would like to pay tribute to the late Beatrice Dawson, originally from Rocher River. Beatrice and her late husband, Fred, moved to Fort Resolution, like many other families, in the late ‘50s when the school in Rocher River burned down.

Beatrice and Fred had no children of their own but helped raise six kids. Two of the six passed away years ago. They were Shirley Overvold-King and the late Phillip “Wagee” King. Beatrice helped raise her step-daughter Jackie Pascal from Fort McPherson, adopted...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services recognizes that we don’t have the facility to match all the situations in the Northwest Territories in the appropriate locations. So we’re developing a system called Continuum of Care for Seniors, and within that care we are looking at, first, all the possibilities of keeping individuals in their home as long as possible; secondly, working with the NWT Housing Corporation to develop assisted living inside the senior citizen’s home that they own and operate; thirdly, going into long-term care at the regional levels; then...

The information I have is that the largest number of claims, not based on change in the percentage, but the largest number of claims is at Stanton where there’s a hospital; the Beaufort-Delta, where there’s a hospital; Fort Smith where they have a health centre and acute care. So all of those areas have successfully passed accreditation by Accreditation Canada. So they have the standards, they’re good standards, they meet the standards and this ensures that there is rigorous safety procedures in place. A big part of passing that accreditation is to have those types of safety procedures in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe that we have a day program for the patients that come here for medical and get their appointments and have a lot of time on their hands before the flight, but we would be pleased to work with medical travel people to see if something can be developed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to speak specifically of the RFP, it’s not only the value for money but there is an approved request for proposal indicators within the government system that Health and Social Services and the authorities follow. It’s outlined that they would receive certain points and values in certain areas such as northern employment, northern supplier, cost, management, experience of management, background, directly related business or expertise and so on. There are several categories that are rated. In this one here the two main contractors were weighed off against each...

Yes, we would commit to supporting and creating awareness with the organizations across the Territories working on trying to get the message out to people on stem cell research.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is not an increase in costs as a result of switching the contractors. The breakdown is that the Charlotte Vehus shortfall is $547,000, Billy Moore is $303,000, for a total of $850,000 for both homes. It’s a 2012-13 this year. It’s not substantially higher than any other year preceding up until 2012-13.

I’ll just run through some numbers. There was $1.422 million in 2009-10 and then $1.38 million, $1.45 million in 2012-13 and those were the other. So it’s not all of a sudden jumped up by that amount.

What’s been happening is that the authority has funded this and...